The Order of the Hebrew Alphabet Author(s): C.

Levias Source: Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research, Vol. 4 (1932 - 1933), pp. 131-133 Published by: American Academy for Jewish Research Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3622117 . Accessed: 10/07/2013 19:42
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THE ORDER OF THE HEBREW ALPHABET

C. LEVIAS

It has been shown by Martin Sprengling, who succeeded in deciphering the Sinai inscriptions, that some of the present names of the letters must have been introduced at a later time, when in the course of transmission the original pictograms had become unrecognizable; and that such later names have no reference to the original pictures. The possibility that even originally not all names agreed with the pictures was not considered by him. There is also no doubt that the order of the letters in the alphabet has undergone changes. An answer to the question what the original order was, and what the principle of its arrangement rests on, is dependent on a knowledge of the meanings of the names of the letters. This ascertainment is here attempted. As a preliminary I am bound to make an excursion into Semitic phonetics, a subject still in its infancy. From the material I have gathered in an etymological study based on biconsonantalism, now appearing seriatim in the Palestinean quarterly we may learn, 'among m11~1,under the title pl6wn,wrrMn a,u, other things, that the Semitic t, k, and q change sometimes on the one hand to n or u, and on the other hand, to wt. Thus, we may have in one and the same language, or in the sister languages, double forms, where utand n, or D and , correspond. Moreover, since a _ which results from t or k frequently appears as wtalso in Aramaic and Hebrew, we get the following equations: I Hebrew Arabic S' Syriac and later Aramaic D; Arabic s2 Hebrew wt Syriac and Aramaic t); Hebrew Aramaic si Arabic a 0; - Aramaic n; Hebrew s2 Arabic Hebrew s3 Arabic c/x Aramaic n; Aramaic s' Arabic ,Hebrew t0; Aramaic s2 Arabic ' Hebrew ?).
131

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132

LEVIAS

Just a few examples for illustration: Hebrew rnwp.Arabic t~f: Syriac Arabic ilwp., cucumber; Hebrew 'lni, nnl .A;', ,i;', ,aL. The root of Hebrew nmuiais in Arabic <.~;',t: (See my article "Who were the Amorites?" in Studies in Jewish Bibliography and related Subjects in Memory of A. S. Freidus, N. Y. 1929). . Hebrew and Aramaic zt=; Arabic -jS,-5 , Arabic .5 Hebrew rnm, Aramaic ~pl Syriac ini (see Manna, s.v. 5pw); Arabic s,~i Hebrew mn.; Arabic 5S>-5) Hebrew mi, Aramaic From Arabic j5'f we have two other by-forms: 5.,= ,= whence 't:L Hebrew nr? Aramaic mnr?1; and F ?., is a third by-form Hebrew n,. It is not unlikely than an mmn (see Ges.-Buhl s.v.). Hence we have the nominal by-forms Arabic 4, = i T= 1 = Hebrew n,o = ni =1i, stigma. It must also be remarked that the names of the letters, like the language of the Sinaitic inscriptions, present a mixture of Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic. No such dialect has come down to us. It might have been Edomitic or Amalekite. We return now to our subject. The names Alef, Beth, Daleth, Waw, Yod, Kaf, M6m, 'Ayin, Pe, Resh, Shin need no comment. Gimel, usually equated with gamal, camel. The late Powis Smith suggested Accadian gamlu, sickle. Another name is Hebrew Da, Arabic C, Greek Fra1/Aa. We may see in it the
Aramaic 2p,, pit.

He, Syriac ti, Ge'ez Haw, Hawye, Hoy. Confer Arabic , a by-form of 3f, window. Zayin, Zayith, Greek, ~'Ora, offer no difficulty. An older name is j' Arabic j3, couple. This is probably the original name; as the picture is a couple of connected sticks.
Heth, nrn, Ge'ez Hawt. We may see it in Hebrew 'n, ln.n,

tent-village, hamlet; or Arabic j>-, small pond. Teth, n'., may be connected with Arabic ;' = ';-, Amharic Tit, fold, stable. Or with Tigray teyt, box. Most likely it corresponds with Arabic"~, sign. (See below.)

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ORDER THE OF HEBREW

ALPHABET

133

Lamed. Usually connected with Hebrew -nbp. In Gaonic literature and Samaritan n:=. Nfin, Aramaic, Arabic li, fish. The original name nahas, Hebrew tn, is preserved in Ge'ez. Samech, Arabic -., fish. and Hebrew Aramaic 'nI, Ge'ez sadday. It might be Sade, a by-form of nT, hunter, fisher. I prefer to see in it a by-form of y;?, temple. The original name is preserved in the Greek which is a Semitic ',, Hebrew nri., convolute, correa/u7rtr, sponding to the figure of the numeral 8. Qof, Hebrew 'ip, or 1'P, Arabic U5, occiput. Compare Aramaic lP-3P,head. Taw, in, sign. The pictogram of Taw is +, a cross. Taw means here not simply sign, but the sign of life (see Ez. lx.4, 6). The sign of the cross has been since gray antiquity identified with the Egyptian Q, 'anh., life (see Hastings' Encyclolpedia of Religion T and Ethics, s.v. Cross). The Teth is but a phonetic variant of Taw, and its sign is also but a variant of the latter, being a cross within a circle. It has therefore the same meaning. Now, if we transfer the letters Teth, Yod and Kaf to between Samech and 'Ayin, we see that the letters fall into two groups: The first group, from Alef to Samech describe parts of the world, closing with Teth, i. e., a blessing for life and happiness. The second group begins with Yod and ends with Shin, describing the parts of the human body to characterize man, the world's inhabitant; again closing with Taw, a blessing or prayer for life and happiness. Habent sua fata literae! With the Jews Teth stands for miu, happiness; with the Greeks for Oavaros, death.

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