alphabetical (alfabetikal)

Of the nature of an alphabet; similar to an alphabet; in the order of the alphabet. See alphabetic. According to Grimm, the alphabetical arrangement not only facilitates reference, but makes the author's work quicker and surer. Encyc . Brit ., VII. 181. alphabetically (al-fa-bet'i-kal-i), adv. In an alphabetical manner or order; by the use of an alphabet; in the customary order of the letters: as, to arrange a catalogue alphabetically. From the times of the earliest known monuments the hieroglyphic writers po e ed a sufficient number of true letters to enable them to write alphabetically. Isaac Taylor , The Alphabet, I. 68. alpha be tics (al-fa-bet'iks), n. [ Pl . of alpha betic : see -ics .] The science of the use and development of alphabetic writing. Ellis . alphabet ism (alfa-bet-izm), n. [ alphabet + -ism .) The use of an alphabet as a stage in alpigene the development of written language; notation by means of an alphabet. It must, however, be acknowledged that the idea of alphabet ism may not improbably have been suggested to the Persians by their acquaintance with the Phœnician alphabet, which, as early as the 8th century B. C., was used in the valley of the Euphrates concurrently with the cuneiform writing. Isaac Taylor , The Alphabet, L. 50. From this [ideography] men have pa ed to phonetic writing, first, apparently, in the form of syllabism, in which each syllable of a word is regarded as an independent whole and represented by a single sign; then from this to alphabet ism , in which the syllable is no longer denoted by an indivisible symbol, but is resolved into vowel and consonant, each with its own accepted sign. IMG:content-0562.png:[graphic] Encyc . Brit ., I. 602.