, tyw, or tiu (?), used for the plural ending of adjectives in y formed from words ending in t (whether radical or the feminine ending).
The phonetic values of the signs are derived from their word-sign values and consist usually of the bare root, though there are rare examples of the retention of a flexional ending; they often ignore also the weaker consonants of the root, and on the same principle reduce a repeated consonant to a single one, as when the hoe
, ḥnn, has the phonetic value ḥn. The history of some of the alphabetic signs is still very obscure, but a sufficient number of them have been explained to make it nearly certain that the values of all were obtained on the same principles.[15] Some of the ancient words from which the phonetic values were derived probably fell very early into disuse, and may never be discoverable in the texts that have come down to us. The following are among those most easily explained:—
| , reed flower, | value y and א; from , y’, “reed.” |
(It seems as if the two values y and א were obtained by choosing first one and then the other of the two semi-consonants composing the name. They are much confused, and a conventional symbol l has to be adopted for rendering
.)
 , forearm, | value ’(ע); from  , ’(ע), “hand.” |
 , mouth, | value r; from  , r, “mouth.” |
 , belly and teats, | value ḫ; from  , ḫ.t, “belly.” |
| (The feminine ending is here, as usual, neglected.) | |
 , tank, | value š; from  , š, “tank.” |
 , slope of earth or brickwork, | value q; from  , q’’, “slope,” “height.” |
| (The doubled weak consonant is here neglected.) | |
 , hand, | value d; from  , d.t, “hand.” |
 , cobra, | value z; from  , z.t, “cobra.” |
For some alphabetic signs more than one likely origin might be found, while for others, again, no clear evidence of origin is yet forthcoming.