CHAPTER V. 



Evolution of the Alphabet. 



A N alphabet may be defined as a series of abstract char- 

 acters used to represent the single sounds of a language. 

 They form the words employed in expressing the ideas 

 which the language as a whole conveys. These characters 

 of the various languages form the vehicle of communication 

 and the depository of all knowledge which has been acquired 

 throughout the ages. Since primitive man scratched his first 

 crude pictographs on some enduring substance, more than 

 two hundred and fifty alphabets have come into being and 

 have been used as a means of expressing and communicating 

 thought. Of this number some fifty have survived and are 

 now in use. About one-half of this number are found in 

 India, where their use is both restricted and local. The 

 remaining numbers are variations of three scripts repre- 

 senting Roman, Arabic and Chinese characters which are in 

 use today. The one representing the greatest progress and 

 the highest culture to which the peoples of the earth have 

 attained is that of the Roman. 



Until very recent years the method of teaching a child 

 on entering its first year in school was to begin with the 

 A, B, C's, the first three characters of our alphabet, which 

 is made up of twenty-six abstract characters. It is with 

 these twenty-six characters and also the abstract characters 

 representing the numbers that the child must work during 



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