I.XIV.Decimal System 11.

The history of the alphabet among the Hellenes turns essentially on the fact that--assuming the primitive alphabet of 23 letters, that is to say, the Phoenician alphabet vocalized and enlarged by the addition of the -"id:u" -- proposals of very various kinds were made to supplement and improve it, and each of these proposals has a history of its own.

The most important of these, which it is interesting to keep in view as bearing on the history of Italian writing, are the following:--I.

The introduction of special signs for the sounds -- "id:xi" -- "id:phi" -- "id:chi".

This proposal is so old that all the Greek alphabets--with the single exception of that of the islands Thera, Melos, and Crete--and all alphabets derived from the Greek without exception, exhibit its influence.
At first probably the aim was to append the signs -- "id:CHI" = -- "id:xi iota", -- "id:PHI" = -- "id:phi iota", and -- "id:PSI"= -- "id:chi iota" to the close of the alphabet, and in this shape it was adopted on the mainland of Hellas--with the exception of Athens and Corinth--and also among the Sicilian and Italian Greeks.