ALPHABET. 



ALPHABET. 



labial letter*. The front vertical pUne include* the Mpirates ; thut at 

 the back, the non-aspirato*. The left vertical comprehends th medial 

 letter* ; that on the right, the MMM. Every letter it, of OOUIM, at the 

 interMction of three of them plane*, and mar be defined accordingly. 



A distribution of the letter* according to the actual nature of the 

 sound* ia of oonoderable uae in the examination of thoee numerou* 

 euphonic and dialectic change* which occur not only in the polished 

 language of Greece, but also in tho*e language* which are inconaiderately 

 called barbarous. But no single dirt rilmtion will at once present to 

 the view all the relation* of the different letter*. Not merely are the 

 several letter* in each of our horizontal, and to a certain extent also in 

 the vertical divisions, interchangeable with their neighbour*, but the 

 twelve consonant* arranged in No. 1 are in fact aloo related to the 

 liquid*, and even to the vowel". An these consonant* extend from the 

 throat to the lip*, ao do the liquids, and the vowel* also, ;/ and i being 

 formed in the back of the mouth, H and ir at the lips. In fact, the 

 principle of lengthening the vocal pipe, which gave Mr. Willis the 

 series of vowel sounds, in nothing more than what ia done in the human 

 mouth. To produce the first sound, we shorten the tube of the mouth ; 

 for the last, we extend it to its utmost length ; and in intermediate 

 degree* for the vowels, between the two extreme*. In comparing 

 therefore our ordinary consonants with the liquids and vowels, we find, 

 as we might expect, g closely related to y, as our language in it* older 

 forms, and even it* existing dialects, fully establishes. The intermediate 

 H again has an affinity for /, * / and 6, at the labial extremity of the 

 consonants, is intimately related to in, x>, and u, at the corresponding 

 point* of the other series. To make our views include the whole body 

 of letters, it remains to be observed, in the first place, that had the 

 nasal organ been considered, we should have had a series m, n, ng with 

 their intermediate sounds depending partly upon the noee, and partly 

 upon the lips, teeth, and palate respectively. In the Sanscrit alphabet, 

 the scries of guttural, palatal, lingual, dental, and labial consonants, 

 have an * belonging to each class with a distinct symbol. That which 

 belongs to the guttural series is a sound analogous to our '/ in rint/iw/. 

 The nasal of the labial series is of course i. The other omission of our 

 tabular view is the letter k, which, when pronounced at all, is a faint 

 representative of the guttual aspirate f!i. In the Hebrew alphabet, the 

 names dtetk and heth are given indifferently to the eighth letter, 

 ami the etymology of every language would supply examples of the 

 connection. 



Having endeavoured to arrange the letters of the alphabet upon some 

 principle, we cannot pass over in silence the apparent confusion in the 

 alphnWts wo have been speaking of, the Hebrew and the Greek. That 

 the order observed in tie latter is borrowed from tho former, can 

 scarcely admit of a question. For though the r<i of the Hebrew has 

 no corresponding character in the later Greek alphabet, it is yet well 

 known that it once had such a correlative in the digammu, at least in 

 power ; and that the digammn was actually lost from the sixth place 

 is proved from the gap at that point in the numerical use of the 

 Greek alphabet, and the clumsy contrivance of filling it up by the 

 Hyrabol t. The position of tho letter F in the Roman alphabet is a 

 proof in confirmation. The lna<l! of the Hebrews can never have had a 

 place in the Greek alphabet, but the following letter kappa most 

 assuredly had, as is proved both by the existence of that letter in 

 many of the older Greek inscriptions and the coins of Corinth, and no 

 leas decidedly by the insertion, as before, of a numerical substitute, 

 which even retained the name of Inppa. It may be observed, too, that 

 the Latin q, of the same power and form, corresponds also in position ; 

 and the close connection )>etween tn/i/in and '/ is further confirmed by 

 the fact, that as g is generally used solely before it, so koppa is rarely 

 used except before o, as in the coins of Cos, Corinth, and Syracuse. 

 The irhin and tin of the Hebrew have in their own alphabet not 

 merely an identity of form, except in the dicritic points, but bear also 

 the same numerical value, so that they must be considered as one in 

 their origin. At Ian the Hebrew series terminates, while the Greek 

 adds first a u, then a ^, a x, a <f>, and an a. That some of these did 

 not belong to the early. Greek alphabet is proved historically. The 

 appears rarely lieforc the year 403 B.C. ; x, i^, and <f>, were represented 

 by #3, KH, DM, and i> or T appears to be only a variety of the ///. to 

 which it bean a strong resemblance in form. The letters o and u 

 moreover in all languages are so closely related in power, that the one 

 might almost supply the place of the other, a* in actually the cose in 

 the Etruscan, which had a u, but no o. It is not therefore a very bold 

 thing to assert that the early Greek alphabet terminated at the same 

 point a* the Hebrew. There is, however, a difficulty which should not 

 be neglected. It has been a common assertion, that the old Greek 

 alphabet consisted of only sixteen letters. But Pliny and Plutarch 

 teem, in the first place, to be the sole authority for the statement ; 

 and the assertion of the former, that Palamedea,- in the time of the 

 Trojan war (!) added 0, E, +. X, and Simonidex Z, H, V, n, is full of 

 so many difficulties, that belief could not readily be given to him, even 

 were there no counter authority. For upon what principle could the 

 Greek letters have attained their present order, if they were intro- 

 duced according to the chronological arrangement given by Pliny ? 

 But fortunately in the very passage of Pliny referred to (vii. 66, or 67), 

 he give* another statement from Aristotle, differing from his own in 

 several particular*, but it must be confessed not more satisfactory 

 They mutually serve however to weaken the authority of each other 



In enumerating the sixteen letter*, it may be observed that the long 

 vowels H n. the double letters Z, H, V, the aspirate* *, X, 9, are 

 excluded by Pliny. In defence of A, V. X, # we say nothing ; but the 

 character H certainly did exist, not indeed a* a long vowel, but a* an 

 aspirate. Thus with the iliyamma, the letter H (d>ttl>\. and the Ihrta, 

 the old alphabet [xiggesscd a complete trio of aspirate* : so erroneou* is 

 the notion that they should all lie excluded. Lastly, a* for Z and I, 

 the circumstance of their situation corresponding precisely to the COM 

 and tamtrh of the Hebrew would induce us to defend them, even at 

 the risk of supposing (if such supposition be necessary) that, in thrir 

 original power, they were not double letters. We do not however 

 mean that tho very character* existed, but that sibilants of some kind 

 occupied their places. The precise correspondence of the Greek and 

 Hebrew alphabets in. the order and power and names of the letters, i* 

 on argument of much stronger weight than any testimony from such 

 careless and late writers as Pliny and Plutarch. 



But we are digressing too long from the question about tin- principle 

 which governed the first arrangement of the Hebrew or old Greek 

 AlphaU't, if principle there be. Though we cannot satisfactorily 

 account for the whole order throughout the twenty-two letter*, there 

 are certainly traces of some regularity in the arrangement We find 

 first the simplest of the vowel sounds simplest, because it requires 

 neither retraction nor protrusion of the lips followed by the three 

 UK dials j8, y, S, then another vowel, followed, with some irregularity 

 indeed, by aspirates corresponding in order to the above consonants, 

 ra, cluili. ili' ill. nn bod representative* of $>, x, ' Then again we have 

 a vowel i, followed soon after by three consonants related to each 

 other, \, n, v. Soon after we find a fourth vowel o, and after it. in a 

 little disorder it must be allowed, pi, l'<l>pa, Ian. It cannot well be a 

 mere accident that the several classes of labials, palatals, and dentals 

 occur so nearly together in the ditt't rent |nrta of the series, and always 

 in the same order. It will, perliaps, here be observed that in these 

 remarks we are unintentionally confirming the assertion of I'liny and 

 Plutarch about the sixteen letters, the more so as Plutarch (Symp. 

 lib. ix. quacHt. 3. S ~, \Vyttenlrh'* <<]. vol. iii. p. 1050) speaks of four 

 quaternions. The chief objections to such an explanation of their 

 statements consist in the difficulty of imagining a language to exist 

 without a sibillant or . But th approaches very nearly to the nature 

 of a sibilant, ami may have been used as one ; while to many nations 

 r and / admit of no distinction, so that one symbol in for them 

 sufficient. Nay. the Latin hod demonstrable at one time no r. 



But we pause a moment to contribute a new item to the Curiosities 

 of Literature. The theory here propounded, that the original Cad- 

 ineian alphabet consisted of four tetrads or quaternions symmetrically 

 arranged, was originally given in the Penny Cyclopaedia, in the year 

 1833 (VoL I. p. 380, col. 2. *c.) In 1839 it .ip]ieared without acknow- 

 ledgment in the 'New Cratylus,' pp. 99-1"], with the one alteration, 

 that in the second tetrad the vowel / wa^ discarded in favour of a 

 sibilant. The same writer again reproduced the theory in 1844, in his 

 ' Varronianus' (pp. 188, 189); and when attention was called to this 

 proceeding, he declared, on the word of a gentleman, that up to that 

 moment he had not read the article, and indeed that on then referring 

 to it, he found it to contain only a bungling approximation to his own 

 theory. Lastly, in the second edition of his ' New Cratylus,' the same 

 theory repeated in his text, p. 147, is accompanied by a note com- 

 mencing : " This organic arrangement of the alphabet has been more 

 or less noticed by several philologers, of whom tho earliest seems to 

 have been the acute and learned Dr. Richard Lepmus. in his emay, 

 ' \ilier die Anordnung und Verwandschaft des Semitischen .... Alpha- 

 bets.' (Xwei Abhaiidl. Berl. 1836.) Does the writer then mean to 

 declare nn the word of a gentleman that the year 1836 preceded the 

 year 1 833 1 



The accompanying plates require a few remarks in addition to what 

 has been already said. The first plate contains alphalwU running from 

 the right to the left, a practice which seems to have been earlier than 

 that which is now generally adopted. Herodotus tells us (it. 86), that 

 such, too, was the practice of the K^yptians, and his assertion is con- 

 firmed by a considerable numlier of the exiting inscriptions, am. >ng 

 liich, howc\cr. some are found running in the opp. D, and 



still more arranged vertically. The Ktruscans, it ia well known, turned 

 their letters to the left, and there even exist specimens of Latin in- 

 scriptions with the same ]culiarity. Among the Greeks, there were 

 four modes of writing, one vertical (Kwrnoar or ro/wmn trint), and three 

 horizontal, namely, one with the words running to the left : an. .t her, 

 which soon prevailed over the rest, tumrd towards the ri^ht. : and a 

 third, in which the direction of the lines alternated, as in the course of 

 a plough, from which idea, inscriptions of thi kind are said to 1) 

 written ftau-arfvfnt-tt>r, or *>MMMM*lM This last method must 

 have been much more convenient than our present broad sheet of 

 letter-press, in which tho eye, on arriving at the end of a line, n 

 a nice perception of a straight lino to hit the commencing point again. 

 The second and third plates give numerous specimens of the ' 

 alphabet, which are taken chiefly from Itoockh's great work , and the 

 numbers written after the titles at the head of each column refer to 

 the order of the inscriptions in that work. 



The several inscriptions which have furnished these alphabets exist 

 in the following forms : 



No. 1 4. In two fluting* of a Doric column brought from the- island 



