596 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1907. 
in Cypriote, 8 F Ti. e., Ka-ta-l. And just as the Cypriote writing 
has only such syllabic signs (aside from the five vowels) as express 
the combination of a consonant with a succeeding vowel, so also in 
the Canaanite p is ka, not ak. Signs for composed (closed) syl- 
lables (bak, daf, etc.) are used in neither, nor are double conso- 
nants considered in either. In Canaanite we find 5yp, i. e., ki-(t)te-1, 
and in Cypriote F + G x, i. e., A-720-(A)Aw-v2, Finally, the 
Canaanite reads from right to left just as does the Cypriote. 
I am unaware whether anyone has heretofore thought of the pos- 
sibility of the Canaanite alphabet being dependent upon the Cypriote 
syllabic writing, but certainly no attempt has been made to follow 
up this theory; for what Roeth adduced in this direction in Die 
Proklamation des Amasis an die Cyprier, pp. 1 ff, may, in my opinion 
be passed over. 
The Cypriote syllabic writing is by no means perfect and definite. 
This it can not possibly be, since it has signs only for open syllables 
and nothing else, and it is therefore necessary to employ syllabic signs 
to indicate consonants. Each Cypriote syllabic sign is equivocal, 
inasmuch as it can express both a certain open syllable and also 
merely the initial consonant of such syllable. Certain rules have 
developed on this point (which need not be detailed here), but these 
only operate when, for instance, the syllabic sign “ po” is to be used 
for “ p,” and not for the syllabic sign “ pi” or “ pa,” but they do not 
definitely indicate that “ p ” alone is to be pronounced, and not “ po.” 
This can be determined only by a knowledge of the Greco-Cypriote 
dialect. So, for instance, we find ‘$7 Ff), i. e., po-to-li-ne, but only 
through a knowledge of the language and of the context do we learn 
that these syllabic signs are to be combined into z70Azyv (ptolin), and 
not into ptoline. To one who is not an expert in Cypriote writings 
it will be of little use to state that in this word only the syllabic signs 
“po” and “ne” should be used for the consonants “p” and “n” 
alone. In the same manner it can not be inferred from the writing 
alone that ‘GF @ (Y) i. e., mi-si-to-ne is to be understood as pzoS vy 
(misthon), or HJ FJ VY 4Ni.e., ka-te-se-ta-se, as KatéoTace (katestase) 
the rule also prohibited the employment in these words of other 
syllabic signs than “si,” “ne,” and “se” for the consonants 9, v, 
and o. 
We learn from fixed academic rules that the Cyprians of Greek 
tongue, or perhaps even those inhabitants of Asia Minor from whom 
the Cyprians had received their syllabic writing, had so far pro- 
gressed in discerning the component parts of the syllable that they 
took the first groping step to pass from the syllabic writing to the 
alphabet. To be sure, they already had in the signs for the five 
vowels, a, e, 1, 0, and u, signs for five simple sounds; but as a matter 
of fact they employed these vowel signs only where the vowel in itself 
Ve 
