600 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1907. 
deliberately neglected. In the same manner originated the sound 
value of E, H, and O. 
' The Cypriote vowel signs for e and o do not seem to have found 
a place with the Canaanites. But we unmistakably recognize the 
presence of the Cypriote i and u with the Canaanites. I shall in 
the first place discuss the origin of the Canaanite forms from the 
Cypriote. 
The sign for i in Cypriote is &%. The vertical insertion in the four- 
rayed star is sometimes more or less bent toward the upper right 
- ray X; in some places we also met with the form &, in which the 
vertical insertion is so inclined as to be parallel with the upper left 
ray. In this & I discern the prototype of the Canaanite 7. In 
order to write the Cypriote X, the pen had again to set in thrice as 
in the *. The sign was cursively abbreviated by first forming the 
vertical insertion with the slanting bar running from right above to 
left below in one stroke, X. Here, too, we do not know where this 
transformation was first effected, but it may be surmised that the 
above-mentioned secondary forms K and X& were already prelimi- 
naries to the cursive &. This cursive & was then modified into Z. 
In this last development, as exhibited by the Canaanite alphabet, 
the tendency toward cursive writing is likewise unmistakable. For 
after the ray to the right below was adjoined to the principal bar, 
the hand had to hasten toward the left side to write the next follow- 
ing letter in order to finish the last ray, 1. e., that to the left above. 
The sign for u in Cypriote is T, Y, Y and similar forms. Here 
the identity with the Canaanite Y is evident; only that in the latter 
an older phase of graphic development seems to be preserved. In 
Greek Y became Iand v which is nearer the Cypriote form. 
The Canaanite use of the two-vowel signs agrees with that of 
Cypriote in so far as they serve to express diphthongs; so, for instance, 
in the Moabite (Mesha) Stone °2°2 95°22 (bimai, bebaithah). I shall, 
however, not assert that this Canaanite use of Y and Z is directly 
connected with that of Cypriote, neither shall I deny it. In fact, I 
leave the question of the oldest use of the matres lectionis (the vowel 
letters) entirely aside. 
In their polyphone system the Canaanites had the same trouble 
with the monophone syllable-forming vowels Z and ‘7, as they had 
with the 4. In the same way that they changed the value of 4, as 
shown above, so they also changed that of Z and Y. Of the syllable- 
forming vowels, i and u became polyphone syllabic signs for i (= con- 
sonant y) and u (= wor v) with attached a, e, i, o, and u (7: = ya, 
ye, etc.; 11= wa, we, etc.) and also signs for iand ualone. The uni- 
formity of the system was thus also here preserved. 
Alongside the sign X for syllable-forming i there was already in 
Cypriote a syllabic sign for ia: QQ. This seems to have been 
entirely suppressed by the Canaanites through the X (Z) having been 
