worshiped under the name of HERMES, and was represented commonly by a head alone, without other limbs. The head itself was that of a beautiful youth, having on it a petasus, or bonnet, adorned with two wings. He possessed no other part of the human figure but the head, because no other part was deemed requisite to rational communication. This head had wings, in order to represent words, the medium of this communication being, as described by Homer, tea πтeρоévтa, winged words.

THE HEBREW ALPHABET.

§ 217. The Hebrew Alphabet is a type of alphabets used by the Shemitic nations, including the Phoenician. It consists of twenty-two consonants, some of which have the power of vowels, as follows:

, Aleph, ox=A; , Beth, house=B; , Gimel, camel=G; , Daleth, door=D; n, He, window=E; ", Vau, hook=V or U;, Zain, weapon Z;, Cheth, fence=H; , Teth, snake =T; ", Jod, hand=J or Y; 2, Kaph, hand shut = K; 3, Lamed, ox-goad = L; 2, Mem, water = M; , Nun, fish: N; o, Samech, prop=S; , Ain, eye = 0; , Pe, mouth-P; x, Tsaddi, fish-hook=Tz; p, Koph, ape=Q; ", Resh, head=R; , Shin, tooth-Sh; n, Tau, cross T.

=

Originally the letters were rude representations of the visible objects, the names of which began with the sounds represented by the several characters. Some of them still retain the resemblance of those objects, as 1, 3, 3, . The language was written from right to left.

THE GREEK ALPHABET.

§ 218. The common opinion is that Cadmus, a Phoenician, who settled in Boeotia and founded Thebes, introduced letters into Greece A.C. 1493. The Cadmean letters, it is commonly thought, were sixteen: A, B, T, A, E, (F), I, K, A, M, N, O, II, P, Σ, T. Upsilon should be viewed in connection with digamma. The Greeks took but twenty-one of the twenty-two Phoenician letters. The letter Tsaddi, x, was never adopted by the Greeks. The letter P, Koph, at first received under the name of koppa, was afterward ejected. r,, X, Y, , were afterward added, in order to express sounds, probably, in the Greek, but not in the

Phoenician language. Some of the Phoenician characters introduced into Greece were used with changed or new powers, according to the wants of the language which they were used to express. The form of the letters was also changed in the progress of time, so that the similarity is lessened between the Hebrew Alphabet and the Greek. The manner of writing it was also changed. Ancient Greek, like the Hebrew, was written from right to left. It was afterward used as in the manner of plowing, alternately from right to left and from left to right. It was subsequently written like the English, from left to right. "Literas semper arbitror Assyrios fuisse; sed alii Ægyptios, alii apud Syros repertas volunt. Utique in Græciam intulisse è Phoenice Cadmum."-PLINY, vii., 56. The sixteen letters which Cadmus carried into Greece were not his own, but Eastern characters. Instead of inventing alphabetic writing, he deserves no more credit than does the mariner or the missionary who carries our letters to a distant shore.

THE ROMAN ALPHABET.

§ 219. The Roman Alphabet was derived from the Greek. A part of the letters only were at first introduced, and afterward others.

In accommodating the Greek Alphabet to their own language, the Latins (1) dropped those letters that were not needed, and (2) they used some of the letters imported with a new power, and (3) they introduced some new letters. They dropped, and X, and ✪, and K, and 4, permanently. They dropped and Z for a time, and then restored them, placing them at the end of the alphabet. They used the letter digamma, F, with the power, not of v or w, but with that of F. They used the letter eta, H, with a new power, namely, that of h. They introduced the letter c, at first with the power of g as well as that of k; and also the letters v and j, which are modifications, the one of u, and the other of i; and also the letter q, which seems to have come directly from the Phoenician Alphabet, as the equivalent of koph or qoph; and also the letter y, which seems a modification of v. X and q are redundant. and ought to have been retained, inasmuch as ph and th do not properly represent the sound which they are employed to indicate.

THE ANGLO-SAXON ALPHABET.

§ 220. The Anglo-Saxon Alphabet was derived mainly from the Roman, from which, indeed, it differs by certain additions, omissions, and modifications. 1. It has the letter pth in thin 0 in Greek, which the Roman has not. 2. It has the letter th in thine, which the Roman has not. 3. It has the letter c, to the exclusion of k, in common with the Latin, but which the Greek has not. 4. It has the letter w, which the Roman has not. 5. It has the letter j, either with the power of y as in German, or of zh as in French, or of dzh as in English, which is not in the Latin or Greek. 6. It has not the letter q, which the Latin has. 7. It has not the letter z. 8. It has not the letter v, which the Roman has.

It may have borrowed the letters þ, d, from the Moso-Gothic, which, though for the most part it borrowed its alphabet from the Greek and Latin, may have borrowed them from the Runic, an alphabet of great antiquity, and long used in the north of Europe.

Under the influence of the Norman French, the Anglo-Saxon Alphabet underwent some changes. The sound system of that language, derived from the Latin, bore a greater resemblance to that of the Romans than was to be found among the Gothic tongues. It was through the Norman influence that the letters þ, ð, unfortunately were dropped from the language. In other respects the alphabet was improved. The letters z, k, j, were either imported or more currently recognized.-LATHAM'S English Language, p. 206, 207.

§ 221. The alphabet received from the Anglo-Saxons, modified by the Normans, underwent some other modifications. The letter, a corruption of the Anglo-Saxon g, is found in Old English manuscripts. It sometimes is equivalent to our g, sometimes to y, and sometimes to gh. It has properly no connection with the letter z, for which it has sometimes been improperly used. The character employed was the black letter, or the Gothic. Of these there were varieties, as the "set chancery," "chancery," "running court."

In time, the Roman character was introduced into modern English, and also the Italian, so called from the types used by Italian printers. Ligatures, that is, double letters, like fl, fl, were formerly more frequently used than now, as were also double vowels, like æ, æ. The character 3 was laid aside, g or y taking its place.

Thus we have seen how the English Alphabet was derived from the Phoenician Alphabet, through the Greek, and the Roman, and the Anglo-Saxon Alphabets.

Having, in the last two chapters, examined the defects of the English Alphabet, and also seen how they are historically accounted for, we are prepared to examine, in the next chapter, the expedients which have been resorted to in English orthography for expressing the sounds in the language.

QUESTIONS UNDER CHAPTER IV.

1. Was the English Alphabet invented to express the phonetic elements and combinations in the English language?

2. From what several successive alphabets was the English language derived?

3. What was the first mode of communication by visible signs, and the second mode, and the third mode, before the invention of letters?

4. From what is the word alphabet derived?

5. Is it known when and where letters were invented?

6. What is said of the honors paid to the inventor of letters by the Egyptians and the Greeks?

7. Of what alphabet is the Hebrew Alphabet a type?

8. Of how many letters is the Hebrew Alphabet composed, and what is said of them?

9. What is said of the shape of the letters, and in what direction was the anguage written?

10. What is said of the Greek Alphabet?

11. What is said of the Roman Alphabet?

12. What is said of the Anglo-Saxon Alphabet? 13. What is said of the Old English Alphabet?

CHAPTER V.

ORTHOGRAPHICAL EXPEDIENTS.

§ 222. To remedy the defects of the alphabet, certain ORTHOGRAPHICAL EXPEDIENTS are extensively employed, especially in expressing the quantity of the vowels.

The Long or Independent sounds of vowels are indicated in English orthography in several different ways.

1. The duplication of the letters, as in meet, door, seemly. Here the duplication indicates the long sound of e and the long sound of o. This expedient was adopted at an early period in the history of the language, as is seen in words like wyyf (wife), lyyf (life), wee (we). But these indications are not to be relied on, inasmuch as the double vowel letter often represents a short vowel sound, as in took, book, flood.

2. The diphthongal notation, as in rain, meat, groan, soul, bowl. Here the addition of one vowel indicates the long sound of a, of e, and of o. Still there is no distinctness in the indication, inasmuch as the two last words might be taken to rhyme with foul and howl.

3. A silent e, as in fame, shade, mode. Here the silent e indicates the long sound of a and o. Anciently, such words were pronounced in two syllables. When this pronunciation ceased, the spelling remained, and the e mute indicates the long sound of the other vowel. Still the indication is imperfect, inasmuch as it can not be continued in derivatives like famous, shady, modish, which might be taken to sound like famine, shadow, model.

4. A silent consonant, as in climb, talk, resign. Here the silent consonants b, l, g, indicate the long sound of a and i. This indication is useful to those who are acquainted with it, but others it would lead into error.

5. The duplication of a consonant, as in better, torrent, is an orthographical expedient to indicate the Short or Dependent sound of the preceding vowel. This has long been the habit of the language. But the duplication of the consonant in some