(A) ALPHABET. The Romans derived their alphabet from the Greeks of Southern Italy, who used the Chaleidian. or Western Greek. alphabet. in which the letters differed in ninny respects from the Ionian, which became biter the common alphabet of the Hellenic world. Thus, the Cbal cidian alphabet bad the forms < , C for P ; D for A ; N for A ; I` for 11 for P; S for ? for Y. It used X for E instead of x, and for X instead of 1,G, and had also the digarntaa F and the Koppa 9 ; while the aspi rate was the full letter I1. From this the Ro mans adopted their original alphabet of twenty one letters: ABCDEF 7.11 I KLNINOPQRSTVX. They had no use for the aspirated consonants = ph, t3 = th, = c/c, and so accepted these letters only as numerals. Here C occupies the place and has the value of the Greek younfou, while the voiceless sound is represented wholly by K. But in course of time C came to take also the K sound; and K. thus becoming super fluous. was dropped except in a few special words and names, as Ralembe 'caw°. The fact that C now represented both K and C led to much confusion. and a new letter was invented by a slight modification, so that C was left with the voiceless sound of K, and G was used for the voiced sound, and substituted in the alphabet for Z. which had ceased to be used. A reminiscence
of the original sound of C as C is preserved, however, in the abbreviation C. = Gail's and • = Gnwas. In transcribing Greek words into Latin in the early period. V was used for V. and S (initial) and SS (medial) for c—as in Burgers = Pyrrhus, sona = atticissu = cirriKfilw. It was only in the first century BC. that the Greek letters and Z were actual ly introduced into Latin. The alphabet then had twenty-three letters: ABCDEFG111KLA1NOPQR STVXVZ. The Emperor Claudius (A.D. 41-54) endeavored to add three new letters, to represent the consonantal V (our IV), the modified V (as German (.7 with umlaut), and the sound PS; but these had only an ephemeral existence. Latin was first written boustrophcdon, that is, alter nately from right to left and from left to right. as on the primitive cippus found in the Forum. The fibula Prwaestino and the Dircaos inscription show it written from right to left ; hut later it was always written from left to right.