Origin of the Letters: The Letters B and P

Have you ever wondered where the letter is B. He came from? Most scholars will tell you that it comes from the Semitic letter known as Beth. They will also tell you that the Semitic letter name derives from the Semitic word bay, meaning “house” and that the original letterform was inspired by an Egyptian hieroglyph for a house. They will then tell you that the letter was adopted by the ancient Greeks, who called it betaand that the Greeks, after changing the style of the letter to their liking, passed it on to the Romans, who passed it on to the English, and that at some point the name of the letter was conveniently shortened to simply bee.

I suspect that most would accept the traditional explanation as quite reasonable and feel that there is no good reason to question it. But I totally disagree. That’s because I’ve been doing a lot of research on the Latin, Greek, and Semitic alphabets over the last few years, and what I’ve discovered is that the history of the letter B. it actually appears to be far more complicated, fascinating, and compelling than scholars have long claimed.

What you are about to learn is something that will likely ruffle many a feather in academia. No doubt there will be some who will respond to what I have to say with a knee-jerk reaction. But those of calmer dispositions, I hope, will eventually come to see the truth in what I am about to share with you. And, finding out the truth, we’ll all be better for it.

So, let’s go begin…

the greek name Beta does not derive from the Semitic word bay; rather it seems that it was the other way around. The Greek name of the letter is actually a different pronunciation of another Greek word, asked. the greek word asked, or originally fart, means “child”. It is cognate with other words for “child”, “boy”, or “girl” (eg, Telugu biddaHindi beta/betaHebrew bet/wellirish countryscottish gaelic landscapearabic fata and aromanian feat).

While the Aramaic word bayta clearly means “house”, it does not always necessarily refer to the physical structure. The word was also used as a reference to descendants of a common patriarch, just as “the house of David” in English is understood to refer to David’s descendants. Clearly the word bayta it eventually came to be a reference to physical structure, but that seems to have been because, over time, the word came to be understood as referring to one’s family heritage rather than the family patriarch.

Now, as stimulating as that statement may be, the story of the letter B. it doesn’t end there. It turns out that his story is intimately connected with the story of another letter: the letter P.

The Semitic name of the letter. P it is Physical education, which means “mouth”. Those who study Egyptian mythology might be interested to know that the Semitic word Physical education is related to an ancient mummification ritual that was known as “the opening of the mouth”, and was associated with a god known as ptahwhose name is essentially the same as the Hebrew word for “open”, patach (compare Arabic Fatah). Note that if you say the name ptah slowly enough, you can realize that you are essentially saying “beta”. In other words, not only the letters P Y B. they look and sound like each other, they also share a connection to ancient Egypt.

But what is happening here? The Greek name of the letter. B. is actually the name of an Egyptian god whose name somehow came to mean “offspring”?

As weird as it sounds, this story actually gets even weirder. You see, from the year 4000 a. C. or so, residents of England have been doing something called new outbreak. I suspect that very few people today have any idea what regrowth is. Fewer still have any idea what regrowth has to do with lyrics B. Prayed P. But luckily for you, I’m here to explain it all.

It is true that new outbreak Sounds like something you probably don’t want to be caught doing in public. But I can assure you that it does not refer to anything unseemly. In news, copping it simply refers to a method of harvesting wood from a tree so as not to kill it.

After a tree trunk reaches a certain diameter, the tree trunk is cut down and the wood from the tree is harvested for use. If the remaining stump or stool is cut down properly afterwards, the tree continues to live and eventually new stems or shoots sprout from the original tree stump or stumps. Properly done, regrowth allows wood to be harvested from the same tree over and over again, sometimes for hundreds of years.

The time between harvests varies greatly depending on the species of the tree. Oak, for example, may need half a century of growth before it can be harvested for use. In contrast, birch trees can be harvested every 3 to 4 years.

So, you may be wondering, what does coppicing have to do with lyrics? B. or the letter P? Quite a lot actually.

In the Germanic lands of ancient Europe, the letters carved by scribes were known as runes. And one of the runes, which looked and sounded a lot like our letter B.was known as Berkanan, the Germanic word for “birch”. Most scholars believe that the Berkanan rune was inspired by the Greek or Roman letter B.. But that conclusion or assumption may, as a result, be somewhat wrong.

The names Berkanan Y Birch (cognate to gothic bairka) are related to an English word that we are all quite familiar with: birth. The word birth generally believed to derive from Old Norse stay. But if one looks very carefully, one will also recognize that the word birth is, in fact, related to Slovenia porod (where he was originally pronounced as the) and Latin Leave (where he you also originally pronounced as the).

In Athens, Greece there is a famous temple dedicated to the Greek goddess Athena who sits on top of the hill known as the Acropolis. The temple is called Parthenon. The name of the temple is believed to derive from an epithet given to the goddess Athena: partena, which in modern Greek means “virgin”. but the word partena actually appears to have been originally derived from Birth notwhere Birth is the same as latin LeaveWhat does “birth” mean? not essentially means “not outside of”. While some might interpret “birth, not out of” as “virgin”, I suspect that the original meaning was probably “unborn” and that it referred to the perpetual existence of a force of nature or other phenomena.

At this point I should take a moment to mention the Irish word for “birch”. The Irish word for “birch” is beit. And again, if one says “beithe” correctly, one must recognize that beit is essentially the same as betathe greek name of the letter B.. It should also be noted that three years, the amount of time it takes for cut birch trees to be ready to be harvested again, is about the same time it takes for a woman to have a second child.

If you open your eyes long enough, hopefully you can also recognize that the capital letter B. it appears to be a pictograph of the torso of a pregnant woman. Could that be pure coincidence? Maybe; but I highly doubt it.

So, you may be wondering, what does birth and offspring have to do with the ancient Egyptian ceremony of “opening the mouth” related to the god known as ptah? The answer is that Ptah’s ceremony was specifically intended to free the person’s spirit from his corpse so that he could enter the afterlife.

Do you understand the image now? If not, let me explain it to you. For those who lived in ancient times, birth and death were seen as similar events. In one case, one was entering this world; in the other case, one entered the next. Existence, in their eyes, was a continuous cycle of births and rebirths, something that also represented for them the regrowth of birches.

Now today’s scholars will tell you that the letter B. it has no symbolic meaning, that the letter simply represents a particular sound. But hopefully, by now it should be obvious to you that ancient peoples throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Egypt thought differently. They universally I saw the letter B. as representing the meaning of “birth” and “offspring”, whether the offspring of a human being or of a plant.

[Hebrew scholars have also long noted that the Torah begins with a beth. They see the three-sided beth as symbolizing the fact that the rest of the Torah represents an emanation from God. Clearly, “opening the mouth” is necessary before one can speak, so I cannot help but perceive a deep connection exists between the idea of speech and the letter B. So for me, the Torah scholars clearly appear to have been on to something.]

Letters B. Y P however, in fact it had other meanings besides “offspring” and “opening”. For example, they also had the meanings “extension”, “stem”, “upper surface” and “curved surface”. Note, however, that I did not deduce any of the meanings they possessed from the remarkable history of the letters that I have just hinted at. Rather, I originally deduced their meanings by carefully studying English and foreign words that incorporate the letters B. Y P. I only started to better understand the origin of the letters by first understanding their symbolic meanings.

But while what I have just presented about the letters P Y B. It may seem quite remarkable, the most remarkable thing I have discovered is that despite what the scholars may tell you, everyone of the other letters of the alphabet also reflect different meanings, just as the letters P Y B.. And those meanings, if you look closely enough, are reflected in practically every word you utter.

In future articles I hope to be able to share some of their stories with you as well.