Page:Discovery and Decipherment of the Trilingual Cuneiform Inscriptions.djvu/307

278 b, till at length, in 1844. he reluctantly adopted Burnouf's q.

In addition to these services, liawlinson contributed two new letters, one of which, Xo. 43 (^^^\ n before a^ has taken a permanent place in the alphabet. The other (^if). if' i>^ really a Susian letter with a nasal sound, and is found in the Persian column in only two proper names. Oppert suggests that it may be the missing /; and Spiegel is disposed to agree. ^

If we consult Rawlinson's alphabet as it stood early in 1846, it will l)e seen that he was in possession of correct values for the thirtv-three signs in Niebuhr's list, with the exception of two, 10 {^^ w for r, and 19 (EYY) t for c/, and both of these may be almost allowed to him as approximately correct. In the case of the first, indeed, we have already conceded it to Lassen, in consequence of the practical exclusion of w from the German language: and we have only denied it to Eawlinson because he distinguishes it from his 15 (^) v.

We have not included the addition of the as})irate amontr the number of errors, where it indicated only an unimportant modification of a correct sound. It had its oriijin in the difiicultv that was found in believincr that there could be more than one sign in the alphabet to express precisely the same sound. We have seen that Hincks had just shown that these signs do in fact express the same sound, and that their employment depends solely upon the vowel that follows. After Major Rawlinson's first al})habet was in print, he arrived, independently, as we have already stated, at precisely the same conclusion. He had lono- been struck with the i)eculiarity that certain consonants are only to be found followed by a particular vowel, and in his first alphabet he indicated five letters thus distinguished.


 * Spiegel, p. 154.