< Page:EB1911 - Volume 01.djvu
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
⁠
727
ALPHABET

is remarkable. In the Dvenos inscription the perfect of facio is feced; here it is a reduplicated form with the same vowel as the present. The spelling also is interesting. The symbol K is still in ordinary use, and not merely used for abbreviations as in the classical age. But most remarkable is the representation of Latin F

by FH. The reason for this is clear. The value of F in the Greek alphabet is w and not f as in Latin. Greek had no sound corresponding to Latin F, consequently an attempt is made by combining F and H to indicate the difference of sound. Etruscan uses FH in the same way. As Latin, however, made the symbol V indicate not only the vowel sound u, but also the consonant sound v (i.e. English w), the sign for the digamma F was left unemployed, and as FH was a cumbrous method of representing a sound which did not exist in Greek, the second element came to be left out in writing. Thus F came to be the representative of the unvoiced labiodental spirant instead of that for the bilabial voiced spirant. Whether the form fefaked was ever good Latin in Rome may be doubted, for the Romans, in spite of the few miles that separate Praeneste from Rome, were inclined to sneer at the pronunciation and idiom of the Praenestines (cf. Plautus, Trin. 609, Truc. 691; Quintilian i. 5, 56) (c) The last, and in some respects the most important, of these records was found in 1899 under an ancient pavement in the Comitium at the north-west corner of the Roman Forum. Forum inscriptions. It is engraved upon the four sides and one bevelled edge of a pillar, the top of which has been broken off. As the writing is βουστροφηδόν, beginning at the bottom of the pillar and running upwards and down again, no single line of the inscription is complete. Probably more than half the pillar is lost, so that it is not possible to make out the sense with certainty. The inscription is probably not older than that on the fibula from Praeneste, but has the additional interest of being undoubtedly couched in the Latin of Rome. The surviving portion of the inscription contains examples of all the letters of the early alphabet, though the forms of F and B are fragmentary and doubtful. As in the Praenestine inscription, the alphabet is still the western (Chalcidian) alphabet. K is still in use as an ordinary consonant, and not limited to a symbol for abbreviations as in the classical period. The rounded form of γ is found with the value of G in RECEI, which is probably the dative of rex. H has still the closed form , M has the five-stroke form, S is the three-stroke , tending to become rounded. R appears in the Greek form without a tail,and V and Y are both found for the same sound. The manner of writing up and down instead of backwards and forwards across the stone is obviously appropriate to a surface which is of considerable length, but comparatively narrow, a connected sense being thus much easier to observe than in writing across a narrow surface where, as in the gravestones of Melos, three lines are required for a single word. The form of the monument corresponds to that which we are told was given to the revolving wooden pillars on which the laws of Solon were painted. That the writing of Solon’s laws, which was βουστροφηδόν, was also vertical is rendered probable by the phrase ὸ κάτωθεν νόμος in Demosthenes’ speech Against Aristocrates, § 28, for which Harpocration is unable to supply a satisfactory explanation.

The differentiation of the Roman alphabet from the Greek is brought about (a) by utilizing the digamma for the unvoiced labiodental spirant F; (b) by dropping out the aspirates θ, φ, χ ( in the Chalcidian alphabet, whence the Roman is derived) from the alphabet proper and employing them only as numerals, θ () being gradually modified till it was identified with C as though the initial of centum, 100. Differentiation of Roman from Greek alphabet. Similarly became in time identified with M as though the initial of mille, 1000, and the side strokes of χ in the above form were flattened out till it became , and ultimately L, 50. (c) After 350 B.C., at latest, there was in Latin no sound corresponding to Z, which was therefore dropped. In the Chalcidian alphabet the symbol for x was placed after the symbols common to all Greek alphabets, a position which X retains in the Latin (and also in the Faliscan) alphabet. K in time passed out of use except as an abbreviation, its place being taken by C, which, as we have seen, is in the earliest inscription still g. Three points here require explanation: (1) Why K fell into disuse: (2) Why C took the place of K; (3) why the new symbol G was put in the place of the lost Z. It is clear that C must have become an equivalent of K before the latter fell out of use. There is some evidence which seems to point to a prouunciation of the voiced mutes which, like the South German pronunciation of g, d, b, but slightly differentiated them from the unvoiced mutes, so that confusion migh easily arise. The Etruscans, who were separated from the Romans only by the Tiber, gradually lost the voiced mutes. But another cause was perhaps more potent. C and IC, as k was frequently written, would easily be confused in writing, and Professor Hempl (Transactions of the Chalcidian Philological Association for 1899, pp. 24 ff.) shows that the Chalcidian form of ζ— developed into shapes which might have partaken of the confusion. Owing to this confusion, the new symbol G, differentiated from C, took the place of the useless . In abbreviations, however, C remained as before in the value of G, as in the names Gaius and Gnaeus. Y and Z were added in the last century of the republic for use in transliterating Greek words containing υ and ζ.[1]

The dialect which was most closely akin to Latin was Faliscan. The men of Falerii, however, regularly took the side of the Etruscans in wars with Rome, and it is clear that the civilization of the old Falerii, destroyed for its rebellion in 241 B.C., was Etruscan and not Roman in character. Peculiar to this alphabet is the form for f—. Much more important than the scanty remains of Faliscan is the Oscan alphabet. The history of this alphabet is different from that of Rome. It is certain from the symbols which they develop or drop that the people of Campania and Samnium borrowed their alphabet from the Etruscans, who held dominion in Campania from the 8th to the 5th century B.C. Previous to the Punic wars Campania had reached a higher stage of civilization than Rome. Unfortunately, the remains of that civilization are very scanty, and our knowledge of the official alphabet outside Capua, and at a later period Pompeii, is practically confined to two important inscriptions, the tabula Agnonensis, now in the British Museum, and the Cippus Abellanus, which is now kept in the Episcopal Seminary at Nola. Of Etruscan origin also is the Umbrian alphabet, represented first and foremost in the bronze tablets from Gubbio (the ancient Iguvium). The Etruscan alphabet, like the Latin, was of Chalcidian origin. That it was borrowed at an early date is shown by the fact that most of its numerous inscriptions run from right to left, though some are written βουστροφηδόν. That it took over the whole Chalcidian alphabet is rendered probable by the survival in Umbrian and Oscan, its daughter alphabets, of forms which are not found in Etruscan itself. This mysterious language, despite the existence of more than 6000 inscriptions, and the publication in 1892 of a book written in the language and handed down to us by the accident of its use to pack an Egyptian mummy, remains as obscure as ever, but apparently it underwent very great phonetic changes at an early period, so that the voiced mutes B, D, G disappeared. Of the existence of the vowel O there is no evidence. If it ever existed in Etruscan, it had been lost before the Oscans and Umbrians borrowed their alphabets. On the other hand, both of their alphabets preserve B and Umbrian G in the form >. Etruscan also retained this symbol in the form , and utilized it exactly as Latin did to replace . Oscan, in order to represent D, introduced later a form , thus creating confusion between the symbols for d and for r. This form was adopted for d because had already been borrowed from Etruscan as the symbol for r, although is also found on Etruscan inscriptions. For the Greek digamma Etruscan used both and , but the former only was borrowed by the other languages. Etruscan, like Latin, used (from right to left) to represent the sound of Latin F, but, unlike Latin, adopted not as the single symbol. This form it then wrote as two lozenges , whence developed a later sign, , which is used also in Umbrian and Oscan. As the old digamma was kept, this new sign was placed after those borrowed from the Chalcidian alphabet. Similarly it used and for the Chalcidian ζ; Umbrian borrowed the first, Oscan the second form. The form for h was still closed , which Etruscan passed on to Oscan, while Umbrian modified it to . The form for m has five strokes; from a later form the Oscan form was borrowed. Of the two sibilants, M and or S, Oscan adopted only , Umbrian both M and the rounded form S. is found on Etruscan inscriptions, but not in the alphabet series preserved; neither Umbrian nor Oscan has this form. T appears in Etruscan as , , and X; of these Umbrian borrows the first two, while Oscan has a form T like Latin. Etruscan took over the three Greek aspirates, θ, φ, χ in their Chalcidian forms; θ survives in Umbrian as , the others naturally disappear. Both Umbrian and Oscan devised two new symbols. Umbrian

  1. ↑ Gardthausen “Ursprung und Entwicklung der grieschen-lateinischen Schrift” (Germanisch-romanische Monatsschrift, i. (1909), pp. 337 ff.) argues for a “proto-Tyrrhenian” alphabet from which Etruscan, Umbrian and Oscan descended as one group, and Faliscan and Latin as the other. Evidence in favour of such a position for the Latin alphabet is not forthcoming.
This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.