as the Hebrew, the Arabic, and the scripts of India. It
will be noted that there are now four great families of alphabets. They
are the Aramean which have the Hebrew as their common ancestor; the
Ethiopic which now exists in but one individual; the Indian which now
exists in three groups related respectively to the Burmese, Thibetan,
and Tamil; and the Hellenic, deriving from the Greek. The relations of
these groups are well worth study as indicating ancient lines of
conquest, immigration, and literary influence. The lines of descent are
shown in the table on the following page.

[Illustration: Inscription in the Cretan linear character from a vase.]

GENEALOGY OF THE ALPHABET

{ { Hebrew.
{ { Syriac.
{ { Mongolian.
{ ARAMEAN. { Arabic.
{ { Pehlevi.
{ { Armenian.
{ { Georgian.
{
{ { ETHIOPIC. Amharic.
{ {
{ { { Burmese.
{ { { Siamese.
{ { { PALI. { Javanese.
{ { { { Singalese.
{ { { { Corean.
{ { {
{ { { { Tibetan.
{ { { { Kashmiri.
PHOENICIAN. { SABAEAN. { INDIAN. { NAGARI. { Gujarati.
{ { { { Marathi.
{ { { { Bengali.
{ { { { Malayan.
{ { {
{ { { { Tamil.
{ { { DRAVIDIAN. { Telugu.
{ { Canarese.
{
{ { Greek.
{ HELLENIC. { Latin.
{ { Russian.
{ { Coptic.

This table, based on the studies of Canon Isaac Taylor, is taken from
Clodd's "Story of the Alphabet."

CHAPTER