The alphabet of Phœnicia and Palestine being adapted to the language of Greece, the first change took place in the manner of writing. The Phœnicians wrote from right to left; the Greeks from left to right. Besides this, the following principles were recognised;—
a. Letters for which there was no use were left behind. This was the case, as seen above, with the eighteenth letter, tsadi.
b. Letters expressive of sounds for which there was no precise equivalent in Greek, were used with other powers. This was the case with letters 5, 8, 16, and probably with some others.
c. Letters of which the original sound, in the course of time, became changed, were allowed, as it were, to drop out of the alphabet. This was the case with 6 and 19.
d. For such simple single elementary articulate sounds as there was no sign or letter representant, new signs, or letters, were invented. This principle gave to the Greek alphabet the new signs φ, χ, υ, ω.
e. The new signs were not mere modifications of the older ones, but totally new letters.
All this was correct in principle; and the consequence is, that the Greek alphabet, although not originally meant to express a European tongue at all, expresses the Greek language well.
[§ 162]. But it was not from the Greek that our own alphabet was immediately derived; although ultimately
it is referable to the same source as the Greek, viz., the Phœnician.
It was the Roman alphabet which served as the basis to the English.