■SEYFFARTH THE HIEROGLYPHIC TABLET OF POMPEIUM. 20I 



PRONUNCIATION OF THE COPTIC AND HEBREW LETTERS. 



OTT before and after vowels is the consonant iv, originated from 

 fi or n. fioini = OTTWin!. new^x^J- TOO-!r = 'in. 



s" is always £: (r^^M-o-i-'X = ^f^i, camelus^ Kameel ; coluinba = 

 <3'pOA\.ni. 



2C. is always k. cTA.MO-rA. = sccvmotv'A., acevo-re = y^p, Dcon = XJ^J, 



f2tojA. = ^3:. 



•©^ is th and ht. «^e=Toe, «^ei = Toei, «(oja. = DDPI- T^iAve = «^OT"AVG. 



?5> is ph and /ip. ^\ = t^onT, c^e = nSQ- f^poo = /^/r, hiems. 



2c is kh and hk. Cheops^ khp^ Xiax/', X''?_= nN3. 



-y is like ov, the consonant w, before and after a vowel. 



T is _cr and c. Comp. i^ajiniT n=a<5ct/e/^// ; e^cro'X = ^jy = [5^. 

 Comp. TAcr, Germ. Teig. 



s: is k and at; for it stands in numberless words instead of T (^), 

 3 (>^), p (^), as Gesenius (Lex. p. 778) has demonstrated. 

 Comp. \)n^ = -/a^d^co. 



j; the eye pV, i.e. "'y with J ephelisticum, the ancient jy. like the 

 Lat. ocu-lus, the Ital. occhio, the Ger. Oge (Auge), Sw. oga, 

 Russ. ako, Span, ojo, our eye (ege), expressed two different 

 sounds viz. o and ^, as Gesenius (Lex. 663) teaches. For the 

 Septuagint interpreteis expressed y sometimes by the vowels 

 o, a, e, sometimes by the consonant^, ^, e.g. in 0dya)p, Fd^a, 

 Fd/JLOfjpa, etc. The Arabians and Ethiopians pronounce the 

 same letter both as and ^, and distinguish them only by a 

 dot. Further, in many Hebrew words we find y expressed by 

 a vowel, but in many others by the equivalent consonants^, k, 

 q (J. n. ::. 5:. p). e.g. in nt:y = in2. y^j = J3j = inj- synN^spiN'. 

 yot:' = p-OL''. |Xi* = Njy. i'in = xy-iN. irDi* = «-iay. etc. These facts 

 demonstrate that the Hebrew letter y represented two difterent 

 sounds, o and g^ and this singular phenomenon, besides being 

 wrongly explained by Gesenius, is evidence that the author 

 of the alphabet designed the letters, of which the names com- 

 inenced with a vowel, to express sometimes the first vowel, 

 sometimes the first consonant. Qiiite the same is the case with n, 

 which corresponds with H in the Latin alphabet, and yet was 

 c.lled a vowel by Hieronymus. The word HHAlU- and the 

 like of the ancient Greeks clearly shows that n- corresponding 

 with /J,' signified sometimes the consonant k/i, /«, sometimes the 

 vowel fj. This is confirmed by the Arabians and Ethiopians 



