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Art. XX.—Origin and Development of the Cuneiform Syllabary
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
Extract
Palæography never attracted much the attention of Assyriologists, and in only a few cases have they either turned their mind to the origin, growth and development of the Cuneiform syllabary. M. Menant, who tried in his grammar to give a list as complete as possible of all the signs of various styles and epochs, has unfortunately accepted many doubtful characters, and has not distinguished the really archaic from the ornamental style. F. Lenormant, who specially studied the Babylonian syllabaries now in the British Museum, has done much to elucidate many points, but his observations bear only on a few characters, and have for principal object to ascertain the values and meanings in order to help the decipherer in reading rightly the inscriptions. He made a great step no doubt in attributing exclusively certain values of the characters to Akkadian and others to the Assyrian texts, but other works seem to have claimed his attention, and he did not follow up the subject.
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References
page 625 note 1 Manuel de la langue Assyrienne, Paris, 1880.Google Scholar
page 625 note 2 Etude sur quelques parties des Syllabaires Cunéiformes, Paris, 1876.Google ScholarLes Syllabaires Cunéiformes, Paris, 1877, etc.Google Scholar
page 626 note 1 J.R.A.S. Vol. XVIII. Part III.
page 626 note 2 This has been recognized by the first Assyriologists, Sir H. Rawlinson, Dr. Hincks, Norris, Dr. Oppert, etc.
page 626 note 3 Origin of the Phoenician Alphabet, London, 1882, p. 26et seq.Google Scholar
page 626 note 4 Sayce, , Use of Papyrus, etc., S.B.A. Trans, vol. i. p. 343et seq.Google Scholar
page 627 note 1 Mr. Pinches has noticed that on the tablets the grain of the wood impressed by the style is often visible.
page 627 note 2 In some cases the linear inscriptions seem to have been copied from a Cuneiform copy, and the linear character wrongly transcribed; the same has happened in Egyptian, where the scribe or carver had hieratic copies for the texts he had to engrave on the stone. In many cases he transcribed the wrong hieroglyphs.
page 627 note 3 J.R.A.S. Vol. XVIII. p. 422.
page 628 note 1 This observation is due to the Rev. Mr. Tomkins (though I do not think it was ever printed), at one of the meetings of the Society of Biblical Archæology.
page 628 note 2 J.R.A.S. Vol. XVIII. p. 422.
page 629 note 1 The position of the reverse is besides contrary to that of the obverse; a tablet is not turned over as the leaves of a book, but as our gold and silver coins.
page 630 note 1 This is without exception. It is an erroneous supposition that any influence was exercised by the shape and size of the characters (vide J.R.A.S. Vol. XV. p. 279).
page 630 note 2 Dr. Birch noticed it for the earliest Egyptian texts.
page 630 note 3 This is very visible in photographs, but could only with difficulty be represented in a woodcut.
page 631 note 1 Pinches, , Proc. S.B.A., 06, 1886.Google Scholar The author points out that the difference was kept up more clearly in the Babylonian style, in which 
and 
; see also Zeitschr. für Keilschr. vol. ii. p. 158.Google Scholar For other examples, Smith, G., Phonetic Values, p. 4.Google Scholar
page 631 note 2 Phonetic Values, London, 1871, p. 3.Google Scholar
page 631 note 3 Pinches, , Archaic Forms of Babylonian CharactersGoogle Scholar, in Z. für Keilschr. vol. ii. p. 149et seq.Google Scholar
page 632 note 1 This observation is due to Mr. Pinches.
page 632 note 2 Published by the Rev. Mr. Houghton, in his paper S.B.A. Trans, vol. iv. part ii.
page 633 note 1 All the contract tablets of this period have been published in autography by Dr. Strassmaier in the Transactions of the Congress of Orientalists held at Berlin; his copies give a fair idea of the originals; when one knows how difficult these are to read, he cannot be surprised in finding some mistakes.
page 634 note 1 Also in Egyptian we have no example of purely figurative texts.
page 635 note 1 At the later Babylonian period we find, however, in some cases what might be called a phonetic determinative prefix, but it is only to make certain the pronunciation of a syllable which is doubtful, as 
e-iš-tin for eštin ‘one,’ and 
u-ul for ul ‘not.’
page 636 note 1 In Egyptian the phonetic determinatives follow the words.
page 641 note 1 Dr. Peiser first pointed it out.
page 643 note 1 S.B.A. Trans., vol. vi. part ii.
page 643 note 2 As far as the signs are explained. Prof. Terrien de Lacouperie has been wrongly informed, when he states that the figures face the reader (J.R.A.S. Vol. XV. p. 279).
page 643 note 3 This last form is taken from the fragment of a very archaic inscription which was in the British Museum, but this stone was mislaid when Mr. Budge had the partition of his room raised, and it has not yet been found, in spite of the efforts of Mr. Pinches.
page 643 note 4 These identifications are due to Mr. Pinches.
page 644 note 1 This opinion is the more general, it was that of the late F. Lenormant.
page 644 note 2 In my last paper I spoke only of this opinion, because after the discovery of Akkadian all the Assyriologists, except myself, had accepted it.
page 645 note 1 In the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy.
page 645 note 2 See Journal of the Society of Arts, vol. xxviii. p. 791.Google Scholar
page 646 note 1 When I wrote my last article I had not seen the Professor's note in the J.K.A.S. Vol. XV. p. 279, but the fact is not material, as the assertions which it contains are unsupported by examples or illustrations. The promised article on the Kushite origin of the Cuneiform Syllabary has not yet appeared.
page 646 note 2 If it had not been for the social position of Baron d'Eckstein, his dreams about the Kushites would never have been taken seriously.
page 646 note 3 Maspero, , Histoire ancienne, p. 145Google Scholaret seq. Through a surprising oversight M. Maspero gives the physical characteristics of the Kushites, supposed to be taken from Pritchard, but the characteristics are given by Pritchard not for the Kushites, but for the Ethiopians of Egypt and Abyssinia in modern times. Physical History of Mankind, vol. ii. p. 44.Google Scholar Prof. Terrien de Lacouperie has reproduced this misstatement without correcting it.
page 647 note 1 A list was drawn by Dr. Hommel; it contained only ten characters, among which were the two given by Dr. Hincks and two very doubtful. A list drawn by Prof. Terrien de Lacouperie contained only ten or twelve characters, among which the two above noted and some others were apparently misread.
page 649 note 1 This word is not given in the Dictionary of Pierret; but see S.B.A. Trans. Vol. viii. p. 218.
page 649 note 2 There is also the masculine form, the god Nu.
page 649 note 3 This identification is due to Mr. Pinches.
page 650 note 1 In the album offered to Dr. Leemann of Leyden.
page 651 note 1 I cannot here give any examples, as it would extend this paper too much.
page 651 note 2 This contact must have taken place before the historical period.
page 653 note 1 Sayce, , Inscriptions of Van, J.R.A.S. Vol. XIV. Parts III. and IV.Google Scholar
page 653 note 2 Sayce, , Inscriptions of Mal-Amir, Congress of Orientalists of 1883, at Leide.Google Scholar
page 653 note 3 Oppert, in the Journal Asiatique.
page 653 note 4 Manuel d'Histoire ancienne, Paris, 1868, vol. i. p. 401.Google Scholar
page 654 note 1 For instance, in his Early History of the Chinese Civilization, lecture reprinted from the Journal of the Society of Arts, London, 1880, he gives a plate of twelve Chinese characters compared with those of Babylonia; four are misread, and most of the others have the wrong reading attached to the meaning given.