Page:The Aryan Origin of the Alphabet.djvu/21

Rh In the Sumerian writing, it will be seen from column I of the Tables (pp. 14 and 54) that the simplest vowel and syllabic word-signs under each letter-value in this alphabetic catalogue consist of single vowels, and single consonants, each followed by a vowel that is absolutely necessary to sound the consonant. And it is from these simple consonantal signs, wherein the consonant is followed by a vowel, that the alphabetic consonant letters are found to be derived. This latter feature now explains for the first time the inherent suffixed vowel in every consonant in the Semitic Phœnician, Hebrew, Sanskrit and other allied Indo-Aryan alphabets, in that it was a feature of their parent script, the Sumerian. Thus, for example, the Sanskrit script writes the Aryan clan-title of Barat (or "Brit-on") as B'RT, just as the later Phœnicians wrote it PRT, the short suffixed a being inherent in every consonant.

These vowel and simple syllabic word-signs in Sumerian, now seen to be the parents of our alphabetic letters, read according to their transliteration into "roman" letters, as universally accepted by Assyriologists, as follows : A or Ā, Ba or Bi, Da or Du, E or Ē, Fi, Ga, Ha or Kha, I, Ka (or Kat), La, and so on to Z or Za, as seen in the Tables (Plates I and II).