A Handbook of the English Language by Robert Gordon Latham (books for men to read .txt) 📖

principle varies with different languages. Some adapt an introduced alphabet well: others badly.

Of the twenty-two Phœnician letters the Greeks took but twenty-one. The eighteenth letter, tsadi צ was never imported into Europe.

Compared with the Semitic, the Old Greek alphabet ran thus:—

  Hebrew. Greek.   Hebrew. Greek. 1. א Α. 13. מ Μ. 2. ב Β. 14. נ Ν. 3. ג Γ. 15. ס Σ? 4. ד Δ. 16. ע Ο. 5. ה Ε. 17. פ Π. 6. ו Digamma. 18. צ — 7. ז Ζ. 19. ק A letter called
koppa, afterwards
ejected. 8. ח Η. 9. ט Θ. 10. י Ι. 20. ר Ρ. 11. כ Κ. 21. ש M afterwards Σ? 12. ל Λ. 22. ת Τ.

The names of the letters were as follows:

  Hebrew. Greek.   Hebrew. Greek. 1. Aleph Alpha. 12. Lamed Lambda. 2. Beth Bæta. 13. Mem Mu. 3. Gimel Gamma. 14. Nun Nu. 4. Daleth Delta. 15. Samech Sigma? 5. He E, psilon. 16. Ayn O. 6. Vaw Digamma. 17. Pe Pi. 7. Zayn Zæta. 18. Tsadi —— 8. Heth Hæta. 19. Kof Koppa, Archaic. 9. Teth Thæta. 20. Resh Rho. 10. Yod Iôta. 21. Sin San, Doric. 11. Kaph Kappa. 22. Tau Tau.

The alphabet of Phœnicia and Palestine being adapted to the language of Greece, the first change took place in the manner of writing. The Phœnicians wrote from right to left; the Greeks from left to right. Besides this, the following principles were recognised;—

a. Letters for which there was no use were left behind. This was the case, as seen above, with the eighteenth letter, tsadi.

b. Letters expressive of sounds for which there was no precise equivalent in Greek, were used with other powers. This was the case with letters 5, 8, 16, and probably with some others.

c. Letters of which the original sound, in the course of time, became changed, were allowed, as it were, to drop out of the alphabet. This was the case with 6 and 19.

d. For such simple single elementary articulate sounds as there was no sign or letter representant, new signs, or letters, were invented. This principle gave to the Greek alphabet the new signs φ, χ, υ, ω.

e. The new signs were not mere modifications of the older ones, but totally new letters.

All this was correct in principle; and the consequence is, that the Greek alphabet, although not originally meant to express a European tongue at all, expresses the Greek language well.

§ 162. But it was not from the Greek that our own alphabet was immediately derived; although ultimately it is referable to the same source as the Greek, viz., the Phœnician.

It was the Roman alphabet which served as the basis to the English.

And it is in the changes which the Phœnician alphabet underwent in being accommodated to the Latin language that we must investigate the chief peculiarities of the present alphabet and orthography of Great Britain and America.

Now respecting the Roman alphabet, we must remember that it was not taken directly from the Phœnician; in this important point differing from the Greek.

Nor yet was it taken, in the first instance, from the Greek.

It had a double origin.

The operation of the principles indicated in § 161 was a work of the time; and hence the older and more unmodified Greek alphabet approached in character its Phœnician prototype much more than the later, or modified. As may be seen, by comparing the previous alphabets with the common alphabets of the Greek Grammar, the letters 6 and 19 occur in the earlier, whilst they are missing in the later, modes of writing. On the other hand, the old alphabet has no such signs as φ, χ, υ, ω, ψ, and ξ.

Such being the case, it is easy to imagine what would be the respective conditions of two Italian languages which borrowed those alphabets, the one from the earlier, the other from the later Greek. The former would contain the equivalents to vaw (6), and kof (19); but be destitute of φ, χ, &c.; whereas the latter would have φ, χ, &c., but be without either vaw or kof.

Much the same would be the case with any single Italian language which took as its basis the earlier, but adopted, during the course of time, modifications from the later Greek. It would exhibit within itself characters common to the two stages.

This, or something very like it, was the case with Roman. For the first two or three centuries the alphabet was Etruscan; Etruscan derived directly from the Greek, and from the old Greek.

Afterwards, however, the later Greek alphabet had its influence, and the additional letters which it contained were more or less incorporated; and that without effecting the ejection of any earlier ones.

§ 163. With these preliminaries we may investigate the details of the Roman alphabet, when we shall find that many of them stand in remarkable contrast with those of Greece and Phœnicia. At the same time where they differ with them, they agree with the English.

Order. Roman. English. Greek. Hebrew.   1. A A Alpha Aleph.   2. B B Bæta Beth.   3. C C Gamma Gimel.   4. D D Delta Daleth.   5. E E Epsilon He.   6. F F Digamma Vaw.   7. G G — —   8. H H Hæta Heth.   9. I I Iôta Iod. 10. J J Iôta Iod. 11.   K Kappa Kaf. 12. L L Lamda Lamed. 13. M M Mu Mem. 14. N N Nu Nun. 15. O O Omicron Ayn. 16. P P Pi Pe. 17. Q Q Koppa Kof. 18. R R Rho Resh. 19. S S San Sin. 20. T T Tau Tau. 21. U U Upsilon — 22. V V Upsilon — 23.   W Upsilon — 24. X X Xi Samech.[43] 25. Y Y Upsilon — 26. Z Z Zæta Zain.

§ 164. The differences of this table are referable to one of the following four heads:—a. Ejection. b. Addition. c. Change of power. d. Change of order.

a. Ejection.—In the first instance, the Italians ejected as unnecessary, letters 7,[44] 9, and 11: zayn (zæta), teth (thæta), and kaf (kappa). Either the sounds which they expressed were wanting in their language; or else they were expressed by some other letter. The former was probably the case with 7 and 9, zæta and thæta, the latter with 11, kappa.

b. Addition.—Out of the Greek iôta, two; out of the Greek upsilon, four modifications have been evolved; viz., i and j out of ι, and u, v, w, y, out of υ.

c. Change of power.—Letter 3, in Greek and Hebrew had the sound of the g in gun; in Latin that of k. The reason for this lies in the structure of the Etruscan language. In that tongue the flat sounds were remarkably deficient; indeed, it is probable, that that of g was wanting. Its sharp equivalent, however, the sound of k, was by no means wanting; and the Greek gamma was used to denote it. This made the equivalent to k, the third letter of the alphabet, as early as the time of the Etruscans.

But the Romans had both sounds, the flat as well as the sharp, g as well as k. How did they express them? Up to the second Punic War they made the rounded form of the Greek Γ, out of which the letter C has arisen, do double work, and signify k and g equally, just as in the present English th is sounded as the Greek θ,[45] and as dh;[46] in proof whereof we have in the Duillian column, MACESTRATOS = MAGISTRATOS, and CARTHACINIENSES = CARTHAGINIENSES.

Thus much concerning the power and places of the Latin c, as opposed to the Greek γ. But this is not all. The use of gamma, with the power of k, made kappa superfluous, and accounts for its ejection in the Etruscan alphabet; a fact already noticed.

Furthermore, an addition to the Etruscan alphabet was required by the existence of the sound of g, in Latin, as soon as the inconvenience of using c with a double power became manifest. What took place then? Even this. The third letter was modified in form, or became a new letter, c being altered into g; and the new letter took its place in the alphabet.

Where was this? As the seventh letter between f (digamma) and h (hæta).

Why? Because it was there where there was a vacancy, and where it replaced the Greek zæta, or the Hebrew zayn, a letter which, at that time, was not wanted in Latin.

d. Change of order.—As far as the letters c and g are concerned, this has been explained; and it has been shown that change of order and change of power are sometimes very closely connected. All that now need be added is, that those letters which were last introduced from the Greek into the Roman alphabet, were placed at the end.

This is why u, v, w, and y come after t—the last letter of the original Phœnician, and also of the older Greek.

This, too, is the reason for z coming last of all. It was restored for the purpose of spelling Greek words. But as its original place had been filled up by g, it was tacked on as an appendage, rather than incorporated as an element.

X in power, coincided with the Greek xi; in place, with the Greek khi. Its position seems to