Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu/29

 (a) In Hebrew: some names of objects which were originally indigenous in Babylonia and Assyria (see a comprehensive list of Assyrio-Babylonian loan-words in the Hebrew and Aramaic of the Old Testament in Zimmern and Winckler, 3 ii. p. 648 ff.), in Egypt, Persia, or India, e.g.  (also in the plural), from Egyptian , generally as the name of the Nile (late Egypt. , Assyr. ), although it is possible that a pure Semitic  has been confounded with the Egyptian name of the Nile (so Zimmern);  (Egyptian) Nile-reed (see Lieblein, 'Mots égyptiens dans la Bible,' in  1898, p. 202 f.);  (in Zend , circumvallation = ) , ; , Persian gold coin; , perhaps from the Malabar  or. Some of these words are also found in Greek, as (Pers. karbâs, Skt. karpâsa) cotton,,. On the other hand it is doubtful if corresponds to the Greek, , Skt. kapi, ape.

(b) In Greek, &c.: some originally Semitic names of Asiatic products and articles of commerce, e.g., ; , , , ;  , , , cane;  , , cumin;  , ;  , ;  , , , pledge. Such transitions have perhaps been brought about chiefly by Phoenician trade. Cf. A. Müller, 'Semitische Lehnworte im älteren Griechisch,' in Bezzenberger's, Göttingen, 1877, vol. i. p. 273 ff.; E. Ries, , Breslau, 1890; Muss-Arnolt, 'Semitic words in Greek and Latin,' in the , xxiii. p. 35 ff.; H. Lewy,, Berlin, 1895; , Lpz. 1886.

5. No system of writing is ever so perfect as to be able to reproduce the sounds of a language in all their various shades, and the writing of the Semites has one striking fundamental defect, viz. that only the consonants (which indeed form the substance of the language) are written as real letters, whilst of the vowels only the longer are indicated by certain representative consonants (see below, ). It was only later that special small marks (points or strokes below or above the consonants) were invented to represent to the eye all the vowel-sounds (see ). These are, however, superfluous for the practised reader, and are therefore often wholly omitted in Semitic manuscripts and printed texts. Semitic writing, moreover, almost invariably proceeds from right to left.