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.
[§ 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 Phœnician.
At a certain period the alphabet of Palestine, Phœnicia, 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.