272 Rev. Dr. Watt on the different Kinds of Cuneiform Writing 
is to be preferred immeasurably to the united force of all the oriental evidence 
that can be brought to bear upon the same subject. 
Guided by the principle laid down in the foregoing paragraph, I am enabled 
to point out two very striking indications of connexion between the cuneiform 
and Shemitic systems of vocalization, in addition to the one previously discovered 
by the late Dr. Beer. In the first place, then, the three cuneiform vowel-letters 
have, each of them, two values, the very same as belong to respectively the cor- 
responding matres lectionis of Shemitic writing; that is, they are occasionally 
employed to denote, the first of the set, e instead of a; the second, e instead of 
7; and the third, o instead of w. Of the use of the first to express e, we have 
instances in the cuneiform designations of ‘ Media’ and * Persia,’ which should 
not be transcribed, as they have been by Major Rawlinson through reliance on 
comparatively modern authorities, ‘ Mada’ and * Parsa,’ but rather ‘ Meda’ and 
‘ Persa,’* in accordance with the pronunciation of those names transmitted to 
us by Herodotus; and by virtue of which the vowel-letter in question, which 
immediately follows the initial character in the case of each of the groups alluded 
to, comes to have in those groups the phonetic value of e instead of a. Of 
the use of the second cuneiform vowel-letter to denote e, we have instances in 
the cuneiform groups for the names ‘ Armenia’ and ‘ Arbela,’ deciphered 
‘Arming’ and ‘Arbira’ by Major Rawlinson, but which should rather be 
transcribed * Armena’ and ‘ Arbera;’ as the former name is written Appeva 
by Herodotus, and the latter ApSeAa by several Greek authors of less ancient 
standing ; in conformity with which authorities the vowel-letter in question has 
the phonetic value of e¢ instead of ¢ in the cuneiform groups just specified. The 
Major, indeed, to support his reading of this vowel-letter in the former group, 
appeals to an older authority than he usually employs, the Chaldean expression for 
« Armenia’ in the paraphrase of Amos, iv. 3, given in Jonathan’s Targum, viz., 
39995, which he reads ‘ Harmini’ (in page 57 of his memoir) ; but if he had 
looked to the pointing of the word in that place, he would have seen that it 
* In transcriptions of cuneiform designations of words into better known writing, I make use 
of italics for the expression of such vowels as are not represented by letters separately appro- 
priated to them in the original groups, but are united with the preceding powers respectively, to 
constitute the phonetic values of characters that are in those instances employed, not as mere 
consonants, but as syllabic signs. 
