Those who trace the origin of the letter Q to the symbol of life, may 

 perhaps substitute a secondary hieroglyph for the primitive. For the 

 Chinese cva^ and hvac (English quick'), have, among other mean- 

 ings, the significations 'living, breathing/' 



fjl] (M. V. 1, p. 279), van, to cover, to overshadow. The cai 

 man"). The Chi ^ ^ nese have no initial R, but they usually 



fu^ form is /r\ (P^-Tl, "an envelope," inclosing jin. 



11 ^ ▼ n 



represent the r sound by I, v, or y. The affinities of r and y, of y 

 and j, of r and the sibilants (as in honor, honos, and the Sanscrit 

 visarga), — the resemblance of Greek A, X, in form, to Chinese jin, — 

 and the presence of the r sound in Sanscrit nara^s, Greek av^'/?, Latin 

 vir, are all curious and suggestive, and all point to this hieroglyph as 

 a not improbable origin of our letter R. The English words rindj 

 round, wind, wound, are, perhaps, derived from the primitive root 

 van. 



9^ (T. W.,'^ pp. 50, 170, &c.) V, to stop; terminated. The 



cai fu^ form is Q , of which the seal character is ^ (as may be 



seen in the com W pound pa% /^l; fpl -^' ^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ 



hieroglyphic original of our letter ^-^ ^ f^ E, it would appear that 

 either the English retains the original sound of that letter, or that 

 the same perversion of sound has occurred in Chinese as in English. 



t(M. V. 1, p. 11), i^, or yi, one. The cai fu form is — . The 

 resemblance of this character in form, sound, and numerical 

 value, to the Roman I, has been noticed by Hager,-j'in his interesting 

 comparison of the Chinese and Roman numerals. 



LJ -L- (T. W., p. 241), tu^ ( = -row), to spit. There is no d 



^ I sound in Chinese, but any alphabetic dental character 



would naturally be taken from some hieroglyph commencing with a 

 t sound. The above character, tu^, is compounded of the pu^ tssi 

 ("class character," key, or radical), cau, which signifies ''mouth," 

 and the primitive tu^, which gives sound. The idea conveyed by 

 the combined character may be thus interpreted : " The mouth- 

 radical, when it is pronounced tu^, signifies to spit" There are 

 many other characters commencing with a t sound, of which the 

 radical cau forms the ideal part, e. g., 



(T. W., p. 271), tu.g, y C (M.,v.l,p.349),ta% 



D I together. // inordinate desire 



=* Tung Wan, or "grouped letters," in Morrison's Dictionary. f p. xiv. 



