CANAANITE ALPHABET—PRETORIUS. 597 
constituted a syllable, so that the Cypriote vowel signs equaled, in 
the frequency of their use, all the syllables. So, in the Cypriote sys- 
tem also, the second components of a diphthong were as important 
as a syllable-forming vowel. 
It can hardly be assumed that it was the identical Cypriote known 
to us that was adopted and modified by the Canaanites, but it was 
probably an earlier form, akin to the present one, that they must have 
received from Asia Minor. But as we do not know this older form 
we must begin our investigation from the Cypriote. We may assume, 
on the ground of the Cypriote pattern, that the Canaanites hkewise 
discerned in the system of syllabic writing received by them the 
idea of the pure consonant, and also the possibility of each syllabic 
sign being used merely for the initial consonant of the syllable. 
Hence started the transforming and value-changing activity of the 
Canaanites. 
In Cypriote five syllabic signs were formed from each consonant. 
For instance, from p were formed pa, pe, pi, po, and pu, each of 
which could also merely signify p. The Canaanites, however, limited 
the number of syllabic signs to one. Thus for pa, pe, pi, po, pu, and 
p only one sign was chosen. 
If I am not mistaken, the ambiguity and indefiniteness already 
existing in Cypriote were carried to a complete uniformity or sim- 
plicity when the writing was carried over into a foreign language, 
since it became necessary to give some of these syllabic signs partica- 
lar sound values, partly such as were not represented at all in the 
Cypriote-Greek language, partly such as the Cypriote writing did 
not distinguish from other similar sound values. In consequence of 
this a considerable number of the old syllabic signs were used up. 
Since the Canaanites retained only’ one sign for all the open syllables 
attached to one and the same consonant and for the consonant itself, 
so the element common to all its applications, that is, its merely con- 
sonantal value, became very prominent in this sign. It seems as if 
the Canaanites created an alphabetic system while syllabic writing 
still existed, only to its great loss, because the new form was more 
indefinite. And yet, it must be said that it had the advantage of 
being simpler, and the overwhelming success of the Canaanite system 
shows that this advantage was much greater than the loss. 
Upon the basis laid by the Canaanites with this apparently alpha- 
betic system it was easy for the Greeks to create with a single stroke, 
as it were, a genuine alphabet. Semitic peoples, on the other hand, 
made various attempts to check the indefiniteness and ambiguity of 
the Canaanite system, but in principle they have not yet passed 
beyond the syllabic stage. 
Passing now to a detailed discussion of the origin of the Canaanite 
signs from the Cypriote, we must again recall that since in Cypriote 
