Lost in transcription
The following is planche no. 10 from the second volume of plates in the Encyclopédie by D’Alembert and Diderot (1763). Notice anything strange?
Here’s a hint: look at the Russian alphabet, specifically, the third column from the left. Where do those letter names come from?
The incredible answer is that they are actually letter names from the Georgian Mkhedruli alphabet, transcribed in Russian Cyrillic orthography.
This is almost mind-blowing, considering that the Russian and Georgian alphabets have virtually nothing in common; certainly not the letter names. Note that the Georgian alphabet is reproduced, with these same letter names, just a few pages later (plate 14).
Why would anyone assign Georgian names to Russian letters? Especially alongside the traditional Russian (i.e. Slavonic) names, which are even repeated three times — in the 2nd, 4th, and 5th columns of the plate.
There may have been some Georgian-speaking intermediary involved… but a quick search into the sources available to the Encyclopédie’s authors on the Russian language and writing system was inconclusive. I’m too lazy to dig deeper, so the mystery remains.
