Abecedarium

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
futhorc
(abecedarium anguliscum)
Novgorod (Russia
). Dated to 1025–1050 AD.
Folio 1 of the Codex Gigas, showing Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Glagolitic, and Early Cyrillic abecedaria

An abecedarium (also known as an abecedary or ABCs or simply an ABC) is an

inscription consisting of the letters of an alphabet, almost always listed in order
. Typically, abecedaria (or abecedaries) are practice exercises.

Non-Latin alphabets

Some abecedaria include obsolete letters which are not otherwise attested in inscriptions. For example, abecedaria in the

Etruscan alphabet from Marsiliana (the Tuscan town) include the letters B, D, and O, which indicate sounds not present in the Etruscan language and are therefore not found in Etruscan inscriptions. Others, such as those known from Safaitic
inscriptions, list the letters of the alphabet in different orders, suggesting that the script was casually rather than formally learned.

Some abecedaria found in the

Hymettos in Attica may have been a votive offering.[2]

Latin alphabet

Near the beginning of the Christian era, the

catacombs
, bearing the symbols A, B, C, etc. These are arranged, sometimes, in combinations which have puzzled scholars. One such stone, found in the cemetery of St. Alexander, in the Via Nomentana, is inscribed as follows:

   AXBVCTESDR . . . . . .BCCEECHI
   EQGPH. . . .M MNOPQ
   RSTVXYZ

This can be compared with a denarius of L. Cassius Caecinianus, which has the following inscription:

       AX, BV, CT, DS, ER, FQ, GP, HO, IN, LM

Jerome explained this similarity. Children were made to learn the alphabet in pairs of letters, joining the first letter of the alphabet with the last letter (AX), the second letter with the second to last (BV), and so on. A stone found at Rome in 1877, and dating from the 6th or 7th century, seems to have been used in a school, as a model for learning the alphabet, and points to the continuance of old methods of teaching.

Ecclesiastical use

Alphabet stone (late 6th century AD), Kilmalkedar

An Abecedary, a full alphabet carved in stone or written in book form, was historically found in

runic alphabet
. Each letter would have had a symbolic meaning to the devout.

An example, the first seven letters or so of which were found in 1967, is from the long demolished Church of St Mary of the Grey Friars in Dumfries, Scotland. In this case the letters are inscribed in the Lombardic script of the 1260s and the complete structure would probably have stood near the high altar[citation needed].

One of the oldest examples is now in use as a gravestone in Kilmalkedar, near Dingle, Ireland. It has the appearance of a standing stone and is known as the Alphabet stone, displaying as it does an alphabet dating from early Christian times.[3]

Abecedarian psalms and hymns exist, these are compositions like Psalm 119 in Hebrew, and the Akathist hymn in Greek, in which distinct stanzas or verses commence with successive letters of the alphabet.[4]

iambic dimeter
, beginning with:

In Adam’s fall,
We sinned all.
Thy life to mend,
This Book attend.
The Cat doth play,
And after slay.

See also

References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainHerbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Abecedaria". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.