140 REPORT—1857. 
substituted Samech for the Sin that was originally written. That SK was the ori- 
ginal value of Samech is confirmed by the value of the Greek letter, which corre- 
sponds in figure and position to the latter; which is KS, and which was originally 
SK. It is also confirmed by the etymological relation of FID, a bowl,” with cxagn, 
and FID, a “ sword,” with éipos. What the Ephraimites in Judges xii. 6 said, whe2 
desired to say Shibboleth (which they, like the Assyrians, could not pronounce), must 
have been Skibboleth. It is SK, and not S, that a person would naturally utter, 
who was making an unsuccessful attempt to pronounce SH. 
Prior, however, to the twelfth century B.c., the date of the earliest existing 
Assyrian inscriptions, Samech had acquired the secondary value of ST. In those 
forms of Assyrian verbs where a T was introduced after the first radical, when the 
first radical was Shin, Samech was used for the double letter. Thus we have }2D8 
from %~, representing astakan. Also when the affixes of the third person, all of 
which begin with S, were attached tu nouns ending in T, we have Samech for the 
ST, which, according to a well-known Semitic analogy, would be substituted for TS. 
That K is particularly liable to be replaced by T, which is easier to be pronounced, 
appears from the languages of many Polynesian tribes, and from the first attempts 
at speaking made by children among ourselves. The passage of K into T appears in 
the verbal pedigree of the pronoun of the second person (fig. 11). It is evident that 
the T was derived from an original K in the three languages independently of one 
another. In the Egyptian, T was substituted in the feminine gender, the original 
harsher sound being retained for the masculine. In the Semitic languages, T was 
substituted for K in the independent pronoun, and in the preformatives and afform- 
atives of verbs, K being retained for the possessive and objective affixes. In the 
Japhetic languages K has disappeared altogether, being everywhere replaced by a 
dental. The values of Samech were, therefore, originally SK only; from about the 
13th century B.c., SK and ST, the latter gradually supplanting the other ; and from 
the 6th century B.c., S. 
Zayin expressed the sonant or softened sound corresponding to the second value 
of Samech, that is ZD; and from the 6th century B.c., Z. 
Tsaddi expressed the strengthened sound corresponding to the above. After the 
6th century 8.c., it represented the Arabic Sad, and before that date, the combina- 
tion of that letter with Teth. 
Teth represented a strengthened TH. With the vowel a after it Teth is generally 
confounded, in Assyrian writing, with Daleth; and Tsaddi always with Zayin ; but 
they are distinguished before the other vowels. Perhaps it may be fairly inferred 
from this, that tha was pronounced as in that, but thi and thu as in thin and thumb; 
always, however, with the peculiar Semitic strengthening of the consonant. 
Qoph is another strengthened letter, bearing the same relation to Gimel and Kaph, 
that Teth bears to Daleth and Tau. 
Heth must also have been a strengthened letter, being frequently substituted for 
Teth. \t may be conjectured, but is scarcely capable of proof, that the letters to 
which it was related were Ghayin, pronounced as in the name of Gaza, and He. 
Aleph is usually considered to denote the simple commencement of utterance, or 
the absence of any breathing or semivowel; and this certainly seems to have been 
its value in all the Assyrian inscriptions which are extant. If, however, we go back 
to the infancy of language, we shall see reason to think that 4leph had once a posi- 
tive value. It expresses the preformative of the first person singular; sometimes 
alone, and at other times with a vowel, which is evidently one of connexion. As T 
represents the pronoun of the second person singular, and N that of the first person 
plural, so Aleph represents that of the first person singular; and this must have 
been originally something substantial, not a mere negation as at present. 
The character which represents the preformative with the vowel a as a link of 
connexion, is that which as an ideograph denotes ‘“‘ water” (fig. 3). It represents 
other Hebrew letters as well as 4leph. In fig. 12 it has this value, that is &; but 
Tr 
in fig. 13 it represents J; in figs. 14 and 15 1; and in fig. 15 it also represents }. 
Tr Tr Tr 
It is probable that the Hebrew words in which it represents initial ya were originally 
