There are said to be no less than 3425 known languages in use in the world, of which 937 are Asiatic, 588 European, 276 African, and 1624 American languages and dialects. By calculation from the best dictionaries, for each of the following languages there are about 20,000 words in the Spanish, 22,000 in the English, 38,000 in the Latin, 30,000 in the French, 45,000 in the Italian, 50,000 in the Greek, and 80,000 in the German. In the estimate of the number of words in the English language it includes, of course, not only the radical words, but also derivatives, except the preterites and participles of verbs; to which must be added some few terms which, though set down in the dictionaries, are either obsolete or have never ceased to be considered foreign. Of these about 23,000, or nearly five-eighths, are of Anglo-Saxon origin. The alphabets of different nations contain the following number of letters:—English, 26; French, 23; Italian, 20; Spanish, 27; German, 26; Sclavonic, 27; Russian, 41; Latin, 22; Hebrew, 22; Greek, 24;[8] Arabic, 28; Persian, 32; Turkish, 33; Sanscrit, 50; Chinese, 214. Anthony Brewer (1617) thus characterized those best known:— “The ancient Hebrew, clad with mysteries; The learned Greek, rich in fit epithets, Blest in the lovely marriage of pure words; The Chaldean wise; the Arabian physical; The Roman eloquent; the Tuscan grave; The braving Spanish, and the smooth-tong’d French.” The Hebrew language and letters are derived from the Phœnician, since Tyre, Sidon, &c. were distinguished cities in the age of Moses and Joshua. Even Abraham lived in their territory. Sanscrit is the basis of Hindoo learning, and said to be the first character. The most ancient Arabic, called Kufick, so named from Kufa, on the Euphrates, and is not now in use. The modern Arabic was invented by the Vizier Moluch, A. D. 933, in which he wrote the Koran. Armenian is used in Armenia, Asia Minor, Syria, Tartary, &c. It approaches the Chaldean or Syriac, and the Greek. Chaldean, Phœnician, or Syriac, ascribed to Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Moses, is the same as the Hebrew. The Coptic is an alphabet so called from Coptos in Egypt,—a mixture of Greek and Egyptian. Ethiopic, or Abyssinian, is derived from the Samaritan, or Phœnician. The Etruscan was the first alphabet used in Italy, and so called from the Etrusci, the most ancient inhabitants. Gothic: the most ancient characters under this name are attributed to Bishop Ulphilas. Cadmus, the Phœnician, introduced the first Greek alphabet into Bœotia, where he settled in B. C. 1500; though Diodorus says the Pelasgian letters were prior to the Cadmean. The Greeks called the Phœnicians _Pelasgü quasi Pelagi_, because they traversed the ocean and carried on commerce with other nations.