It is generally agreed that writing was in troduced to the western nations by the Phcem clans, and it is commonly believed that the Phoenician system was based on the Egyptian but the comparative antiquity of the Egyptian and Assyrian or Akkadian, the hieroglyphic and cuneiform systems, cannot be definitely deter mined. The Egyptians attributed their writing to Thoth, and the first characters are said to have consisted of portraits of the gods. The cuneiform writing, which is cumbrous and ex ceedingly difficult to read, has been adapted to several languages, the Akkadian, the Assyrian, the Persian, etc., in a variety of ways, ideo graphic, syllabic and alphabetic. The Egyptians had three distinct kinds of writing, the hiero glyphic, the hieratic and the enchorial or de motic. The first is a mixed system, containing large numbers of signs of various characters, ideographic and phonetic. It is used chiefly for inscriptions on monuments and public buildings. The hieratic is a cursive hand abridged from the hieroglyphic for use on papyri. Both these forms were sacred, and the priestly caste only were initiated in them. The demotic was in troduced much later than the other forms. It was used for trading and common purposes, and in civil documents. The hieratic writing was more phonetic than the hieroglyphic, and the alphabetic character prevailed in the demotic. The first was written in any direction according to the form of the surface; the hieratic was at first written in columns, but afterward always in horizontal lines. The hieratic and demotic are read from right to left, but the individual letters are formed from left to right. The con nection between the Egyptian and the Semitic writings, to which the Phoenician belongs, is by no means unanimously admitted, many scholars holding that the resemblances between them may be explained by the independent adoption of common principles. The leading Semitic forms arc the Samaritan or ancient Hebrew, the Chaldee or East Aramaic, the Syriac or West Aramaic, and the Kufic or early Arabic, which continued to be used in manuscript for several centuries after the Mohammedan con quest, after which it was replaced by the Neshld or modern Arabic, which, with some slight modifications, is the same with the modern Persian. The Hebrew alphabet now in use, the Babylonian or East Aramaic, is en tirely consonantal. the vowel points being of modern origin. The Plarnician which forms the basis of the western languages was of a similar character. Phcenician writing was anciently represented to have been brought by a Cadmean colony to Bennis about the 16th century tic. (see ( Annus); and a certain num ber of the Greek letters are undoubtedly of Phanician origin. (See the section on lan guage and writing in the amide Gams). The Greeks at first wrote from right to left, and afterward adopted the method called boustro phidon, from the motion of the ox in plowing, that is, alternately from right to left, and from left to right. Writing from left to right was said to have been introduced in the time of Homer by Pronapides of Athens. The various modifications which the Phoenician or Pelasgian forms underwent in Italy are to be found by comparison of the Oscan, Etruscan, Umbrian and early Latin inscriptions. In the ancient Greek and Roman writing, and even for a time in the medixval writing of Europe, the words were not separated by spaces, and no punctua tion marks were used. The present cursive characters with modifications occur in Greek inscriptions of the age of Augustus. In media-val manuscripts a variety of styles were adopted in different epochs and countries and for different uses, to describe which in detail would require a separate treatise. In France the various styles were called after the dynas ties under which they prevailed: Merovingian, Carlovingian, Capetian, Valesian and Bourbon. There were also a variety of styles used for different purposes distinguished by such names as majuscule and minuscule (great and small letters), diplomatic minuscule and many others. Capitals were not then used as now to distin guish prominent words, but whole manuscripts were written in large or small capitals. There
were also a variety of mixed styles. From the 8th to the 11th centuries writing with tremble moots was affected in France. The diplomatic minuscule was a mixture of minuscule and cursive characters distinguished by an unusual prolongation of the long letters. Uncial letters, which prevailed from the 7th to the 10th cen turies, were rounded capitals with few hair strokes. The practice of ornamenting pages be gan in the 8th century, and the earliest manu scripts are also without title pages. The so called Gothic characters, in reality of scholastic origin, are merely fanciful deviations from the Roman types, such as the rounding of straight limbs, the substitution of angular facets for rounded forms, with hair-lined projections from the extremities contrasting with massive body-strokes. They became common in in scriptions from the 13th to the 15th centuries, and were employed in church-books from the time of Saint Louis. The Gothic cursive was introduced about the middle of the 13th cen tury. The modern German alphabet was also introduced in the 13th century. In England a variety of styles called Saxon prevailed in the early Middle Ages. An elegant mixed style was formed of a combination of Roman Lombardic and Saxon characters. The Norman style of writing came in with William the Conqueror. The old English form of Gothic dates from the middle of the 14th century. The English hand,' an adaptation of Saxon, pre vailed from the 16th century to the reign of George II In regard to the antiquity of writ inc in other parts of Europe, it was known to the Gauls before the time of Cesar; but no traces of the ancient writing remain, and whether it was derived from the Greeks or the Pherricians i. doubifnl There are slight traces of writing in Britain previous to the Roman period, I.ut if it were ernplosed by the Druids, as Ca-sar says, it may have existed without leav - • ing remains. The Germans claim the knowl edge of writing previous to their contact with the Romans; but in their case also we are with out early remains. The Runic alpilia'x-t used for many centuries in Denmark, Norway. etc. may have been employed long before the Christian era.
in the East we find one of tfie most striking contrasts in the history of language The Chinese, who have an ancient system of which they attribute to Fou-hi, have never reached the alphabetic system. Their charac:ers are syllabic, and as Chinese words are mete°. syllables, they are strictly ideographic They have been adopted in this way by peoples speak ing not only different dialects, but different lan guages, who apply the signs to words of dif ferent sound but of the same signification as the original. The Chinese system is said to c.,n tain 40,000 characters. They were origina7ly hieroglyphic, but from difficulty of interpreta tion have become conventional. There are, of course, certain general principles of combina tion and construction, but to master the whose system is said to be the work of a lifetime. Only a limited portion of it can, therefore. have any real existence as a medium of c..an munication. Sanskrit, on the other hand, pod sesses the most perfect known alphabet. The Hindus claim to have derived it from the gods, and call one form of it devancigori (cbvIne city). It is wholly different from the Semitic. and is founded on a mach more complete and subtle analysis of sound. Its consonant signs number 33, its vowel signs 14. They are ap plied with an analytical method which gives a power of distinction vastly superior to that of European alphabets, and which is greatly ad mired by scholars. Sanskrit is written from left to right. By means of its derivatives it is widet) diffused in the East. The Pali, which formes the sacred language of the Buddhists, has car ried it far beyond India. The Burmese Pah character is square, the Siamese round To complete the vagaries which have prevailed in the direction of writing, the Mexican picture writing was written from bottom to top. See ALPHABET ; CUNEINORM WRITING ETYMOLOGY: lillItOGLYP 11 ; LANGUAGE. SCIENCE 01 ; P ALS °GRAPH Y ; SPEECH.