86 TRANSACTIONS OF T7IE [dEC. 7, 



nately from i-ight to left and from left to right; viz., first line, 

 right' to left; second line, left to right: third line, right to left, 

 etc. (called the ftovarpocpijdov, boustrophedon, writing, /. e., 

 tiu-ning like oxen in ploughing). The third letter, the Greek 

 O akin to K, was changed into C (with pronunciation of K); 

 the sixth, the Egyptian F, returns to that sound. With the 

 seventh letter, we find a great and only change in our alphabet. 

 In all former alphabets, we found a Z in this place, also in the 

 old Latin and Oscan dialects; but in Latin this letter is dropped 

 here, and placed at the end of the list, while the letter G- is 

 put in its stead about 520 a.u.c. (= 231 e.g.). The eighth let- 

 ter loses still more of its original force, and becomes a weak 

 aspirate, our H (though the fifth Egyptian and Hebrew letters 

 represented that sound, of which the Greeks, as we saw, made 

 an E); the ninth is dropped, as there was no such sound in 

 Latin, while if we had lived then, we should have adopted it for 

 our Til; the nineteenth, the Egyptian, Hebrew, and Greek K 

 or Q, became Q, and the Greek additional letter ups'don became 

 Y, and, omitting the vertical line, simply V, which was split up 

 later into U and V. The Greek x {chi), which sound the 

 Latins did not need, became Latin X, representing the same 

 sound as the fifteenth Greek letter. The Greek sign for this let- 

 ter (H) must have offended the Latin eye, as the three horizontal 

 lines were not joined, and therefore they took some other letter 

 of the Greek alphabet. The Z the Latins placed at the end of 

 the alphabet for the sake of keeping the old arrangement intact, 

 which, by the addition of the G in the middle, necessitated their 

 placing Z at the end. With the Latin alphabet, our investiga- 

 tion ends, as we have virtually come back to it, having only 

 added J, an outgrowth of I, ancl W, which is a double V or U. 



While the questions as to the age of mankind and the origin 

 of language still remain unanswered, the origin of our written 

 language has been established. About 1600 B.C., a new spirit 

 of enterprise dawned on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea by 

 the exertions of a Shemitic race; and the " best thing that Egypt 

 gained and created for itself came as a legacy to a new world of 

 open disposition, and free of prejudice. When the cry resounded 

 ' Cadmus has come ! ' when the letters began their journey from 

 East to West, over land and water, then first was the wall torn 

 down which separated the nations, and had made knowledge the 

 prerogative of a certain class." And the letters became a word, 

 and the word governs the world. 



NOTES. 



Whatever has been written or said about the arrange- 

 ment of the letters is only based on theories, and cannot be 



