on must be dealt with
as a single letter.

_Caution._--The letters x and q are not orthographical expedients. They are
orthographical _compendiums_, x = ks, and q = kw.

* * * * *

CHAPTER IX.

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE ENGLISH ALPHABET.

s. 160. The preceding chapter has exhibited the theory of a full and
perfect alphabet; it has shown how far the English alphabet falls short of
such a standard; and, above all, it has exhibited some of the conventional
modes of spelling which the insufficiency of alphabets, combined with other
causes, has engendered. The present chapter gives a _history_ of our
alphabet, whereby many of its defects are _accounted for_. These defects,
it may be said, once for all, the English alphabet shares with those of the
rest of the world; although, with the doubtful exception of the French, it
possesses them in a higher degree than any.

With few, if any exceptions, _all the modes of writing in the world
originate_, directly or indirectly, from the Phoenician.

At a certain period the alphabet of Palestine, Phoenicia, and the
neighboring languages of the Semitic tribes, consisted of _twenty-two_
separate and distinct letters.

Now the chances are, that, let a language possess as few elementary
articulate sounds as possible, an alphabet of only _twenty-two_ letters
will be insufficient.

Hence it may safely be asserted, that the original Semitic alphabet was
_insufficient_ for even the _Semitic_ languages.

s. 161. In this state it was imported into Greece. Now, as it rarely
happens that any two languages have precisely the same elementary
articulate sounds, so it rarely happens that an alphabet can be
transplanted from one tongue to another, and be found to suit. When such is
the case, alterations are required. The extent to which these alterations
are made at all, or (if made) made on a right principle varies with
different languages. Some _adapt_ an introduced alphabet well: others
badly.

Of the _twenty-two_ Phoenician letters the Greeks took but _twenty-one_.
The eighteenth letter, _tsadi_ [Hebrew: TS] was never imported into
Europe.

Compared with the Semitic, the _Old_ Greek alphabet ran thus:--

_Hebrew._ _Greek._

1. [Hebrew: '] [Alpha].
2. [Hebrew: B] [Beta].
3. [Hebrew: G] [Gamma].
4. [Hebrew: D] [Delta].
5. [Hebrew: H] [Epsilon].
6. [Hebrew: W] Digamma.
7. [Hebrew: Z] [Zeta].
8