Alphabet Key To History Of Mankind

Author(s): David Diringer
Publisher: Hutchinsons Scientific and Technical Publications

Page 167

166
THE
ALPHABET
("short-headed") racial group, which also included the Hittites and other western Asiatic peoples.
The main inconveniences in the transcription of Greek words were as follows; (1) There was no distinction between long and short vowels. (2) There was no distinction between the sounds t, d, th; p, b, ph; g, k, kh.
Vowels
+vowel
"+"
1+"
m+
"
4
4+"
24
+"
1E
*+"
*
a
FT
"S
hh +
e
XXX**X
ΔΟΔΙΣ XXXH find Am
WN 488
X
XX
ED
づく
X
i
D'C
V
0
4++
2λ5
xla २८१८२२
ΜΥ
του χ
45N 22 22 D: KC
~X in E
兰
น
H ↓ W ATT AFT
int s** ТИ ИЛ
个个↑
rr
~~ AFTY Y
De
SS
ХХ
XXX
六
EE
Fig. 88-The Cypriote syllabary
(3) Closed syllables and syllables containing two consonants, such as pt, st, dr, had to be represented by two or more open syllables, but the reduplication of the same consonant, as in II, and the nasal sounds (m, n) preceding other consonants, were omitted. Thus, ka-re was written for "gar," a-ti-ri-a-se for "andrias," pa-si-le-ve-o-se for "basileus," po-to-li-ne