Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/373

ALPHABET 349 our system of sounds. The Greeks took from this scheme, without important change of value, the signs for b, g, d, w, 'h, k, I, m, n, p, q, r, t ; others they altered in sound, converting t into the sign for aspirated t (th, or theta), z and into signs for double consonants, ds (or zeta) and ks (or xi) ; while they used * and sh for a time interchangeably as signs for their single sibilant, until the former finally went out of use. But the most important modification carried out by the Greeks was that by which they obtained signs for vowels also : aleph, h, and ain, as being useless to them, they made into a, e (epsilori), and o (omicrori) ; y (yod) was turned into i (iota) ; and for u was invented a new sign, upsilon, shaped like our V or Y (the two forms being used at first indifferently). This modification converted the alphabet from a con- sonantal into one purely and completely pho- netic, a perfect instrument of the expression of spoken language. Other additions were of somewhat later date: signs for the aspirate labial (ph, or phi) and guttural (M, or chi) as parallel with the ih or theta, and for the assib- ilated labial (ps, or psi) as parallel with the ds or zeta and ks or xi, were invented and ap- pended at the end of the scheme ; a sign for long o (omega) was further added, and H, which had signified the rough breathing or as- piration, was altered in value to a long e (eta), Moreover, the w or " digamma " went by de- grees entirely out of use, as did also the q or "koppa," and the two were retained only as numeral signs. Thus the constitution of the Greek alphabet, as we know it, is in all its parts accounted for. The additions and changes went on by degrees, and differently in diiforent parts and colonies of Greece ; the final form is that given by the lonians of Asia Minor, and adopted throughout the whole of Greece about 400 B. 0. The Semitic original was always written from right to left; the earliest Greek was written either way, or in different directions in alternate lines (the characters being made to face the other way when written from left to right) ; finally, the present method became established in universal use. The form of Greek alphabet from which is derived the Latin was not that one which, as above described, was finally adopted through- out Greece, but differed from it in sundry par r ticulars : the H still had its h value ; the Q was still used, and was retained by the Latins for writing the k sound followed by u before an- other vowel; the character for w, or the di- gamma, was also in use, and was applied to. represent the (as labial, somewhat kindred) sound/, for which the Greek had no sign; and X (as generally on the mainland of Greece and in her western colonies) had the value of ks, not of ch. The earliest Latin alphabet, then, was A, B, C (pronounced as g), D, E, F, Z, H, I, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, V, X, 21 letters. A Z is found hi the earliest monuments, but speed- ily went out of use, and was about the time of Cicero reintroduced as a foreigner, along with Y (originally the same sign with V, but having now become fixed hi Greek usage in this form, and having taken a new value, that of the French u or German u), in order to write in Greek words the peculiar Greek sounds of those letters. A very peculiar change in the constitution of the Lit in alphabet was made in connection with C, K, and G. The K passed out of customary use about the time of the decemvirs, and was employed only in a small number of words (with occasional occurrence in others), while C, the equivalent of the Greek gamma, and originally having the same value, was employed to write both the g and Jc sounds doubtless because these two sounds were in the popular utterance only imperfectly distinguished from one another. And when later (about 300 B. C.), under Greek influence, the careful distinction of the two sounds in writing was resumed, instead of giving C its old value and restoring K to common use, the Romans very strangely continued to the former its k value, and made from it by a slight alter- ation a new sign, G, for the g value. The final Latin scheme, after the addition of Y and Z, thus consisted of 23 signs. In it I and J were not distinguished, nor U and V; J and U are merely graphic variations of I and V, and of the same value with the latter ; the Romans did not regard the vowel and semivowel values of these two sounds i (that is, i in pique, or "long ," as we call it) and y on the one side, u (that is, u in rule, or the long sound of double o in fool) and w on the other as being suffi- ciently diverse to need a double designation. The chief alteration, now, that the Latin alpha- bet has undergone in being adapted to English use is the establishment of J and U as inde- pendent letters with distinct values, by the side of I and V ; J having for us the peculiar sound (nearly a compound of d with zh, or with the z sound of azure) into which the Latin J or y sound has been usually converted, and V being applied to represent the sound into which, in most of the literary languages of modern Europe (as in the later Latin also), the original w sound has passed. And then, as final exten- sion, we have, in common with some other European languages, added a " double U " i. e., VV or W to represent the u semivowel, or w sound: this character is of a date no more ancient than the middle ages. By all these various reductions and additions, our alphabet has grown from the original 22 signs of the Phoenician to the present scheme of 26 signs ; which, by way of summary, we may dis- tribute into eight classes, as follows : 1, letters inherited from the Phoenicians, and still bear ing nearly then- Phoenician value, are twelve, namely, B, D, H, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T; 2, letters originally Phoenician, but having their value changed by the Greeks (in every case but one from, consonant to vowel), are five, namely, A, E, I, O, Z; 3, additional letters in- vented by the. Greeks are two, namely, U (=V or Y), X ; 4 t Phoenician letters entering into