" ("Cosmos," vol. ii., p. 129.)
Baldwin says (" Prehistoric Nations," p. 93):
"The nation that became mistress of the seas, established communication
with every shore, and monopolized the commerce of the known world, must
have substituted a phonetic alphabet for the hieroglyphics as it
gradually grew to this eminence; while isolated Egypt, less affected by
the practical wants and tendencies of commercial enterprise, retained
the hieroglyphic system, and carried it to a marvellous height of
perfection."
It must be remembered that some of the letters of our alphabet are
inventions of the later nations. In the oldest alphabets there was no c,
the g taking its place. The Romans converted the g into c; and then,
finding the necessity for a g Sign, made one by adding a tail-piece to
the c (C, G). The Greeks added to the ancient alphabet the upsilon,
shaped like our V or Y, the two forms being used at first indifferently:
they added the X sign; they converted the t of the Phoenicians into th,
or theta; z and s into signs for double consonants; they turned the
Phoenician y (yod) into i (iota). The Greeks converted the Phoenician
alphabet, which was partly consonantal, into one purely phonetic--"a
perfect instrument for the expression of spoken language.
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