DEVELOPMENT OF THE ALPHABET 



understanding of the subject. These studies tended 

 to authenticate the essential fact on which the legend 

 of Kadmus was founded; to the extent, at least, of 

 making it probable that the later Grecian alphabet 

 was introduced from Phoenicia though not, of course, 

 by any individual named Kadmus, the latter being, 

 indeed, a name of purely Greek origin. Further studies 

 of the past generation tended to corroborate the 

 ancient belief as to the original source of the Phoenician 

 alphabet, but divided scholars between two opinions: 

 the one contending that the Egyptian hieroglyphics 

 were the source upon which the Phoenicians drew ; and 

 the other contending with equal fervor that the Baby- 

 lonian wedge character must be conceded that honor. 



But, as has often happened in other fields after 

 years of acrimonious controversy, a new discovery 

 or two may suffice to show that neither contestant 

 was right. After the Egyptologists of the school of 

 De Rouge 1 thought they had demonstrated that the 

 familiar symbols of the Phoenician alphabet had been 

 copied from that modified form of Egyptian hiero- 

 glyphics known as the hieratic writing, the Assyriolo- 

 gists came forward to prove that certain characters of 

 the Babylonian syllabary also show a likeness to the 

 alphabetical characters that seemingly could not be 

 due to chance. And then, when a settlement of the 

 dispute seemed almost hopeless, it was shown through 

 the Egyptian excavations that characters even more 

 closely resembling those in dispute had been in use 

 all about the shores of the Mediterranean, quite in- 

 dependently of either Egyptian or Assyrian writings, 

 from periods so ancient as to be virtually prehistoric. 



