Atlantis: The Antedeluvian World by Ignatius Donnelly (good books to read txt) 📖

the ancient Hebrew, which was ### or ### ; the ancient Greek was the foot reversed, ### ; the later Greek became our A.

Turn next to the Maya sign for q (ku): it is ### . Now what is the peculiarity of this hieroglyph? The circle below is not significant, for there are many circular figures in the Maya alphabet. Clearly, if one was called upon to simplify this, he would retain the two small circles joined side by side at the top, and would indicate the lower circle with a line or dash. And when we turn to the Egyptian q we find it in this shape, ### ; we turn to the Ethiopian q (khua), and we find it ### , as qua, ### ; while the Phœnician comes still nearer the supposed Maya form in ### ; the Moab stone was ### ; the Himyaritic Arabian form became ###

; the Greek form was ### , which graduated into the Roman Q. But a still more striking proof of the descent of the Phœnician alphabet from the Maya is found in the other form of the q, the Maya cu, which is ### .

Now, if we apply the Maya rule to this, and discard the outside circle, we have this left, ### . In time the curved line would be made straight, and the figure would assume this form, ### ; the next step would be to make the cross on the straight line, thus, ### . One of the ancient Phœnician forms is ### . Can all this be accident?

The letter c or g (for the two probably gave the same sound as in the Phœnician) is given in the Maya alphabet as follows, ### . This would in time be simplified into a figure representing the two sides of a triangle with the apex upward, thus, ### . This is precisely the form found by Dr. Schliemann in the ruins of Troy, ### . What is the Phœnician form for g as found on the Moab stone? It is ### . The Carthaginian Phœnicians gave it more of a rounded form, thus, ### . The hieratic Egyptian figure for g was ### ; in the earlier Greek form the left limb of the figure was shortened, thus, ### ; the later Greeks reversed it, and wrote it ### ; the Romans, changed this into ### and it finally became C.

In the Maya we have one sign for p, and another for pp. The first contains a curious figure, precisely like our r laid on its back ### , There is, apparently, no r in the Maya alphabet; and the Roman r grew out of the later Phœnician r formed thus, ### ; it would appear that the earliest Phœnician alphabet did not contain the letter r. But if we now turn to the Phœnician alphabet, we will find one of the curious forms of the p given thus, ### , a very fair representation of an r lying upon its face. Is it not another remarkable coincidence that the p, in both Maya and Phœnician, should contain this singular sign?

The form of pp in the Maya alphabet is this, ### . If we are asked, on the principle already indicated, to reduce this to its elements, we would use a figure like this, ### ; in time the tendency would be to shorten one of these perpendicular lines, thus, and this we find is very much like the Phœnician p, ### . The Greek ph is ### .

The letter l in the Maya is in two forms; one of these is ### , the other is ### . Now, if we again apply the rule which we observed to hold good with the letter m—that is, draw from the inside of the hieroglyph some symbol that will briefly indicate the whole letter—we will have one of two forms, either a right-angled figure formed thus, ### , or an acute angle formed by joining the two lines which are unconnected, thus, ### ; and either of these forms brings us quite close to the letter l of the Old World. We find l on the Moab stone thus formed, ### . The archaic Phœnician form of l was ### , or ### ; the archaic Hebrew was ### and ### ; the hieratic Egyptian was ### ; the Greek form was ###

—the Roman L.

The Maya letter b is shaped thus, ### . Now, if we turn to the Phœnician, we find that b is represented by the same crescent-like figure which we find in the middle of this hieroglyph, but reversed in the direction of the writing, thus, ### ; while in the archaic Hebrew we have the same crescent figure as in the Maya, turned in the same direction, but accompanied by a line drawn downward, and to the left, thus, ### ; a similar form is also found in the Phœnician ### , and this in the earliest Greek changed into ### , and in the later Greek into B.

One of the Etruscan signs for b was ### , while the Pelasgian b was represented thus, ### ; the Chaldaic b was ### ; the Syriac sign for b was ### ; the Illyrian b was ### .

The Maya e is ### ; this became in time ### ; then ### (we see this form on the Maya monuments); the dots in time were indicated by strokes, and we reach the hieratic Egyptian form, ### : we even find in some of the ancient Phœnician inscriptions the original Maya circles preserved in making the letter e, thus, ### ; then we find the old Greek form, ### ; the old Hebrew, ### ; and the later Phœnician, ### : when the direction of the writing was changed this became ### . Dr. Schliemann found a form like this on inscriptions deep in the ruins of Troy, ### . This is exactly the form found on the American monuments.

The Maya i is ### ; this became in time ### ; this developed into a still simpler form, ### ; and this passed into the Phœnician form, ### .

The Samaritan i was formed thus, ### ; the Egyptian letter i is ### : gradually in all these the left-hand line was dropped, and we come to the figure used on the stone of Moab, ### and ### ; this in time became the old Hebrew ### , or ### ; and this developed into the Greek ### .

We have seen the complicated symbol for m reduced by the Mayas themselves into this figure, ### : if we attempt to write this rapidly, we find it very difficult to always keep the base lines horizontal; naturally we form something like this, ### : the distinctive figure within the sign for m in the Maya is ### or ### . We see this repeated in the Egyptian hieroglyphics for m, ### , and ### , and ### ; and in the Chaldaic m, ### ; and in the Ethiopic ### . We find one form of the Phœnician where the m is made thus, ### ; and in the Punic it appears thus, ### ; and this is not unlike the m on the stone of Moab, ### , or the ancient Phœnician forms ### , ### , and the old Greek ### , or the ancient Hebrew ### , ### .

The ### , x, of the Maya alphabet is a hand pointing downward ### , this, reduced to its elements, would be expressed some thing like this, ### or ### ; and this is very much like the x of the archaic Phœnician, ### ; or the Moab stone, ### ; or the later Phœnician ### or the Hebrew ### , ### , or the old Greek, ### : the later Greek form was ### .

The Maya alphabet contains no sign for the letter s; there is, however, a symbol called ca immediately above the letter k; it is probable that the sign ca stands for the soft sound of c, as, in our words citron, circle, civil, circus, etc. As it is written in the Maya alphabet ca, and not k, it evidently represents a different sound. The sign ca is this, ### . A somewhat similar sign is found in the body of the symbol for k, thus, ### , this would appear to be a simplification of ca, but turned downward. If now we turn to the Egyptian letters we find the sign k represented by this figure ### , simplified again into ### ; while the sign for k in the Phœnician inscription on the stone of Moab is ### . If now we turn to the s sound, indicated by the Maya sign ca, ### , we find the resemblance still more striking to kindred European letters. The Phœnician s is ### ; in the Greek this becomes ### ### ; the Hebrew is ### ### ; the Samaritan, ### . The Egyptian hieroglyph for s is ### ; the Egyptian letter s is ### ; the Ethiopic, ### ; the Chaldaic, ### ; and the Illyrian s c is ### .

We have thus traced back the forms of eighteen of the ancient letters to the Maya alphabet. In some cases the pedigree, is so plain as to be indisputable.

For instance, take the h:

Maya, ### ; old Greek, ### ; old Hebrew, ### ; Phœnician, ### .

Or take the letter o:

Maya, ### ; old Greek, ### ; old Hebrew, ### ; Phœnician, ### .

Or take the letter t:

Maya, ### ; old Greek, ### ; old Phœnician, ### and ### .

Or take the letter q:

Maya, ### ; old Phœnician, ### and ### ; Greek, ### .

Or take the letter k:

Maya, ### ; Egyptian, ### ; Ethiopian, ### ; Phœnician, ### .

Or take the letter n:

Maya, ### ; Egyptian, ### ; Pelasgian ### , Arcadian, ### ; Phœnician, ### .

Surely all this cannot be accident!

But we find another singular proof of the truth of this theory: It will be seen that the Maya alphabet lacks the letter d and the letter r. The Mexican alphabet possessed a d. The sounds d and t were probably indicated in the Maya tongue by the same sign, called t in the Landa alphabet. The Finns and Lapps do not distinguish between these two sounds. In the oldest known form of the Phœnician alphabet, that found on the Moab stone, we find in the same way but one sign to express the d and t. D does not occur on the Etruscan monuments, t being used in its place. It would, therefore, appear that after the Maya alphabet passed to the Phœnicians they added two new signs for the letters d and r; and it is a singular fact that their poverty of invention seems to have been such that they used to express both d and r, the same sign, with very little modification, which they had already obtained from the Maya alphabet as the symbol for b. To illustrate this we place the signs side by side:

###

It thus appears that the very signs d and r, in the Phœnician, early Greek, and ancient Hebrew, which are lacking in the Maya, were supplied by imitating the Maya sign for b; and it is a curious fact that while the Phœnician legends claim that Taaut invented the art of writing, yet they tell us that Taaut made records, and “delivered them to his successors and to foreigners, of whom one was Isiris