On the Origin of the Indian Brahma Alphabet c8.49

c8.49

[59] No 17. The utilisation of the ancient *Qoph* for the expression of *kha* in the Brāhma alphabet suggests the conjecture that the curious Kharoṣṭhī sign for *kha* may be derived from the corresponding Aramaic character. And in the Serapeum inscription the *Qoph* (Col. I) has a form which comes very close to the Kharoṣṭhī *kha*. Only the upward stroke on the left is shorter and there is still a small remnant of the original central line of the ancient North-Semitic character. The smaller Teima inscription¹ (Euting, Col. 10) has a *Qoph*, in which the central pendant has been attached to the lower end of the curve (compare above the case of the Kharoṣṭhī *ha*). These two forms, it seems to me, furnish sufficient grounds, for the assumption, that in the earlier Aramaic writing the component parts of the looped *Qoph* (Col. II, c) were disconnected and arranged in a manner, which might lead to the still simpler Kharoṣṭhī sign, where the central pendant seems to have been added to the upstroke on the left in order to gain room for the vowel-signs. To this conclusion points also the first corresponding sign of the Saqqārah inscription (Euting, Col. 11, a) though the top has been less fully developed and the ancient central pendant has been preserved much better.²