Page:The Aryan Origin of the Alphabet.djvu/48

36 most of the Egyptian hieroglyphs used in the so-called alphabetic writing in Egypt were bi-consonantal or tri-consonantal syllabic signs containing two or more consonants.

The dropping out of final consonants (such as the t or d of this Coat-sign in question to form a single stem with its inherent vowel as Ka or Ki) is, however, not uncommon in Sumerian, and in Egyptian it is not infrequent, It is thus probable that Ka or Ki was current dialectically for this sign at the time when the regular alphabet was formed for systematic alphabetic writing.

The later cursive form of K wanting the lower side-stroke or foot, found in the later "Semitic" Phoenician is also found as an alternative form in the Runes, (see cols. 5 and 18).

The aspirated K as Kh, the so-called "back explosive guttural," has already been referred to under H, of which it was the fuller form. It early disappeared from the Cadmean and is not found in the Western or European alphabets.

The omission of the K for a time by the Romans and their use of C as a new letter instead—a letter derived from G—has been referred to under G.

The rectangular sign for this liquid consonant occurs in Egypt from the Pre-dynastic period onwards in both its early ᒥ and later ᒪ forms, i.e., with its cross-bar respectively above and below; and onwards it is found in the Cadmean in both forms down to the later Ancient Briton and Latin or Roman, when the bar is below and to the right as in the modern letter (see Plate I).