Elements of South-Indian Palæography, from the Fourth to the Seventeenth Century A.D. c4.44

c4.44

⁵ Spiegel, "Grammatik der Huzvaresch Sprache", p. 26: "die späteren Alphabete Erāns verrathen einen Semitischen Ursprung, und mögen daher vielleicht aus einem früheren aramäischen Alphabete stammen, das. bereits unter den Achämeniden neben der Keilschrift im Gebrauche war." So Sayce ("Principles of Comparative Philology" p. 196): "Clay contract tablets in the British Museum, written in Assyrian cuneiform with Aramaic dockets, indicate that from the reign of Tiglath Pilaser (B. C. 745) downwards Aramaic was the language of commerce throughout the Assyrian world." Lenormant "Essai" I., 1. pl. ix., gives specimens of this character which is very near the Phœnician.