Page:The Aryan Origin of the Alphabet.djvu/66

54 end of the upright stem, was evidently a shorter way of writing the sign. And the later Z form, which appears also in "Semitic" Phœnician was a still shorter and more cursive way of writing the sign without lifting the pen.

With this Sumerian parent sign is to be compared the somewhat analogous Sumerian sign with the value of Za and meaning "jewel or shining stone." This sign might possibly also be written by two parallel bars intersected by a vertical stroke to indicate division of each bar into two, as was the case with the A water-sign in regard to its divided stroke (see Plate I).

In Old Persian cuneiform significantly, the sign is of the identical form of the I type (Plate II, col. 10). In Asokan script the signs read J and Jh are now seen to be derived from this Sumerian sign. In the Runes Z is represented by that form of letter by Ulfilas; but usually the somewhat angular S in the reversed direction is used for Z, which latter never appears as an initial letter. And in Sumerian Z freely interchanged with S and Sh.