An altogether new turn to the discussion was given by the discovery of the Tel-c1-•inarna tab lets containing a series of letters written in Syria about 1379-GO B.C., which showed that at that time the cuneiform characters were used by the Phoenicians and other Semites even for correspondence with the Egyptian court, and that the Babylonian was evidently the lan guage of international relations. Even before this time, Deecke. Peters, and pommel had at tempted to show a connection between the Miami clan alphabet and the cuneiform of Assyria or Babylonia, and recently Delitzseh. Die Enistch, tow des altesten Sehriftsysteins (Leipzig, 1597), end Peiser. Studien :lir orientalisehrn .11leritillls klinde (1900), have developed the Babylonian theory, though with differences in detail. This theory, however, labors under one serious diffi culty. The early Babylonian characters which are supposed to throw light upon the Pluenician prototypes are at least 1000 and probably 2000 years or more earlier than the earliest Miami eian inscriptions, and differ decidedly from the cuneiform characters in use in Syria within 250 or 300 years of the time when the alphabet must have been developed. A similar objection may be brought against De Bough's derivation from the earlier hieratic. Neither the Egyptian nor the Babylonian origin can, therefore. be regarded as proved. though neither has been shown to be impossible.
But Babylon and Egypt were not the only great powers of the early civilization of the East. The Hittites (q.v.) had a hieroglyphie system of their own. which might easily have influenced the Ifficenicians, though no systematic attempt at direct derivation of the alphabet from this source has yet appeared. The Cypriote Greeks down to the fourth century n.c. made use of a syllabic system which in some of its signs shows a strong resemblance to the Hittite. Even more important is the discovery of at least two early systems of writing on the island of Crete. One of these is distinctly pictorial or hieroglyphic. the other, and later, is linear, and contains a number of forms closely analogous to the Phami clan and early Greek characters. Moreover, sim ilar linear or geometric signs have been found on pottery in tombs of the first dynasty at Abydos, in Egypt. and likewise at Kahun (twelfth dynasty) and Gurob; they have also appeared in Palestine at Tel-el-Hesy, and many of them are found in the Carian and Celtiberian alphabets of later times. From these facts Pro fessor W. M. Flinders Petrie has suggested that a signary, or series of signs (whether hiero glyphic, syllabic, or alphabetic is unknown), was in use around the coast of the Mediterranean from a very early date (perhaps 5000 These signs increased in number and variety, and from them has been selected the later alpha bet. The selection and grouping are due to the Iffitenicians, who assigned commercial values to certain characters, and thus transmitted them to the Greeks. The value of this .Egean element
in the discussion cannot. be fairly estimated until the Cretan linear and hieroglyphic systems are at least partially understood, for as yet none of the values of the signs is known; and although the resemblance in form between the early signs and the late letters is undeniable, the same thing is true of many early Babylonian and Egyptian characters. It is indeed obvious that mere ex ternal likeness is insufficient to prove a common origin; there TB be sufficient resemblance in sound or meaning to account in some degree for the choice of that particular sign by the borrower to serve as a letter in the new alphabet.
When the Greeks adopted the Pluenician alpha bet is uncertain. It can scarcely have been earlier than 1000 B.C., nor later than the eighth century, as it evidently succeeded the Dorian invasion, but preceded the great colonizing move ment. since the colonies regularly use the same alphabet as the mother city. While adopting the characters, with their names and order, from the Phrenicians, the Greeks found some changes in values necessary. The Semites did not write the vowels, and the Greeks appropriated for this pur pose four of the breathings, which were not need ed in the Semitic system of phonetics. For t he fifth vowel (u), they very early adopted a differenti ation of the spirant (van), and placed it at the end of the Phamician series. Among the wealth of sibilants offered, Zain was universally appro priated for the double consonant Zeta (prob ably dz) ; as between Samech, Tsade, and Shin there is great diversity of usage among the early local alphabets, and no general agreement epigraphists as to the exact course of the devel opment. In the Ionian alphabet, which ulti mately came into general use, the place of Sam ech was filled by Xi (x), Tsade was dropped, and Shin used for the simple (s) sound. A history of the numerous local variations in the Greek alpha bet lies outside the scope of this article. It is enough to mention the chief varieties, which were influential in the development of borrowed alphabets. The primitive alphabet, omitting Xi and ending with Upsilon, is found in early in scriptions of Thera, Melos, and Crete. To this alphabet were added three supplementary signs, and in the method of this change the Greek alphabets after the seventh century fall into two great groups, the Eastern and Western. The former includes Asia Minor. the islands of the ...Egean, and some points on the Greek mainland; the latter includes Eubcea, most of the States of Greece proper, Sicily, and Italy. It is to be noted that the lines of demarkation are not those of the dialects nor of the races, though the East ern group is largely Ionian, and the Western Dorian. Attica occupies a middle position.