Page:Discovery and Decipherment of the Trilingual Cuneiform Inscriptions.djvu/395

366 names of the gods.' He, however, recognised a sign as the monogram for 'god'; l)ut wlien lie fonnd it in conjunction with the name of ' Aurmuzd ' he treated it as the initial letter, and gave it the definite plionetic value of a.^ Such were the diffic-uUies to be overcome l^efore the determinative for 'irod ' was re<*o£niised. He observed that a word may he expressed by it^ first and hist signs, an early indication of the plionetic cmj)le- ment.^* Meanwhile Hincks and Kawlinson announced the discovery already mentioned that the apparent equivalent signs in Persian dei)ended in reality uj)on the vowel that was associated with the consonantal value. It at once occurred to Longperiei- that the gi'eat diffi- culty of the Assyrian h(mioi)hnes might be solved by the aj)plication of the same princi])le. If, he says, thei'e is a separate sign for the consonant m according as it is followed by a, i or w, 'one can understand how a similar pi-actice, if extended to many consonants, would augment the number of alphabetical signs. He warned scholars not to be too ready to ac<*ept the existence of homophones, because he observed that ' according as the work proceeds the numbei* of homo- ])hones decreases.'^

While these discussions were proceeding, Hotta con- tinued his contributions to the 'Journal Asiatique' (1847-8), and afterwai'ds pul)lished them in a separate 'Memoire sur TPIcriture cuneiforme ' (Paris, 1848). He endeavoured to introduce some deo-ree of order amontr the profusion of Assyrian signs. He divw up a Table, consisting of a hundred and twenty-five siiius that seemed to be most ccmimonlv used: and under each of these he arranged the signs which he found were some-

• lie iustanctvs the word for • earth,' p. S. ^ * Lett re a LoweiisttTii,' hccit. p. oOH.