The Aryan origin of the alphabet : disclosing the Sumero-Phœnician parentage of our letters ancient & modern

54 ARYAN ORIGIN OF THE ALPHABET

end of the upright stem, was evidently a shorter way of writing the sign. And the later Z form, which appears also in ‘“‘Semitic’’ Phoenician was a still shorter and more cursive way of writing the sign without lifting the pen.

With this Sumerian parent sign is to be compared the somewhat analogous Sumerian sign == with the value of Za and meaning “jewel or shining stone.’’1 This sign might possibly also be written by two parallel bars intersected by a vertical stroke to indicate division of each bar into two, as was the case with the A water-sign in regard to its divided stroke (see Plate I).

In Old Persian cuneiform significantly, the sign is of the identical form of the I type (Plate II, col. 10). In Asokan script the signs read J and Jh are now seen to be derived from this Sumerian sign. In the Runes Z is represented by that form of letter by Ulfilas; but usually the somewhat angular S in the reversed direction is used for Z, which latter never appears as an initial letter. And in Sumerian Z freely interchanged with S and Sh.

i Br 11,721 ; PSL. 360: