330 Form of the Pehlevi Alphabet [June, 



the Greek, chiefly because I find upon the later series of coins bearing 

 native words in Greek characters, which I described in my last 

 Essay, (Journal, III. p. 436 ;) that every word there ended in o -, 

 and, as I then remarked, M. Buunouf explains that sound, in the Zend, 

 to be the constant representative of the masculine nominative termi- 

 nation of the Sanscrit as, or Greek os.* The letter T never occurs in 

 the middle of a word, as far at least as my experience proves. Some 

 resemblance exists between it and the Zend o ; but no letter in the 

 known Pehlevi alphabets can be compared with it. 



4. o or if, m. Of this letter we have three examples ; one initial 

 in Menandrou ; two medial, in Ermaiou and Antimachou : there can be 

 no doubt therefore of its being equivalent to m ; although it differs 

 essentially from all the recognized forms of this letter in the Pehlevi 

 alphabets of sculptures and coins. It should be remarked, however, 

 that in the case of Menandrou, it is affected with a vowel mark, UJ ; 

 which, for reasons afterwards to be brought forward, I suppose to be 

 the short i or kasr. Sometimes a dot is seen under this letter, which 

 may have the power of some other vowel, probably the short a. 



5. A, z, j, or y. This letter occurs in Azou, "PA9, and in Ermaiou 

 TPAU^O 1 : wherein it represents the sound of z and of y. It is analo- 

 gous therefore to the Sanscrit ^, which is pronounced both as j and y. 

 The Greek and the Hebrew have only the letter z for the former 

 sound. Nothing like this letter is found in the other Pehlevi alphabets, 

 in the same position. 



6. J 1 , p. Of this character, two examples are found ; one in Apollo- 

 dotou, *P s li<i) 1 9 ; the other in Philoxenou, V P£ ,+ 1 > H P where it probably 

 stands in lieu of the aspirated p. 



7. i, n. Of this letter we find instances in Menandrou, *P££U> 

 (Minano ?) and in the example of Philoxenou last cited. There are 

 others less decided, and some uncertainty prevails through the appa- 

 rent substitution occasionally of an / for an n. The Pehlevi alphabet 

 of sculptures has nearly the same form of n. 



8. "1, *2, I, ?, 1., un. In the Chaldaic, and its derivative alphabets, 

 so much similitude exists between the characters representing k, b, d, 

 and r, that it is sometimes difficult to distinguish them. On the 

 earlier and more perfect coins before us, this difficulty is increased 

 much by the circumstance of the dies having been cut by Greek artists, 

 who were in all probability ignorant of the Pehlevi tongue, and who 

 therefore must have copied carelessly from imperfect samples furnished 



* " Dans les anciens mamiscrits Zend, 6 final repr^sente la syllable Sanscrite 

 as, comme en Pali et en Pracrit,.. . . I'd long se trouve d' ordinaire a la fin d'un 

 mot." — Obs. sur la gramm. de Bopp, par M. Eug. Burnouf. 



