Evolution of the Alphabet 



this, we cannot go. It is here that the paths become so dim 

 that they cannot be further traced with any degree of cer- 

 tainty. The Phoenician alphabet that was carried to the 

 Greeks consisted of twenty-two characters, only three or 

 four of which correspond in form to the letters of the Eng- 

 lish alphabet that is in use today. Apparently, some of 

 these letters, and, perhaps, all of them, were meant to rep- 

 resent the names that had been applied to the objects or 

 things about these ancient people. Their Aleph, meaning 

 ''ox"; Beth, "house"; Daleth, "door"; Jodh, "hand"; 

 Kaph, "hollow of the hand" ; Mun, "water" ; Rosh, "head" ; 

 Shin, "tooth"; are examples of original meaning of some 

 of these Phoenician characters. However, this does not 

 estabhsh that their origin is lodged with the Phoenicians. 



Many scholars have attempted to identify the Phoenician 

 letters with the characters representing Egyptian hiero- 

 glyphics. Emanuel de Rouge, a French philologist, sought 

 to prove that the source of the alphabet was to be found in 

 the hieratic characters as shown in the Papyrus Prisse, an 

 Egyptian document. Canon Isaac Taylor, in his book — 

 "The Alphabet," which is regarded as the most complete 

 treatise in English on this subject, adopted de Rouge's 

 opinion as to the origin of these characters; while, at a 

 later date, E. Clodd, in —"The Story of the Alphabet," 

 challenged and denied this opinion. Other writers have 

 attempted to show a connection between the Phoenician 

 alphabet and the cuneiform systems of Assyria and Babylon. 

 The early Babylonian characters which are supposed to fur- 

 nish evidence of the origin of the Phoenician alphabet are 

 about 2,000 years older than the earliest Phoenician inscrip- 



[61] 



