ALPHABET, the usual or customary series of the several letters of a language. The word is derived from ccApa and ptra, the first and second letters of the Greek alpha bet. Letters being, properly speaking, written marks for denoting the elemental sounds of which spoken lan guage is composed, the number of letters in the alphabet of any people ought to correspond exactly to the number of elemental sounds which have a place in their speech. But in no language is this accurate coincidence found. Alphabets are sometimes defective, sometimes redund ant ; defective, from the want of distinct characters to mark all the varieties of elemental sounds : redundant, as well from the admission of more than one character to express the same sound, as from the introduction of characters, to denote not only the elemental, but also some of the compound sounds occurring in the language. Hence though the number of elemental sounds in use among different people, admits of no very great diver sity ; yet in the alphabets of different nations, the num ber, of letters varies considerably. The English alpha bet contains 26 letters ; the French contains 23 ; the Italian 20 ; the Spanish 27 ; the Dutch 26 ; the Sclavonir 27 ; the present Russian 41 ; the Latin 22 ; the Greek 24 ; the Hebrew, Samaritan, Syriac, and Chaldean, each 22 ; the Arabic 28 ; the Persic and Egyptian, or Coptic, each 32 ; the Turkish 33 ; the Georgian 36 ; the Ar menian 38 ; the Sanscrit 50 ; the Ethiopic, or Abys sinian 202 ; and the Indian or Brachmanic 240. The Chinese have written characters ; but these cannot 1w called alphabetic, being signs not of sounds but of ideas, and independent of any particular language ; they arc generally allowed to exceed 80,000. The Japanese, al though they read the Chinese characters in their own language, have at the same time a species of alphabet peculiar to themselves, consisting of about 50 charac ters." hi \N t., Have given Ilse to more discussion than rite origin of alphabetic characters. If toy are of human invention, they must he considered as one of the most fforts of the ingenuity ol inan. So wonder_ ul is the facility which they afford for recording human thought ; so ingenious, and at the same time so simple is the analysis which they furnish liar the sounds of ar ticulate speech, and for all the possihie variety of words ; that we might expect the author of this happy invention to have been immortalized by the grateful homage of succeeding ages, and hi, name delivered down to pos terity with the ample honours it so justly merited. But
the author and the iera of this admirable discovery are both lost in the darkness of remote antiquity. Even the nation to which the intention is due, cannot now he as certained. The Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Phoe nicians, the Persians, the Indians, have all laid claim to the honour of this Mseuvery ; and each have named its in“ mor among the remote, and probably fabulous per sonages that figure in the earlier ages of their history. In consequence of this uncertainty respecting the author of alphabetic writ rag, and the high value and extreme difficulty of the invention itsell, many have begin inclined to attribute this art to an immediate revelation from the Deity ; contending that it was communicated with other invaluable gifts from above, in remote ages, to the de scendants of Abraham, and probably to the patriarch :.loses, who was the author of the most ancient com positions in alphabetical writing that we at present pos sess. To enable our readers to estimate the validity of this opinion, it will be proper first to give a theoretical sketch of the natural progress of writing, from its rudest beginnings, as far as it can be traced, towards the invention of alphabetic characters ; illustrating what is obscure in the ancient history of the art, by the better known facts of modern times ; next to examine the pretensions of different nations to the honour of the in vention, in order to discover whether history will en able us to ascertain with any precision, the people among whom it originated ; and lastly, from the facts thus ex hibited, to examine the ground upon which the divine origin of alphabetic writing has been maintained.