Abstract: (Notes on the History of Writing) The long history of choosing letters to match phonemes in various languages is never a straight, one-way journey. Attempts were made in order to find the best possible solutions and failures are to be accepted in order to observe the natural development of language and writing. Among huge failures in adopting a writing system is to be considered the so called “Linear B”, used for writing the oldest form of Greek language, the Mycenaean. This syllabic pattern is highly improper for the Greek language, characterised by frequent consonant clusters and regular final consonant. Some other borrowed sets of graphemes were more successful, without ever being completely suitable. Both the Greek and Latin alphabets display adjustments that sometimes have unexpected results when comparing their analogous lists of letters. Striking discrepancies are connected to letters H and X, present in both alphabets, with totally different phonetic values.