of printing and the typewriter, and the extensive use of 
     shorthand-writing, is the best evidence for its suitability 
     to serve the needs of the whole modern world. It is this 
     simplicity, adaptability and suitability which have secured 
     the triumph of the alphabet over the other systems of 
     writing.
          Alphabetic writing and its origin constitute a story 
     in themselves; they offer a new field for research which 
     American scholars are beginning to call “alphabetology.” 
     No other system of writing has had so extensive, so 
     intricate and so interesting a history.

     Diringer’s observation that the alphabet is “now 
universally employed by civilized peoples” is a bit tautological 
since it is by alphabet alone that men have detribalized or 
individualized themselves into “civilization.” Cultures can rise far