Tn addition to these services, Rawlinson contributed two new letters, one of which, No. 43 (𐎵), n before u, has taken a permanent place in the alphabet. The other (𐎾), ñ, is really a Susian letter with a nasal sound, and is found in the Persian column in only two proper names. Oppert suggests that it may be the missing l; and Spiegel is disposed to agree.[565]
If we consult Rawlinson’s alphabet as it stood early in 1846, it will be seen that he was in possession of correct values for the thirty-three signs in Niebuhr’s list, with the exception of two, 10 (𐎺) w for v, and 19 (𐎮) t for d, and both of these may be almost allowed to him as approximately correct. In the case of the first, indeed, we have already conceded it to Lassen, in consequence of the practical exclusion of w from the German language; and we have only denied it to Rawlinson because he distinguishes it from his 15 (𐎻) v.
We have not included the addition of the aspirate among the number of errors, where it indicated only an unimportant modification of a correct sound. It had its origin in the difficulty that was found in believing that there could be more than one sign in the alphabet to express precisely the same sound. We have seen that Hincks had just shown that these signs do in fact express the same sound, and that their employment depends solely upon the vowel that follows. After Major Rawlinson’s first alphabet was in print, he arrived, independently, as we have already stated, at precisely the same conclusion. He had long been struck with the peculiarity that certain consonants are only to be found followed by a particular vowel, and in his first alphabet he indicated five letters thus distinguished. These were: 19, t with i; 29, m with i; 33, m with u; 40, r with u; 43, n with u; and he observed especially the affinity the vowel i had for certain consonants—a peculiarity he noticed also in some of the Scythic languages.[566] When once his attention was directed to these facts it was not long before he set himself to account for them. One of the most useful contributions to decipherment made by Lassen arose from the suggestion that an a is understood though not always expressed after a consonant, when not followed by another vowel. Indeed until this idea occurred to him the result of decipherment was the apparition of a long series of words consisting of an agglomeration of consonants which no living tongue could pronounce. The next step to be made, resulted from the observation that some letters were always followed by i and others by u. A laborious classification of each letter according as it was followed by each of these vowels was therefore undertaken, and the result was sufficiently remarkable. It showed that in two cases in the grade of sonants (d and m) there was a different sign according as the letter was followed by a, i, or u. Conversely, there were three cases in the grade of aspirates (th, y, sh), where the same sign might be found before any of the three vowels; and finally there were several cases in the grade of surds (k, t, and r), where it was noticed that the same sign was followed by either a or i, and that a different sign was used before u. Taking these facts into consideration, Rawlinson thought he observed sufficient regularity to justify him in formulating the general law that, for some unexplained reason, the grade of surds in each class were expressed by two signs, one used before a and i, the other before u; the grade of aspirates by one sign only, equally available before any of the three vowels; and the grade of sonants by three signs, each applied to one vowel only. He admitted that there were numerous exceptions to the rule; indeed, the class of dentals is the only one where the series is complete, but the exceptions he was inclined to attribute chiefly to the incompleteness of the alphabet.[567]
When the letters of Rawlinson’s original alphabet were distributed into the various classes of gutturals, palatals, and so on, and among the subdivisions of surds, aspirates, and sonants, they were found sufficient to suggest the existence of some such law in the cases that have been named. With Holtzmann’s correction of 19 (𐎮) from t to d, he had the three d’s required to complete his sonants of the dental class. His own list gave him the three m’s required for the sonants of the nasal class; and he already knew that one was used only before i, and the other only before u. He knew also that the aspirates of three of the classes were to be found indifferently before any vowel. In the case of the surds, he had found that five of them (k 𐎣, ch 𐎨, t 𐎫, n 𐎴, r 𐎼) are always to be found before either an a or an i. He knew also that his second sign for n 𐎵 (43) and his second sign for r 𐎽 were only to be found before u; and he observed that the signs he still read (𐎤) kh and (𐎬) th were also only found before u. It required, therefore, no great effort to deprive them of their h, and to range them with the others as the second signs in the surd grades for k and t.
Once the existence of this law was inferred, Rawlinson was led to make other modifications in his original alphabet, in order to bring it into strict conformity, and in every instance the alteration has been confirmed. The following Table shows the distribution of the letters into the various classes and grades, and the modifications they underwent. When they fail to comply with the supposed law, the deficiencies are left blank: when they violate it, the offence is marked by ‘!’.
Rawlinson’s Alphabet, after August 25, 1846[568]
, tř
One of the results of the classification of the consonants according to the vowels that follow them was to introduce a considerable change in the method of transliteration. It is only in exceptional cases that the a, following a consonant, is found in the text, but its inherence is inferred. When, therefore, an i or u immediately follows a consonant with an inherent a, instead of transliterating as formerly such a group as 𐎥 𐎡 gi and 𐎥 𐎢 gu, they are now written gai and gau; and this modification has materially assisted the explanation of the words in which such combinations occur. An interesting proof of the accuracy of this system is afforded by the word ‘Kurus,’ which was so long an object of contention. The genitive is denoted by the insertion of an a—‘Kuraus.’ The letter 𐎽 (r), which is followed by u, is used for the nominative ‘Kurus’; but the letter 𐎼 (r), which has an inherent a is substituted in the genitive. Thus:
| Nom. Kurus, | 𐎤 | · | 𐎢 | · | 𐎽 | · | 𐎢 | · | 𐏁 |
| k | u | r | u | s | |||||
| Gen. Kuraus, | 𐎤 | · | 𐎢 | · | 𐎼 | · | 𐎢 | · | 𐏁 |
| k | u | r(a) | u | s |