SO FAR WE HAVE STUDIED THE FIRST INVENTION OF THE
alphabet in the hands of the Semites, and there have been many
points in the account that are not certainly known. We shall now
examine how the Semitic alphabet spread abroad, finally to be-
come the chief world script. Here the events are more recent, but
although the general outlines are fairly sure, even here many de-
tails are obscure.

We begin with the Greek alphabet, which is the ultimate
source of all the alphabets now in use in Europe. A number of
factors make it clear that the Greek alphabet is an offshoot of
the Semitic. The form of the letters (especially in the earliest
Greek inscriptions) is closely similar to the early North Semitic.
The names of the letters in Greek are also very similar to the
Semitic names: but, although nearly all the words have meaning
in Semitic, they have none in Greek. The Greek order of the
letters is also the same as the North Semitic. The direction of
writing was originally from right to left in Greek, as in Semitic,
but the boustrophedon style, and then left to right writing,
superseded it. From the fifth century B.C. it was always from

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