On the Orthography of Hebrew Words. 93 



is not agreed. According to Gesenius, Sin may have been an inter- 

 mediate sound between Samekh and Shin. In Syriac and Arabic 

 for the two characters only one exists, and the ancient Greeks and 

 Romans adopted only one character. 



Oaytn. 



The sound of y is peculiar to the Shemitish languages. The an- 

 cient Greeks had no occasion for the sound, and adopted the cha- 

 racter to represent the vowel o. We will represent the Hebrew 5> by 

 the Roman o, because this character is ultimately derived from the 

 Shemitish 5>, and by so doing we merely restore to o its original con- 

 sonant power.* 



Kdph. 



J? is represented by k (with a dot under it) to distinguish it from 

 Kaph which is represented by k. How these letters differed in sound 

 is not agreed. Some suppose Kaph to have been sounded as if fol- 

 lowed by y, as in Eng. kind, when pronounced kyind. One of these 

 letters was rejected by the Greeks, but both were received into the 

 Roman alphabet as k and q. We express the difference by a dot, as 

 in the case of Sin and Samekh. The use of c and k, or of k and q, 

 would lead to ambiguity, or to the supposition that we mean to de- 

 signate the difference between these sounds, which we do not. 



Pe. 



S had two sounds, according as it was written with or without a 

 Daghesh. a (without a Daghesh) was aspirated and sounded like ph 

 or f. s (with a Daghesh) was unaspirated and sounded like p. 



We will represent O unaspirated by ph rather than f, (1.) be- 

 cause this combination of letters is already extensively used for this 

 purpose ; and (2.) because in this way we adopt an uniform mode of 

 representation for all the aspirates. 



Tsade, Resh. 



is is naturally represented by ts, and ^ by r. 



Sin, Shin. 



to is naturally represented by s, and id by s. 



* The necessity of representing j; in some way, has led Antonius ah Aquila, to 

 employ a, De Sacy in some cases ('), and Professor Stuart to use the. Hebrew cha- 

 racter itself. See De Sacy, Gram. Arabe, tome i. pp. 34, 62. Stuart's Heb. Gram. 

 2d, 3d, and 4th editions. 



