Slavic, and others. The Italic became the parent of the modern alphabets
of Western Europe.

4. THE MEDIAEVAL SCRIPTS.--A variety of national scripts arose in the
establishment of the Teutonic kingdoms upon the ruins of the Roman Empire.
But the most magnificent of all mediaeval scripts was the Irish, which
exercised a profound influence on the later alphabets of Europe. From a
combination of the Roman and Irish arose the Anglo-Saxon script, the
precursor of that which was developed in the ninth century by Alcuin of
York, the friend and preceptor of Charlemagne. This was the parent of the
Roman alphabet, in which our books are now printed. Among other
deteriorations, there crept in, in the fourteenth century, the Gothic or
black letter character, and these barbarous forms are still essentially
retained by the Teutonic nations though discarded by the English and Latin
races; but from its superior excellences the Roman alphabet is constantly
extending its range and bids fair to become the sole alphabet of the
future. In all the lands that were settled and overrun by the
Scandinavians, there are found multitudes of inscriptions in the ancient
alphabet of the Norsemen, which is called the Runic. The latest modern
researches seem to prove that this was derived from the Greek, and
probably dates back as far as the sixth century B.C.The Goths were early
in occupation of the regions south of the Baltic and east of the Vistula,
and in direct commercial intercourse with the Greek traders, from whom
they doubtless obtained a knowledge of the Greek alphabet, as the Greeks
themselves had gained it from the Phoenicians.



CLASSIFICATION OF LANGUAGES.