CURIOUS THINGS ABOUT THE ALPHABET.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 231, 29 September 1928, Page 3 (Supplement)

CURIOUS THINGS ABOUT THE ALPHABET.

The letters of the alphabet appear practically in the same order in nearly all languages, but how they came to be in this order nobody knows. The number of letters in the alphabets of different- languages varies considerably. English and German have 20 letters; French, 25; Spanish. 27; Italian, 21; Russian, 33; Greek, 24; Latin and Hebrew, 22; Celtic, 17; Arabic, 28; Turkish, 28; Sanskrit, 49; Armenian, 38.

Of course, iu all languages the alphabet is imperfect, and various letters have to stand for more than one sound each. In our own English language, for instance, it is estimated that there are 42 sounds, and only 26 letters to represent them. Even then some of the letters, ur signs, are only repetitions of others, as 0. which could always be represented by either K or S. Ch, on the other hand, has no letter to represent its sound.

Tliere is one verse In ttie Bible that contains all the letters of the alphabet except J, which was originally the same letter as I. It is in Ezra vii., 21, and the little-u?ed letters X and Z are found in the names Artaxerxes and Ezra. Here is a sentence that contains all the letters of the alphabet: The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. This is another sentence with the same feature: John P. Brady gave me a black walnut box of quite small size. Of course; some of the letters occur several times. Two English words contain all the vowels in the alphabet in their right order—facetious and abste-