Theban alphabet

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Glyph Transliteration
Image:Theban letter A.png A
Image:Theban letter B.png B
Image:Theban letter C.png C
Image:Theban letter D.png D
Image:Theban letter E.png E
Image:Theban letter F.png F
Image:Theban letter G.png G
Image:Theban letter H.png H
Image:Theban letter I.png I/J
Image:Theban letter K.png K
Image:Theban letter L.png L
Image:Theban letter M.png M
Image:Theban letter N.png N
Image:Theban letter O.png O
Image:Theban letter P.png P
Image:Theban letter Q.png Q
Image:Theban letter R.png R
Image:Theban letter S.png S
Image:Theban letter T.png T
Image:Theban letter V.png U/V
Image:Theban letter W.png W
Image:Theban letter X.png X
Image:Theban letter Y.png Y
Image:Theban letter Z.png Z
Image:Theban letter Full Stop.png End of sentence

The Theban alphabet is a writing system with unknown origins. It was first published in Johannes Trithemius' Polygraphia (1518), in which it was attributed to Honorius of Thebes. Trithemius' student Agrippa attributed it to Pietro d'Abano.[1] It is also known as the Honorian Alphabet or the Runes of Honorius after the legendary magus (Theban is not, however, a runic alphabet), or the Witches' Alphabet due to its use in modern Wicca and other forms of witchcraft as one of many substitution ciphers to hide magical writings such as the contents of a Book of Shadows from prying eyes. The Theban alphabet bears little resemblance to other alphabets, and has not been found in any previous publications prior to Trithemius'.

There is one-to-one correspondence between Theban and all the letters in the modern Latin alphabet except for j, u, and w, which use the same letters as i, v, and a literal 'vv' or double-v respectively. Theban letters only exist in a single case, with the need for a separate majuscule (upper-case) and minuscule (lower-case) letters never being established. The Theban character set also only contains specific reference to an 'end of phrase' character, or full stop, with no other punctuation being specified either in Agrippa's original publication, nor any publications drawing on subsequent documents. There are no numerals in Theban that have been found, assuming the reputed creation by Honorius is valid, with many people either creating their own numerals, or using Roman numerals for numbers.

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