than the French, but less correct than the German." See LATHAM'S English Language, p. 84.

Having, in this chapter, seen what are the defects of the English Alphabet for the purpose of noting sounds in the language, we are now prepared to examine, in the next chapter, the origin of these defects, and thus historically to account for them.

QUESTIONS UNDER CHAPTER III.

1. What are the six principal defects of the English Alphabet?

2. What facts can you mention to show that the English Alphabet is deficient?

3. What facts can you mention to show that the English Alphabet is redundant?

4. What facts can you mention to show that the English Alphabet is inconsistent?

5. What facts can you mention to show that the English Alphabet is unsteady?

6. What facts can you mention to show that the English Alphabet is inconvenient in learning other languages?

CHAPTER IV.

THE ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH ALPHABET ACCOUNTS FOR ITS DEFECTS.

§ 215. THE English Alphabet was not invented to express the phonetic elements and combinations of the English language. It was derived from the Phoenician Alphabet, of which the Hebrew is a type, modified to express the sounds of the Greek language, thus becoming the Greek Alphabet. This, in turn, was modified to express the sounds of the Latin language, and thus became the Roman Alphabet. This, in turn, was modified to express the sounds of the Anglo-Saxon language, and thus became the Anglo-Saxon Alphabet. This was modified to express the sounds of the English language, and thus became the English Alphabet, with all its defects.

In the stages of progress from oral communication to letters, PICTURE WRITING probably came first. In this way the ancient Mexicans transmitted the memory of the most important transactions of their empire.

The next in order were HIEROGLYPHICS, which, like pictures, were the signs of things, or Ideographic signs, though some of them were signs of the spoken language. Thus ingratitude was indicated by a viper, wisdom by an ant, and impudence by a fly.

The next step in the progress was the use of SYLLABIC CHARACTERS, which were employed as signs of sounds, and not as signs of things.

THE INVENTION OF LETTER S.

§ 216. LETTERS representing the elementary sounds in the language constitute the last stage of improvement in the communication of thought by visible signs. These are called the Alphabet, from Alpha, Beta, the two first letters in the list in the Greek language. When and where letters took their origin is not known. The Egyptians paid divine honors to the inventor of letters under the name of THEUTH. By the Greeks he was

worshiped under the name of HERMES, and was represented commonly by a head alone, without other limbs. The head itself was that of a beautiful youth, having on it a petasus, or bonnet, adorned with two wings. He possessed no other part of the human figure but the head, because no other part was deemed requisite to rational communication. This head had wings, in order to represent words, the medium of this communication being, as described by Homer, Eñea πтepoévтa, winged words.

§ 217. The Hebrew Alphabet is a type of alphabets used by the Shemitic nations, including the Phoenician. It consists of twenty-two consonants, some of which have the power of vowels, as follows:

*, Aleph, ox=A; , Beth, house=B; , Gimel, camel=G; , Daleth, door=D; , He, windowE;, Vau, hook=V or U;, Zain, weapon=Z;, Cheth, fence=H; -, Teth, snake =T; ", Jod, hand=J or Y; -, Kaph, hand shut = K; }, Lamed, ox-goad = L; 2, Mem, water M; 2, Nun, fish = N; , Samech, prop=S; , Ain, eye = 0; , Pe, mouth-P; %, Tsaddi, fish-hook=Tz; P, Koph, ape=Q;, Resh, head=R; , Shin, tooth Sh; n, Tau, cross-T.

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Originally the letters were rude representations of the visible objects, the names of which began with the sounds represented by the several characters. Some of them still retain the resemblance of those objects, as 1, 3, 7, . The language was written from right to left.

THE GREEK

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ALPHABET.

§ 218. The common opinion is that Cadmus, a Phœnician, who settled in Boeotia and founded Thebes, introduced letters into Greece A.C. 1493. The Cadmean letters, it is commonly thought, were sixteen: A, B, T, A, E, (F), I, K, A, M, N, O, II, P, 2, T. Upsilon should be viewed in connection with digamma. The Greeks took but twenty-one of the twenty-two Phoenician letters. The letter Tsaddi, x, was never adopted by the Greeks. The letter P, Koph, at first received under the name of koppa, was afterward ejected. Y, 4, X, Y, , were afterward added, in order to express sounds, probably, in the Greek, but not in the

Phoenician language. Some of the Phoenician characters introduced into Greece were used with changed or new powers, according to the wants of the language which they were used to express. The form of the letters was also changed in the progress of time, so that the similarity is lessened between the Hebrew Alphabet and the Greek. The manner of writing it was also changed. Ancient Greek, like the Hebrew, was written from right to left. It was afterward used as in the manner of plowing, alternately from right to left and from left to right. It was subsequently written like the English, from left to right. "Literas semper arbitror Assyrios fuisse; sed alii Ægyptios, alii apud Syros repertas volunt. Utique in Græciam intulisse è Phoenice Cadmum."― PLINY, vii., 56. The sixteen letters which Cadmus carried into Greece were not his own, but Eastern characters. Instead of inventing alphabetic writing, he deserves no more credit than does the mariner or the missionary who carries our letters to a distant shore.

THE ROMAN ALPHABET.

§ 219. The Roman Alphabet was derived from the Greek. A part of the letters only were at first introduced, and afterward

others.

In accommodating the Greek Alphabet to their own language, the Latins (1) dropped those letters that were not needed, and (2) they used some of the letters imported with a new power, and (3) they introduced some new letters. They dropped ¥, and X, and 0, and K, and , permanently. They dropped and Z for a time, and then restored them, placing them at the end of the alphabet. They used the letter digamma, F, with the power, not of v or w, but with that of F. They used the letter eta, H, with a new power, namely, that of h. They introduced the letter c, at first with the power of g as well as that of k; and also the letters v and j, which are modifications, the one of u, and the other of i; and also the letter q, which seems to have come directly from the Phoenician Alphabet, as the equivalent of koph or qoph; and also the letter y, which seems a modification of v. X and q are redundant. ⚫ and o ought to have been retained, inasmuch as ph and th do not properly represent the sound which they are employed to indicate.

THE ANGLO-SAXON ALPHABET.

§ 220. The Anglo-Saxon Alphabet was derived mainly from the Roman, from which, indeed, it differs by certain additions, omissions, and modifications. 1. It has the letter pth in thin 0 in Greek, which the Roman has not. 2. It has the letter th in thine, which the Roman has not. 3. It has the letter c, to the exclusion of k, in common with the Latin, but which the Greek has not. 4. It has the letter w, which the Roman has not. 5. It has the letter j, either with the power of y as in German, or of zh as in French, or of dzh as in English, which is not in the Latin or Greek. 6. It has not the letter q, which the Latin has. 7. It has not the letter z. 8. It has not the letter v, which the Roman has.

It may have borrowed the letters p, 3, from the Moso-Gothic, which, though for the most part it borrowed its alphabet from the Greek and Latin, may have borrowed them from the Runic, an alphabet of great antiquity, and long used in the north of Europe.

Under the influence of the Norman French, the Anglo-Saxon Alphabet underwent some changes. The sound system of that language, derived from the Latin, bore a greater resemblance to that of the Romans than was to be found among the Gothic tongues. It was through the Norman influence that the letters. þ, ð, unfortunately were dropped from the language. In other respects the alphabet was improved. The letters z, k, j, were either imported or more currently recognized.-LATHAM'S English Language, p. 206, 207.

OLD ENGLISH ALPHABET.

§ 221. The alphabet received from the Anglo-Saxons, modified by the Normans, underwent some other modifications. The letter, a corruption of the Anglo-Saxon g, is found in Old English manuscripts. It sometimes is equivalent to our g, sometimes to y, and sometimes to gh. It has properly no connection with the letter z, for which it has sometimes been improperly used. The character employed was the black letter, or the Gothic. Of these there were varieties, as the "set chancery," "chancery," "running court."