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in both directions by using the letters again but turning them upside down, sideways, or back to front, or by amputating them or adding a diacritic stroke. Closer inspection reveals that this extension was made in at least two stages. |
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In the first stage, letters were on the whole inverted (without exchange of left and right), other expedients being resorted to if inversion did not produce a clearly differentiated symbol. The downward extension at this stage used the letters alpha to sigma (24 to 7); the remaining letters, tau to omega, were used at the upper end (54 to 49). The scheme now covered just over two octaves (a'-G with sharps). |
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In a further expansion or expansions the incomplete alphabet at the lower end of the scale was filled out with another tau-to-omega group (6 to 1), with the letters turned sideways instead of upside down.11 At the upper end the scale was extended to g'' by repeating the notes of the octave below and distinguishing them with a diagonal stroke (70 to 55). |
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If we now look at the instrumental signs, it is obvious that 70-55 and 6-1 represent expansions made in parallel with the expansions of the vocal system. 70-55 show the same principle of octave strokes applied to the signs 49-34, while 6-1 are derived directly from the corresponding vocal symbols, abandoning the principle, prevailing otherwise in the instrumental series, that the symbols within each triad are variations on a single form. |
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Concentrating our attention on the series 54 to 7, and in particular on the primary note of each triad, we find a strange set of symbols that have on the whole the appearance of letters, but letters of often abnormal or unrecognizable form, arranged in no intelligible order: |
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There are features at both ends of the series that may require special consideration. The last sign, number 7, may be derived from the corresponding vocal note, as are 6-1, though its sharps are formed from it in the usual way. The top three, 52, 49, and 46, seem to be related like the notes of a triad; the six symbols for their sharps seem to be related amongst themselves, but not derived from the primaries. |
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There are three principal theories about the origin of these |
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11 Symbol 3 (chi with a stroke through it) is 51 turned sideways. A sideways phi had already had to be used at 52; it was amputated to make 4. |
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