“Many peoples believe their language or system of writing to be of divine origin. The name of the Sanskrit alphabet is Devanagari, which means “pertaining to the city of the gods.” Hieroglyphic, used by the ancient Egyptians for their formal documents, carved in stone, means “sacred stone writing.” . . . The Assyrians had a legend to the effect that the cuneiform characters were given to man by the god Nebo, who held sway over human destiny. . . . The Mayas attributed writing to their most important deity, Itzamna. The lost prehistoric writing of Japan was styled kami no moji or “divine characters.” As late as the Christian Middle Ages, Constantine the Philosopher (another name for Cyril, apostle to the Slavs) is described as having had Slavic writing revealed to him by God.”

—Mario Pei, The Story of Language, 1965.