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are considered the most valuable are transcriptions of foreign 

 words occurring in the papyri and on the monuments of this 

 period ; while the words themselves, or transcriptions of them 

 into Hebrew letters, are preserved in the Hebrew Scriptures, 

 and in many cases transcriptions into Greek letters are also 

 met with. As the alphabet, which, we previously found, 

 was formed from transcriptions of Greek and Roman proper 

 names into Egyptian characters made in the later ages, so it 

 is by similar transcription, made in the time and at the place 

 chosen for a standard, that this alphabet must be corrected and 

 completed. Transcriptions of Egyptian words into Hebrew 

 letters are a useful auxiliary to the other kind of transcrip- 

 tions, especially when they contain the peculiar Hebrew let- 

 ters which represent sounds unknown to the Greeks. Against 

 these, however, the objection lies, that they probably repre- 

 sent the pronunciation of Lower Egypt, which may have dif- 

 fered from that of Thebes. The transcription of Egyptian 

 words into Greek characters in Theban papyri of the Ptole- 

 maic period, and in the names of kings, are also to be taken 

 into consideration, chiefly, however, to supply the proper 

 sounds of those letters, the Hebrew representative of which 

 were ambiguous ; the Maronetic points, by which a certain 

 value was affixed to these letters, being shewn to be of no 

 authority. In the case of S and SH, where the two sounds 

 are expressed by the same letters in Greek as well as in 

 Hebrew, we are compelled to seek a distinction in the Coptic 

 equivalents of the ancient Egyptian words. It is maintained, 

 however, that, owing to the Coptic representing the Egyptian 

 language in its latest form, when many words had been cor- 

 rupted, it should not be admitted as evidence in opposition to 

 clear indications of the powers of the letters found in ancient 

 transcriptions. Interchanges of letters, if habitually made in 

 texts of the standard period, are admitted to be good evidence 

 of the identity in power of the letters interchanged. But it is 

 observed that the number of letters thus exchanged is very 



