On the Origin of the Indian Brahma Alphabet c8.55
On the Origin of the Indian Brāhma Alphabet c8.55
- Language
- English
c8.55
No 20. The oldest representatives of the Semitic *Taw* appear in the dental *tha* (Col. IV, a), which consists of the old Assyrian [60] Aramaic *Taw* (Col. I, a) of the 8th century B. C.,⁴ or of a slight modification of the very similar Saqqārah letter (Col. I, b) (turned round from the right to the left) *plus* the bar of aspiration on the right, about which more will be said below, and in the lingual *ṭa* (Col. IV, b—c), where the second stroke on the right in *b* and on the left in *c* denotes the organic difference or, as the Hindus would say, the difference in the Varga. In the second form of *ṭa* (Col. IV, c) the bar, which originally stood at the side, has been added at the top, and out of such a form the dental *ta* (Col. III)