Hieroglyfic: or, a Grammatical Introduction to an Universal Hieroglyfic Language

by Rowland Jones

Cold is the snow on Snowden;

Its nature from the sky to freeze

On snow so cold is Snowden.

The letter o is an indefinite circle, signifying the universe, motion, space, the sun’s figure and motion, and all or ol, extension of length, breadth, and thickness; and it is expressible of parts only by a diminution of its general sense; as in b-ol, a ball or part of all, or-b, a circle part, w-or-l-d, a man’s circle part or place of life, b-or-d-er the circle part of the possessions and 10, one circle, which being repeated comprehends all numbers. This, like all other original letters, has two sounds, the long and the short, as in on, one, ton, tone; and its shape or figure was taken from the circumference of the human pair close together, face to face, which is man’s chief circle place, signified by the term world. The Greek ω is a double υ as has been explained in my former treatise.

The letter i is an indefinite line, representing man in his primitive state of innocence, as it does still his body, as a line, without its extension, and his head and senses by its dot; and in a secondary sense are expressed by this line and dot, length or heighth towards the sun, the sun-beams, fire, heat, and other qualities both spiritual and animal, as still flowing upon man, and other things as relative to him, and originally perhaps centering in himself, and since his fall only relatively. But though man and nature have been impaired by original sin, they still seem to be invested with certain springs, energies, or returns of those ilations and qualities, as, thinking, willing, voice articulate, powers generative and growth; whereby the human species may be extended, and acquire so much knowledge and virtue, as, with the blessing of Providence, to be capable of being reinstated. The chief of which springs is expressed by the letter u, a compound of two i’s signifying man’s compound of male and female, and spirit and matter, with a c at their bottom, springing them upwards; by y as to the generative and vegetative parts, which also is expressive of woods and other growth; it being a compound of i j, and half of the spring c, as not being expressive of the spirit of man. The i also expresses man as an upright line placed in the centre of all worldly beings and substances, to whom they bear a relation, as shall be shewn under adverbs. The u vowel seems to derive its figure from the human face, the seat of the voice, and the heart, and the feminine or consonant v from the vagina, if it be an original letter, but, from its sound, it seems to supply the place of the digamma. The y or Υ resembles trees, plants and vegetables, and the j consonant is the half of it, and sometimes made use of instead of g, to express some of the generative parts and qualities. These vowels have each two sounds, the high and low, long and short, or grave and acute, viz. i, as in, in, high, or i, go thou; the u vowel, as, in, unction, united; and the y as the u in unction and y in hyssop; but the w has only one long sound, as in woman, womb, wood, and it is mostly applicable to spirituals, man, and things belonging to him; the wh has the gutteral sound of the Welsh ch, or the Greek χ as in where, why; the j consonant has the sound of g in generation; and the v consonant that of the soft flowing f of the Welsh, or as in verb, vice; thus supplying the softer sound and meaning of the digamma.

The letters a, e, h, ε, η, Η, in their primary sense signify the male and female posteriors, the clitoris, erectores, &c. the impulse and springs of generation, and the earth and water place of man; whence a came to be an expression for the element earth or matter and things hard, rough, or interjectory, and ε for the element of water and any feminine, soft, or passive parts or things, but the interjectory aspirate e or he is masculine, and the ε has one spring resembling that of rain. The a has properly two sounds, as in animal, have, or name, but not that of o or the northern a in all; the masculine e or he has an aspirate sound, as in hero, and a mute one, as in echo; and the feminine ε was originally sounded soft, like the French cedill ç, as in fleece, vice, and the use of this character and sound ought to be continued or the soft c should be marked with a cedill to prevent the confusion of the hard and soft sounds of c; but more of this elsewhere.

The letters c, k, q, g, γ, wh, ch, κ, χ, Ξ, ξ signify actions of different sorts and degrees, viz. c as the half of o, signifying motion, and k and q, as significant of its sound, signify the modes of common local motions or actions; and the hard c also represents half the round of the posteriors, as o doth the whole of the male and female together, as the feminine or soft c doth the other half; g or γ represent the testicles or half the gamma, f being the other half, and the generative and growing parts of man and nature; and the rest are their gutteral inflections expressive of animal sounds and actions. The palatals should be sounded hard and short, as in quick, the soft c in some cases as the feminine ε before explained, and s before the vowel i, the superlative gutteral sorts, as the wh in where, why, and the Welsh chwa, chwant, and g or γ as in egg, edge. All these characters are nothing more than compounds of c, h, s, as will be shewn hereafter.

The letters d and b put together, thus, db, as compounds of i and o, or length and breadth, are expressive of man and woman’s body part, from the thigh to the part of the body which the elbow reaches, and all other living beings so extended, as τ does the extension of matter, but being again divided into d and b, they express living things, or the qualities of parts and diminutives of bodies, and emblematically spirits and privatives, as p does parts of matter, as divisor of τ. The d and b ought to be sounded alike in all languages, as, de, be, and dd, as the, but letters are farther explained in the former treatise.

T represents man’s legs together, with the feet upwards, and both toes turned outwards as upright and traverse lines, extension and man in his temporal state, turned out of paradise, under the sky, topsy turvy, and all things as relative to him, and the line upon which time or the manner of reckoning the distances of actions are measured. T sounds alike in all languages, and th and θ as in the, Thebes, and those are the inflections of T.

The letters p, ph, ff, f, π, φ, ψ, signify material or dead parts, or their qualities, as p divides T; ph is p high, up, or active; the digamma φ or f, the p inflecting the gamma; and ψ actions of a lesser nature, as growth. The p and π sound alike in all languages, ph, ff as φυω, fusee, or fun, ψ as in Psalms, it being only a compound of p, and f as the v consonant in verb, but these letters are farther explained in the former treatise.