Page:The Aryan Origin of the Alphabet.djvu/73

Rh seen in Fig. 2 with the necessary modifications in view of the new evidence for the antiquity of the letters U, W, X and Z.

Fig. 2. — Scientific order of the Alphabet Letters (As on a "Horn-book" board).

This appears to indicate that originally the letters were arranged for learners in perpendicular rows, according to their phonetic class qualities, and that later on they were read transversely across the board, which gave them the apparently capricious and irregular order in the modern alphabet. The old letters, the sibilant S and the liquid