-V- , LIBRARY OF THE University of California. GIFT OK rfA/AfiR. Class No... [ Receive* Acce&sio Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2008 with funding from Microsoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/egyptianalphabetOOfiskrich An Egyptian Alphabet for the Egyptian People $<>«C=0£<<>>CO0# X alifbe ahl masr. § a, a, e, e, i, y, o, 6, u, ft (alif) 1 A b (be), t (te), t (id), g (gym), g (gen), h (he) 1 | h (&$ h (lid), d (V«/J, d (dad), r (VO>«^0O«O<^«<><>0<£<^<>^<>^C>«O* Florence The Landi Press .3i5-i8 97 The New-Egyptian Alphabet. fyh alifb£ inglyzyje, we alifb§ riimyje, we alifbe c arabyje. jatara mus mumkin jekfin fyh alifbe masryje keman? $¥? wdgib c a/a kill I ivdhid jehibb masr, in jisd c id c ala migy el jom, elly fyh hell en nds es sdkinyn c alal nyl jimkinhum jiqru we jiktibu el lisdn elly jitkallimuh ive jifhamuh. •^ el alifbe es sahle li et ta c lym we lil kitabe tig c al es sa c b nabyh ; we en nabaha tig c al es sa c b qawy we mabsfit. An Egyptian Alphabet for the Egyptian People #CK*><%>0>C<><<><%><>C<>><^^ A alifbe ahl masr. X § a, a, e, e, i, y, o, 6, u, Ci (a/if), & A b (be), t (te), t (/a), g (gym), g (£" Contents. PAGE i. The Alphabet 7 2. Pronunciation 9 Vowels. Consonants. Diphthongs. 3. To the English Learner 16 4. The Written Alphabet 17 j. Illustrative Readings 18 Phrases and Sentences. Proverbs. A Story. Verse. 6. The Story of the Alphabet 25 Wilhelm Spitta. Preceding Steps and Studies. Spitta's Work. The Al- phabet. Conclusion. 7. hasan li fattne >6 Erratum. - On page 9 transfer the word jomen from the 15th to the 23d line. The Alphabet. (alifbe). a alif ah h //a (*> a alif a d ddl (*) e alif eh d ddd (o») e alif e r re 0) i alif ih 0) z ze (j) y alif y s syn (u-) o alif oh s iyn (u>) 6 alif 6 s sad (o*) u alif uh c 'en (&) u alif u f fe (^) b be ( v ) q qdf (o) t te ( ° ) k kef (*) t id (Jo) 1 lam 0) g gym U) m m\m (r) g gSn ( t. ) n nun (o) h hi ( s ) w wau (3) h hd (e) J je (v) a, a, e, e, i, y, o, 6, u, u, b, t, t, g, g, k, k, /i, d, 4, r, z, s, s, s, c , /, q, k, /, in, n, w, j. -Sv^g^- Pronunciation . Vowels a like English a in at, had, man. Examples. — ab, father ; abadan, never; ana, I; dahab, gold; samak, fish; ma c laqa, spoon ; nahl, date- palms ; nadah, he has called; naddara, spectacles, eye- glasses, opera-glass ; wara, behind; wa c ad, he has pro- mised ; jitkallimu, they speak, ivill speak; jistannak, he waits for you; wala, or. a like English a in ah, bar, father. Examples.- — ale, tool; bab, door; saif, seeing; sstf, he has seen; la, no; maward, rosewater ; mydan, square, public place; mylad, Christmas ; nar, fire; na- miisvje, mosquito-net ; wadih, clear, distinct, plain; jafa, Jaffa; jomen, two days. e like English e in bed, ell, send. Examples. — el, the; esne, Esne ; efendy, Mr., gen- tleman ; gebel, mountain; geclyd, new; kelb, dog; megawir, student; we, and. e like English ey in they, or ay in say, hirer. Examples. — etnen, two; es, what; bed, eggs ; c eb, shame; c es, bread; fen, where; qaret, I have read; le, why; lei, night, evening. a ^ti^raS - ^faskaArtzxz/ ^ei j7£t££ X7M7Z/Z/ ^ewxtZt . ellu adeeiyoou u b t t g g Ji h h d d r z s s s '" f q k I m n zv / The Egyptian Alphabet Ilhtstrative Readings. Phrases and Sentences. ana we inte, / and you. qui ly ! tell me ! bi kam er rati? for how much a pound? kull jom we jom, every other day. myn di? who is that? imsy min bene, ja waled ! go away prom here, boy ! garak myn ? who is your neighbour? rah fy betoh, he went into his house. 16 let? why not? kelb el be" kebyr qawy, the bey ' s dog is very big. myn min es syn ? who is from China? aiwa, ja sydy ! yes, sir / el haqq wajak, you are right. manys gany, / am not rich. ma lohs sugl c andy, he has nothing to do with me. hyje zatha gat, she herself came. di c eb, that is a shame. lak al6je, / am indebted to you. fy e ger kide ? what else is there? fat aleje fil bet, he called at my house. fyh fulus ? is there any money? la, ma fyKs, no, there is none. gara & ? what has liappened? ma garas haga, nothing has happened. suf el banat d61? look at those girls! ana mus fahim, c auz e? / don't understand, what do you want? inte kunt c and myn embareh bil lei? at whose house were you yesterday evening? el c ilm jegyb el hilm, learning brings patience. el qabtan sakin fy masr, the captain resides at Cairo. etnen etnen, two and two. hum kanu fil hammam jom el gum c a, they were at the bath on Friday. kam noba ruht fil ihram? how many times did you. go to the Pyramids? marraten, we inte? twice, and you ? sabah el her! good morning! naharak sa c yd ! good day ! mesa el her ! good evening ! leltak sa c yde ! good The Egyptian Alphabet night! ezzajak? how do you do? kef krfak? how arc you? taijibyn? arc you well? taijibyn, el hamdu lillah, very well, thank God! marhaba ! welcome! ahlan we sahlan! you are welcome! itfaddal, tefaddal ! please! be so good! please conic in! help yourself! take a seat! ma c es salame, good bye! auhastina, ja hawaga ! thanks for your visit, sir! istanna suwaije! stop a little! sallim ly c ala ummak! my regards to your mother! uladha fen? where are her children? ma afhams turky, / do not understand Turkish. ruhna netull c alehum, we went to call upon them. diryt bil habar? did you hear the news? elly tat tat, let bygones be bygones, ma ji c rafs rasoh min rigleh, he does not know his head from his foot. hyje ahsan min n oh bi ketyr, she is better than he by a good deal. da beta ha, that's hers. bijakul lahme haf, he eats meat and nolhiug with it. hallyk jemynak ! keep to your right! suft el jasmynat fil genene beta c na? have you seen the jasmines in our garden? baqa tehuss en nasara el kenyse, now the Christians enter the church. ihna kunna til mahatta es sa c a telate we nuss, we were at the station at half past three. el hoga el nemsawy biji c mil ^ dilwaqt ? 7^hat is the German school-teacher doino- now? ma neqitls haga, we say nothing. jeruhu imte? when arc they going? huwa ma jihdimnys, he does not serve me. matluboh kam qirs ? how many piastres does he demand? ti c mil e fy masr ? what are you doing at Cairo? elly c atsan jisrab, he who is thirsty will drink. ma ticlrabhas! do not strike her! et taljanyje jifhamu el lisan el esban- joly, lakin ma jiqruhs, the Italians understand the Span- ish language, but they do not read it. bdstet el hind ma gats lissa. — el kahrabayje hyje hibr et telegrafgy, we c iddet et telegraf hyje qalamoh. — ism hedewy masr c abbas basa et tany. — muhammad taufyq The Egyptian Alphabet el hedewy es sabiq kan jehibb masr we jehibb h£rha ; we wafatoh si c bet c alal masrijyn kulluhum. — el bahr el abjad we el bahr el azraq jingim c u sawa c and el hartum fy wust afryqa, we min henak jibtidy bahr en nyl. — el agrumyje c ilm el luga, we hyje maqsuma qismen : i. c ilm el kilmat, we 2. c ilm eg gumal. kull masry lazim jit c allim el agrumyje c asan innaha ti c allimoh jitkallim we jiqra we jiktib el lisan elly rabbuna iddah loh, we elly jisma c oh kull jom. — masr maqsuma li qismen, bahary we qibly ; fy kull qism saba c mudyryat. mudyryat bahry hyje :. qaljtibyje, daqahlyje, garbyje, serqyje, behera, menufyje; we mudy- ryjat qibly hyje : eg gyze, benysuef, el faijum, minje, asjut, girge, qene we mudyryet el hudud. — halet el malyje el masryje fy yjam c abbas basa et tany ger haletha fy yjam isma c yl bS.sa. — bilad eg gezair fil waqt el hadir tab c a li feransa; we hyje waq c a ben marakis we tunis. — el faqyr di jasyr c and el emyr el kebyr ketyr. — sallim c alal me c al- lim qabl ma titkallim ! — el qamar jedur hawalen el ard kull telatyn jom marra. — ed dunje kullaha ti c raf elly ji c rafuh telat ashas. — eg gami c el azhar akbar medrese islamyje fy ed dunje, we el h6gat fyh astar hogat el lisan el c araby el qadym, we min a c lam en nas fy c ulum el qoran. ma fys mahall jimkin el insan jit c allim fyh el c ulum el c arabyje zej el gami c da. el megawiryn elly fyh gu min bilad ketyre, min marakis li hadd el hind. el gami c el azhar kebyr we kuwaijis qawy, we en nas tinbisit ketyr min et tafarrug c aleh, we musahdet el c ulama el c uzam we et talamza elly fyh.-— Dante kan sa c ir taljfiny mashfir; c as min 600 sene. ashar as c aroh ismoh A komedje el muqaddasa. huwa inwalad fy felorensa, we mat manfy fy rafenna, ja c ny ba c yd c an watanoh. — ism el felasuf elly ihtara c en naddara elly jesufu biha en nugfim kan galyleo ; huwa mat senet 1642 myladyje, we indafan fy felorensa. — The Egyptian Alphabet auwal kitfib taba c uh kan fy germanje min rub c emyje we hamsyn scne. min qablaha kanet el kutub kullaha mak- tube bil hatt. — el gami c loh madne wala madneten, we lywan, we mambar, we dikke, we mihrab jedill alal qible au gihet mekka el mukarrama ; we fil h6s hanafyje we meda ; we fy gawami c fyha medrese. aqdam gami c fy masr huwa garni' c amr, we garni ahmed ibn tulfin. el masrijyn kanu fil auwal jitkallimu we jiktibu el lis&n el masry el qadym ; ba c den saru jitkallimu bil qibty; we ba c den saru jiqru we jiktibu el c araby. dilwaqt humma jitkallimu we jiktibu el masry el gedyd. bil taryqa di el masrijyn gaijaru lugethum marrat ketyr. — el luga el qibtyje kanu jista c miluha fy masr ril kitabe we el kalam qabl duhtil el islam; fy kutubhanat bilad el iferang kutub ketyre maktube bil lisan el qibty. ahsan agrumyje qibty katabha el mu'allim stern bil almany. el luga el qibtyje ma jitkallimus biha dilwaqt. — el fellah el masry mus mit c al- lim. le? c asan innoh jiltizim jit'allim alifbe sa c be qawy, we lammajit c allim el alifbe di jilaqyha ma tinfa c us fil c araby elly bi A tkallimoh. huwa c auz jit c allim el lisan elly jitkal- limuh en nahar da, mus el lisan elly itkallimuh min muddet humsemyt sene. — el alifbe ma c mula min ginsen min el huruf: huruf laha sot wala natiqa; we huruf bala sot wala sakita. el huruf en natiqa ginsen : qusaijara (a, e, i, o, i/J we tawyla fa, e,y, o, u). baqy huruf alifbe, min harf el be lil ahir, hyje huruf sakita (b li hadd // saqqdra, elly kdn ismalm zamdn ment, kanet auwal taljt li bilad masr; baden luasor, elly kdnu el jundn ]isam- muha tebes, baqct taht masr ; we bad luasor baqet isken- deryje et taht. el z agam daJjalu masr min aktar min alfen sene we hakaniuha muddet myten sene taqryban. fy yjdm er rumdn (et taljdnijyn el quddm) we el jundn, iskenderyje kanet hyje taht masr. iskender el kebyr, melik er rum, bana The Egyptian Alphabet medynet iskenderyje we indafan fyha. — fy scnet tamantdsar min el higra dahal c amr, general el halvfc c omar, bildd masr, we kdnet waqtaha tab" a 11 mamlakct er rum ; we ahad iskenderyje fy scnet wdhid we c esryn min el higra. z omar kdn el Ijalyfc fy dimisq es sdm. huwa bana masr el qdhira, taljt el hukume li bildd masr. masr sdret guz min mam- lakct ct turk fy scnet Q22 HI higra. — akbar feldsifet el c arab ibn sync, el maruf c and el iferang bi ism avisenna, we ibn rnsd, ct maruf c anduhum bi ism averrhoes. ibn sync inwalad fy bnhdra scnet j$8 higry/c, we ibn rusd in- ivalad jip bildd esbdnje scnet 520 higryje. — el maqryzy mat scnet 81 g higryje ; huwa katab gogrdfyjet masr city inta- ba c ct fy matbact buldq ; we ab el mahdsin katab tdryh masr miu yjdm cl haly/c c omar li //add mot cl mcallif scnet 84J higryje. we ibn haJdun kdn min a lam cl masrijyn, we katab tdryh tawyl li masr.- — cl kitdb city kataboh batlymos, cl feldsuf er rumy, c ala en nugfim targimoh bit c araby cl fcr- gdny. — cl gabr c ilm hisdb a. la, jistamilu fyh cl huruf bi- ddl cl a c ddd. Proverbs. el yd el battale nigise. iftakarna el qutt gana jenutt. el hasud la jesud. ma ba c d es sabr ilia el qabr. el hurfib nuss es saga c a. Ms min fummak jetul kummak. 161a el kasura ma kanet el fahura. el awar ben el c imy sultan. m% fyhs warde bala sok, la. halawe bala nar. gajib ly hakym gasym \% ja c raf et tyn min el c agyn. The Egyptian Alphabet basal bi hamse we bi Ijamse basal. min talab el c ula sihir el lejaly. el jom elly jefdt ahsan min elly jigy. in kan lak c and el kelb haga, qui loh : "ja sydy! " j6m c asal we jom basal. utlub eg gar qabl ed dar, we el rafyq qabl et taryq. min taanna nal ma jitmanna. elly fy ydak aqrab min elly fy gebak. " es biddak, ja a c ma ? " " quffet c ujun. " el qird c and ummoh gazal. qabl ma timsy suf rajih tehott riglak fen. elly c ala rasoh batha jihassis c aleha. en nar wala el 'ar. in tili c el c eb min ahl el c eb ma hus c 6b. es eab tiih fv melvsr A Story. kan ragil ruziq bi waled we firih boh. kan biddoh jister) r loh mahd. rah li wahid naggar we idda loh ma- salan rijal we qal loh: " i c mil ly mahd: " qal loh en nag- gar: "taijib! nahar el gum c a ta c ala we hod el mahd!" ja c ny ba c d tamant yjam kan el hamys. nahar el gum c a er ragil rah loh, we qal loh: " hat el mahd! " qal loh en naggar: " lissa mns halas. " we it c ahhar en naggar lamma misy el waled, we kibir, we itgauwiz we istaulid waled, qal li abuh : " c auz mahd li ibny. " qal loh abuh : " riih en naggar el fulan}* ana wassetoh bi mahd jibqa dilwaqt c esryn sene ; hodoh minnoh ! " rah en naggar, qal loh : " hat el mahd elly wassak boh abuje we idda lak rijal ! " qal loh en naggar : " hod er rijal, ma ahibbis asta c - gil es sugl! " 2 4 The Egyptian Alphabet Verse. ana el wabfir iswid gatys we mustaraje alfen kys ; dol jihdimuny efendyje mitrahifyn nazilyje kull wahid bi mahyje hilaf el daira we el dywan. huwa. — " ja munjet el qalb, qui ly we es baqa jigra? adi telatyn sene haddam bala ugra ; we adi telatyn sene we ana warak sanwah ; u. we adi telatyn sene haddy lukum madas ; we adi telatyn sene we basma c kalam en nas ; we adi telatyn sene we el bab qussad el bab ; myje we tamanyn sene ma hadd radd gawab. " hyje. — " in get min el bab isha el bauwab jidrabak! we in sret min el het u c a es si lie wa? c a bak ! we in tirt fil gau saija c t el c uqab gabak ; we in get min el bahr et timsah aula bak. kuwa. — " in get min el bab halletoh sab c at ilwah, we in get min el het halletoh sadah we madah, we in tirt fil gau aksar lil c uqab eg ginah, we elly halaqny jinaggyny min et timsah. The Story of the Alphabet. The alphabet here represented and explained is that of the living language of Egypt. It consists of thirty-four letters, of which the first ten express pure vowel sounds — - five short in their nature, and five long. No existing tongue possesses' an alphabet embracing so wide a vocal range, and at the same time of so simple a character; and few nationalities can boast of one which can be so rapidly acquired, or so readily applied both in writing and printing. It may be generally described as a modification of the Latin letters, devised with no little ingenuity, and adapted with no little skill to the vocabulary in use, at the present day, by the inhabitants of the Nile valley. Properly speaking, it is not to be regarded as a system of transcribing, or transliterating, the elements of any other alphabet, but rather as an independent ABC, specially elaborated to express, in the clearest and most convenient manner, the vocal and consonantal articulations of this newest Egyptian tongue. It is to be treated as belonging to the Egyptians, just as the German alphabet belongs to the Germans, or the Greek alphabet to the Greeks, or the Persian alphabet to the Persians. It is not intended to be used in writing any other form of speech, and, in particular, it cannot be employed, without material alter- ation and extension, in writing the classical or Koranic Arabic — often styled the Old-Arabic — -which is the parent 26 The Egyptian Alphabet of the modern Egyptian. Its component letters are here arranged, to some extent, morphologically — a method which, as a noted English writer tells us, " is very conve- nient for the learner; letters of similar form being brought into juxtaposition, it becomes easy to compare them, and to remember minute distinctions in their outlines. " J ) But the classification of the letters is not a matter of grave importance. The Old-Arabic alphabet, as it has been, in the course of time, adopted and adapted by various Asiatic nations, differs more or less, in each country, in order and extent, from its primitive. We have grown accustomed, too, in these days of investigation, to see all alphabets arranged, by the grammarians, for their special purposes, in differing groups in accordance with varying schemes of collocation or of classification. This new alphabet — so simple yet so complete — owes its origin to that most ardent friend of the Egyptian people — that most zealous and most successful of all students of the Egyptian dialect, Wilhelm Spitta, who was born June 14, 1853, in the little Hanoverian town of Wittengen, and died at the baths of Lippspringe, in the principality of Lippe, September 6, 1883. Within the narrow limits of an existence of three decades it has rarely happened that a single brain has wrought so much and wrought so well. But that brain was fortunate enough to discover its proper field of study and energy at an extra- ordinarily early age. While still young, Wilhelm lost his father, the lyric poet, Philipp Spitta, from whom he inher- ited the quick intelligence and early mental maturity, which enabled him to begin his Oriental studies even during his gymnasial years. These were passed at Hildesheim, the 1) The Alphabet by Isaac Taylor (London, 1883), I, p. 189. The Egyptian Alphabet picturesque cradle of North-German art, whence, after a brilliant exit-examination, he entered the university of Got- tingen at the Easter term of 1871 ; but ultimately, having meanwhile undergone his year of military service, he trans- ferred his studies, for the sake of the Arabic instruction of Heinrich Fleischer, to the university of Leipsic, at which great school he took his doctorate early in 1875. So evi- dent and so eminent were his qualifications for the post that, through the efforts and recommendations of his teach- er, Fleischer, and of the Egyptologist, Georg Ebers, he was appointed, while still an undergraduate in the univer- sity, the successor of Ludwig Stern as director of the Vice- regal Library which had been founded at Cairo in 1870 by the khedive Isma c yl. He assumed the duties of this office April 5, 1875 — not }" et twenty-two years of age. The following year he published at Leipsic his valuable tractate, " Zur Geschichte Abu c l-hasan al Ascharis " — a paper first drawn up in order to serve as his doctor's dissertation. This was succeeded later on by various con- tributions to the Oriental journals of Europe; it was fol- lowed, as well, by numberless hours of ready and un- grudging help to students and others, who sought his scholarly aid, and by generous counsel and assistance in all undertakings promising to be of advantage to Egypt, its people or its letters. But to all outward appearance his heart was most of all in his official work. When, on April 19, 1882, he was deprived by the minister of edu- cation of the position he had so ably filled — a conse- quence of the oligarchic fanaticism which had raised the ignorant c Araby and his fellow conspirators to power — he could write to a learned compatriot thus: — " In truth the existing organization of the Library, in all its departments, is my work. I have re-arranged and catalogued, with my 28 The Egyptian Alphabet own hand, its European section; of the Oriental division I have compiled a card-catalogue by authors, with shelf-lists, and have very nearly ready for the press two big volumes of a scientifically-classified catalogue. I have brought the collection from 13.000 volumes to 30.000 — of which 20.000 are Arabic, Persian and Turkish manuscripts. The present personnel is my creation, and T have even taught the art of cataloguing to my successor. All this has been the labour of seven hard years. " These " seven hard years " were more fruitful for Egypt, as we shall hereafter see, than were the Pharaonic " seven years of great plenty. " Those who had the good fortune, as did the writer of these pages, to see Spitta be engaged at his work in the important Cairene collection of books, were amazed at both the quantity and the quality of the labour he was accomplishing. He seemed to them the model librarian — a combination of the highest intelligence with the highest fac- ulties of administration and industry. Little did many of his interested visitors dream that those long hours of dili- gence represented the less valuable portion of the task he had assigned himself. Few, certainly, of his European associates, understood that outside of that not very whole- some edifice in the darb el gamamyz, in which were housed the precious volumes under his charge, he was building himself (during hours which should have been hours of restful leisure) a monument which can never decay. He made his home, from the beginning, in an Ara- bic household, and during much of his unofficial time came into contact only with natives, taking down from their mouths, with untiring assiduity, glossaries, idiomatic say- ings, proverbs and popular tales. Amid these surround- ings, or arranging, during his summer vacations, the abun- dant material thus accumulated, he at length brought The Egyptian Alphabet 29 to a conclusion, before the earliest five of his " seven hard years " had completely elapsed, his systematic investiga- tions into the living speech of Egypt. The result was, as has been more than once remarked, " the first scien- tific treatment of a modern Arabic dialect; " and not often has a first treatment been so exhaustive. His " Gram- matik des arabischen Vulgardialectes von Aegypten " was published in the latter half of 1880, and was followed by its supplementary volume, the "Contes Arabes Modernes " in 1 883 — almost in his dying hours. These two works form, perhaps, the most remarkable contribution to Oriental lin- guistics during the last quarter of a century, and are, in every respect, models of philological research and state- ment. No one who has read the deeply-interesting pref- ace to the " Grammatik " can doubt the warmth of the hope which he entertained that the work — as his biogra- pher expresses it — " might contribute to the elevation of the spoken dialect into a written language, thereby bridg- ing over that deep chasm between the idiom of the people and the idiom of literature, which is the greatest obstruc- tion in the path of Egyptian progress. " The striking and forcible paragraph which closes the preface has been frequently cited, but a translation of it here can hardly be out of place : — " Finally I will ven- ture to give utterance to a hope which, during the compi- lation of this work, I have constantly cherished; it is a hope which concerns Egypt itself, and touches a matter which, for it and its people, is almost a question of life or death. Every one who has lived, for a considerable pe- riod, in an Arabic-speaking land knows how seriously all its activities are affected by the wide divergence of the written language from the spoken. Under such circumstances there can be no thought of popular culture ; for how is it possi- 3 o The Egyptian Alphabet ble, in the brief period of primary instruction, to acquire even a half-way knowledge of so difficult a tongue as the lite- rary Arabic, when, in the secondary schools, youths undergo the torture of its study during several years without arriving at other than the most unsatisfying results ? Of course the unfortunate graphic medium — the complex alphabet — is in great part to blame for all this ; yet how much easier would the matter become if the student had merely to write the tongue which he speaks, instead of being forced to write a language which is as strange to the present generation of Egyptians as the Latin is to the people of Italy, or the Old- Greek to the inhabitants of Greece — a language which, without being the popular speech, is no longer even the classical Arabic ! A real literature cannot be thus devel- oped ; for only the limited cultivated class knows how to use a book ; to the mass of the people a book is really a thing unknown. If he have need to write a letter, or execute a document, the ordinary man of the people must put himself blindly into the hands of a professional scribe ; he must trustingly sign the most important papers with a seal which he cannot read, and which may be and is easily imitated. Why can this lamentable condition of things not be changed for the better? Simply because there is a fear, if the language of the Koran be wholly given up, of incurring the charge of trespassing upon the domain of religion. But the Koranic language is now nowhere written ; for wherever you find a written Arabic it is the Middle-Arabic of the offices. Even the dubious unity of the Islamitic peoples would not be disturbed by the adop- tion of the spoken vernacular, since the language of prayer and of the ritual would still remain everywhere the same. It is also asserted that the New-Arabic is wholly unfit to become the language of the pen because it obeys no fixed The Egyptian Alphabet laws, and flows on without any syntactic restrictions. I venture to believe that the present publication proves that the speech of the people is not so completely incapable of discipline; that, on the contrary, it possesses an abun- dance of grammatical niceties; and that it is precisely the simplicity of its syntax, the plasticity of its verbal construc- tion, which will make it a most serviceable instrument. Did the Italian seem any more promising when Dante wrote his Divine Comedy? And would a commission of the most learned and most expert men of Egypt, not be able to do infinitely better that which it has not appeared to me, a foreigner, too difficult to undertake ? " The distinguished Eduard Meyer — himself a sad loss to the ranks of Germany's orientalists before he had reached his real maturity — was Spitta's most intimate associate in his university years and afterwards. He thus describes Spitta during his Leipsic clays: — ■" He had an aspect full of vigor and comeliness; the weakness which had affected him in his boyish years had completely vanished ; and no one who looked at him could have divined that he was doomed to be a victim of pulmonary disease. The strong moral seriousness and lofty nobility of his nature were evident in everything he did or said. " The same friend affectingly adds: — " Per- sonally I know not how to do him other honor than to de- clare thus publicly that the greater part of whatever I may either intend, or may accomplish, will be based upon princi- ples which we unitedly developed. " As early as the last months of 1877 his physical appearence already showed slight changes, but in the winter of 1880-81 he was still a striking and attractive personage — perhaps handsomer because of the hectic flush which tinged his cheeks, and pre- saged the sure fate awaiting him. In society he was often modestly reticent, but when he did talk the listener soon The Egyptian Alphabet recognized the depth and breadth of his knowledge. He was familiar with most of the languages of Europe, and with all of those of the east which have adopted the Old- Arabic alphabet, although his Oriental studies began with the Sanscrit. In the literature of bibliography, and of bibliothecal management he was well versed. Like all his family he was fond of music, which was almost his only diversion; and his finely-trained ear stood him in good stead in testing and fixing the fluctuating and uncertain vowel-sounds of Egyptian speech. One may occasionally doubt the correctness of his transcription, but after hearing the word in question pronounced by a dozen different native voices the decision is generally in favor of the Spitta or- thography. Looking back upon the hours of intercourse with him, and recalling a thousand instructive incidents indicating his extraordinary intellectual capacity, it is impossible not to wonder what a score of years, added to his scanty score and a half, might not have enabled him to accomplish. But whatever his additional achievements might have been it is certain that they would have largely benefited the Egypt he so loved — how deeply and truly may be judged from the concluding words (the very last he wrote) of the introduction to his " Contes Arabes Modernes: " — " Au moment ou j'6cris ces lignes, je vais quitter l'Egypte pro- bablement pour toujours, assurement pour longtemps. Je serais content si, par les pages suivantes, je gagnais quel- ques nouveaux amis a la vieille Egypte populaire, humble et cachee, mais forte par la chaleur interieure de sa vie, par l'intimite et la naivete de ses sentiments — a cette Egypte inconnue des financiers et des diplomates, qui, depuis les Pharaons jusqu'a nos jours, a survecu a toutes les civilisations. " The Egyptian Alphabet 33 Preceding Steps and Studies. What the Germans style the " Transcriptionsfrage " which may be loosely denned as the question of writing extra-European languages by means of a European or mod- ified European alphabet — has produced a considerable literature. The history of this branch of philological work cannot, of course, be portrayed here at any length. The efforts of English scholarship, so far as this kind of re- search is concerned, have been chiefly limited to the lan- guages of India. They began with an essay by Sir Wil- liam Jones — a man memorable in many ways — " On the Orthography of Asiatic Words in Roman Letters " (1788). His observations show great insight, technical and otherwise, for he objects to the use of" double letters " to express a single vowel sound, and to the intermixture of "Roman and Italic letters " in the same word, which, he remarks, " both in writing and printing would be very inconvenient. " He did not however adopt throughout the principle of" one sound, one letter; " and the little he attempted in the tran- scription of Arabic, evinced a marked deficiency of knowl- edge in regard to the phonology of that tongue. He in- sisted on giving to the European vowels their Italian values, but in the crude condition of philological studies, at that time, he failed to see that the English consonantal system is, in many respects, as barbarous as its vowel scheme. On the whole, however, he exhibited qualities which were hardly again united in the same mind until the appearance, more than two generations later, of Lepsius and Spitta. But his good endeavours were thwart- ed by an inferior scholar, John Gilchrist, who, in his grammatical and lexicographical works on the Hindu- stani (1 787-1 796), adopted, in his transcriptions, the En- 34 The Egyptian Alphabet glish alphabet pure and simple, heedless of its defects and anomalies. It is Gilchrist who is responsible for the uncouth orthography of Indian local and personal names so long prevalent in English publications, and not yet wholly abandoned. Sometime after 1830 Sir Charles Tre- velyan, a man of varied ability and familiar with many of the Indian idioms, made a serious attempt to recur to the methods of Sir William Jones which partially suc- ceeded 1 ); later an Max Muller, as we shall hear, proposed a complete revision of the previous method of transliter- ation, but his combination of Roman and Italic letters, long before justly condemned by Sir William Jones, gave evidence of that want of proper aptitude for this kind of labour, which has been common to many minds otherwise of high philological astuteness. Dr. Caldwell, Sir Monier Monier- Williams 2 > and the Rev. George Uglow Pope, as well as a special committee of the Madras Literary Society, followed in the track of Trevelyan, the second-named displaying great good sense, but some of the others clinging to the clumsy double consonants (especially ch and sh). In France the acute, but not always profound Volney was the first to take up w T ith seriousness the subject of expressing Asiatic and African vocables by means ot European letters; he did this in connection with the pub- lication of the results of the Napoleonic scientific sur- vey of Egypt (1795), an d> at a subsequent period (18 18), 1) Original Papers illustrating the History of the Application of the Ro Alphabet to the Languages of India, by Sir Charles Edward Trevelyan, edited by Monier Williams (London, 1859). Interesting reviews of these papers appeared in the London Athenceum (1859, II, p. 628), in the Calcutta Review (July, 1864) and in the London Reader (1863, II, p. 604 and 1865, I, p. 598). 2) Bagh o Bahar : the Hindustani Text of Mir Amman: edited in Roma7i Type, with Xotes, and an introductory Chapter on the Use of the Roman Character in Oriental Languages, by Monier Williams (London, 1859). 7V/c Egyptian . Xlphabet 35 presented a more carefully elaborated scheme. In his earlier method he employed two characters to represent a single sound in only a single case, but his mixture of Greek and Latin letters, and some of his peculiar graphic modifications of the Latin alphabetical signs made a wri- ting at once unseemly and complicated; his final alphabet was an improvement, but his mingled Italic and Roman letters, his superlinear letters, his retention of several Greek letters, as well as some other features of his alphabet, kept his text still far from sightly. The Germans were late in the field, but, as in so man}- other portions of the linguistic domain, their labors were more fruitful. In his Latin transliteration of Sanscrit words Bopp (1833) led the van in forsaking the unsvstematic modes of transcription, but was soon followed by Brockhaus, Benfey and the whole Sanscrit school — one of Germany's greatest glories — while, in treating in the same way the Old-Arabic alphabet, the late Karl Paul Caspari and Fleischer were not slow to make im- portant innovations in the right direction. In the meantime physiology had come to the aid of philology, and the new science of phonology was growing up. This led to a treatment of the subject on a wider scale as well as by juster methods. Moreover a new stim- ulus from a novel source was given to these alphabet- ical studies. It was in 1848 that the Rev. Henry Venn, the secretary of the Church Missionary Society in London, issued his " Rules for reducing unwritten Languages to al- phabetical Writing, " for the benefit more particularly of missionaries in various parts of Africa. In many other quarters the subject was now taken up with energy. The accomplished Christian Bunsen — then Prussian ambass in England — enlisted several noted philologists and other scholars in the movement, summoning them to a conference 3 6 The Egyptian Alphabet in London. Among those participating were Trevelyan, who still supported the alphabetical ideas of Sir William Jones, and Max Muller, *) who devised and advocated an entirely new scheme to which allusion has already been made, but which was soon overshadowed by that emana- ting from Berlin. In that city Richard Lepsius, incited by the missionary organizations, interested himself in the matter, for the treatment of which his previous studies had specially fitted him, soon producing his " Standard Al- phabet" (1855), and ultimately a second edition (1863) with modifications. 2 ) Between these two issues came his treatise " Ueber die Ausprache und die Umschrift cler arabischen Laute " (Berlin, 1 861). The " Standard Alphabet " is a vast contrivance of nearly eighty sonant expressions, notable beyond all preceding efforts for its technical excellence, and for the evidence of common sense, as well as of schol- arly research, which characterizes it. Five diphthongs are expressed by double vowels ; nine letters are either derived from the Greek alphabet or are arbitrary signs; and the remainder are all Latin letters modified by dia- critical marks. It includes a distinct representative of every possible variety of human articulation. But its chief utility is in furnishing a written medium for the wholly uncultivated tribal tongues — unconnected, even remotely, with any form of written speech — and in which it seems unlikely that any great printed literature will ever exist; i) Proposals for a Missionary Alphabet by Max Muller (London, 1855, with a folio volume of alphabets). As late as 1867, when his " Outline Dictionary" was published, Professor Max Midler, in his transliteration of foreign alphabets, still made use of both Italic and Roman letters. 2) Standard Alphabet for reducing unwritten Languages and foreign graphic Systems to a uniform Orthography in European Letters, by C. R. Lepsius (London, 1863, but printed in Merlin). The slight historical sketch of the subject here given is greatly indebted, for its facts and dates, to this second edition of the treatise of Lepsius. The Egyptia7i Alphabet in that aspect it has undoubtedly been a boon to the mis- sionary world. For other purposes it has proved less useful ; and it has never been generally applied to any con- siderable linguistic group. Spitta's Work. With all that had thus been discussed and done by the preceding scholars — -English, French and German— whose names have here been cited, and by many others to whom no reference has been made, Spitta was minutely familiar. He approached the alphabetical part of his task. however, with the sole idea of evolving the simplest and clearest medium of expression for a language which was. as yet, unendowed with any, but which was the daughter of a tongue possessing one too cumbersome for national use, too complex in its character for the purposes of mod- ern life. Although still an unwritten speech it was des- tined, unless all the experience gained from the history of linguistic development be misleading, to blossom out, at no remote date, into the flowery freshness of a new literature. Spitta was, perhaps, the only available person of his day, who could look at his undertaking, as it grew into realization, from every point of view. Repossessed all the imaginable qualifications for his task — not a few of which, as has already been stated — had been notably lacking in those who had heretofore occupied themselves with the invention or designing of alphabets — with the evolution of schemes of transliteration. He was not only an able philologist and phonologist, but he perfectly un- derstood every phase and feature — even those technical subtleties generally known only to the expert — of the arts of writing and printing. This is a most important con- sideration, for an alphabet must serve three very dissim- 3 s The Egyptian Alphabet ilar ends — it has to be read, it has to be written and it has to be printed. A scholar may know whether the alphabet be such that, through its proper expression of the proper sounds, the language can be satisfactorily read, but only the calligraphist can decide whether it be fit for the purposes of chirography, only the printer can judge whether it be available for the aims of typography. Want of this technical availability has recently resulted in the speedy condemnation of a method of transcribing Arabic, adopted, after much learned travail, by a congress of Orientalists — a method which, at a glance, shows the absence of any prac- tical, artistic or mechanical expertness in the committee which devised it; for it employs signs inconvenient in cal- ligraphy and nearly impossible in typography. T) The alphabet of Spitta uses a single Latin character to express a simple phonetic element — an absolutely es- sential condition — such combinations as eh, oh, kk, sh find- ing no place in it, and indeed no literal combinations what- ever being used except those representing the diphthongal ai and au. This avoids every chance of obscurity, for if you use S as one sonant sign, // as another, and sh for a third I) A diacritical sign frequently used in the system of transliteration for Arabic, reported by a committee to a late Congress of Orientalists at Geneva, is made by the awkward process of a stroke backward, followed by a stroke forward — an operation which will not commend itself to the calligraphist. What would the writer of En- glish think, if instead of dotting the i he were constantly obliged to complete this double stroke? Among the letters to which this diacritical wonder must be subscript is the g (to represent the c gen) — but the downward extension of the printed^ already goes as far below the line as is possible without impinging upon the type below it. How do the astute devisers of this scheme propose to get the type-founders to cast, or the printers to use such an impossible type? Unless they intend to cut off the lower end of the letter, and put the sign under the tail of the g as it were, the mark must at best be made too minute to remain Jong unbroken. But when the student has fairly decided to learn and to employ this congressional method of transcription he will find that, after all, he need not feel himself obliged to adhere to it, for he is told that, in many cases, in place of the transliterating letter the substitution of a combination of two other letters is " permissible. " For instance, in place of the The Egyptian Alphabet 39 sound, how are you to know when the two letters are to be pronounced individually and when together, in other terms, whether you are to read ashal as as-hal or ash-al? Considered from the outset as a genuine alphabet, and not as a mere artificial contrivance for transliterating another alphabet, it, of course, admits of no confusing alternatives, such, for example, as allowing ch or kh to be written at the will of the transcriber for //. Each Latin character, too, retains its identity, its personal individuality, its pure Latinity, so to speak, without disfigurement by over-heavy or wrongly-placed appendages. The letters are modified solely by additions, not by organic charges of form; and those additions are of the simplest and slightest sort — dots and strokes — such as can be read and written with the utmost ease, and printed with the utmost facility and distinctness. These diacritical marks, as they are usually styled, are all superscript or subscript, never lateral adjuncts, disturb- ing the letter's perpendicular simplicity and obscuring its outline. In Spitta, too, there was the sense of the artist as well as the wisdom of the scholar and the cunning of the craftsman — another essential for the profession of the alpha- g, with the double backward and forward stroke under it, he may write for c gen the combination gh; instead of s with the same subscript double stroke he may, at his own sweet will, write sh. Again, if it does not please him to put two dots under a t (to express id) he is allowed to put only one. But it is hardly worth while to mention the other absurdities of this scheme, of which there are many. The evident dissatisfaction with the report of the committee felt by that high Arabic author- ity, Dr. Albert Socin, is not strange, although his expression of it seems not by any means as critically severe as it might well have been — a forbearance which may possibly have arisen from his personal relations to the committee. The same may be said of the strictures upon the Geneva scheme in a more recent brochure, " Die Transcription fremder Alphabete " (Leipzig, 1897) by Professor Ernst Kuhn and the distinguished librarian, Hans Schnorr von Carolsfeld, of Munich. This little work is intended particularly for the use of book-cataloguers, that is for calligraphic purposes. Otherwise useful, it is perhaps marred by giving too little consideration to the exi- gencies of typography. It seems to grant the impropriety of /=soft g, but decides to use it; and it abandons, with reason, the " permissible " variants of the Geneva report. The Egyptian Alphabet betist, if we may coin that term. No unseemly, outre, non- homogeneous or non-accordant letters (like those with which many who attempt to follow in the footsteps of Cadmus are so apt to disfigure their text) break the neat uniformity of the lines, paragraphs and pages which are written or printed with these Egyptian characters. x ) One marked instance of Spitta's scholarly, practical sagacity- — unusual because both scholarly and practical in an extreme degree — is his treatment of what may possibly be styled the i-group. His employment of the/ — the true consonantal i — for the sound expressed by the final letter of the Old-Arabic alphabet is warranted on histor- ical, philological and typographical grounds. It is sanc- tioned also by general usage, since a considerable majority of the peoples making use of the Latin alphabet in any form have adopted it as the representative of that phonetic element. In fact only the English, the French and Por- tuguese, and the Spanish give to the j another value, and those nationalities all differ from each other in the char- acter of that value — the English sounding it like soft g, the French and Portuguese like zh, and the Spanish like the German guttural cJi. Spitta's employment of it for its legitimate purpose enabled him to avail himself of the char- acter y — another /-letter — for the rightful long sound i) If any curious person desire to see a noteworthy example of alphabetical uncouthness let him examine either of two works — one by an Austrian and the other by an English professor. The first has little to do with the newer Egyptian speech, is entitled " Die Transcription des Arabischen Alphabetes " (Wien, i860), and is by Professor II. A. Barb. The other is " A Handbook of Modern Arabic " (Lon- don, 1866), the author of which is Professor Francis W. Newman. Both are cu- riosities, each in its own way. Of that class of works which attempts to reproduce Egyptian sounds by the unaided use of the English alphabet there are no end of specimens. The method they favor may be styled the dragomannic system of tran- scription — for many of them are compiled by ambitious Syrian or Egyptian interpre- ters. But whatever be the nationality of their compilers they are almost equally en- tertaining to the orthographical student. The Egyptian Alphabet of i (that is, of ie in shield). This selection proves how carefully he had studied the typographical side of alpha- bets. He comprehended the inevitable inconvenience, in printing, of an accented i — the accent, after slight usage, almost invariably breaking off from the thin and frail body, or becoming so worn or battered that it is no longer distinguishable from the ordinary dot of the letter. Even a tyro in the art of printing would comprehend the utter impracticability of adopting, in an alphabet for general use, an accented i (whatever may be the form of the ac- cent) to express any sound of very frequent recurrence. Furthermore to accent an i — so far as printing is con- cerned — is to deliberately disfigure it by removing one of its essential features, since the dot must generally be eliminated to make place for the accent. The adoption of the / for the consonantal Arabic j'e, and of y for the long /-sound (as in fiend), are of themselves sufficient to demonstrate the study, the acumen and the broad discern- ment brought by Spitta to the execution of his arduous undertaking. 1 ) i) One of the absurd phases of our wonted extreme Englishness — so often satirized even by ourselves — is our demand that foreigners, in our intercourse with them, adopt and use, for our especial comfort and convenience, English customs and forms. If we do not succeed in bringing this about we cannot too severely censure the outside world for thus failing to cut its cloth according to our measures — than which we can imagine none better. Such a national habitude is not merely national obstinacy. It is often, if we but knew it, an unwitting acknowledgment of our own ignorance or backwardness in certain fields of life or activity ; or mayhap an equally unintentional confession of slowness of comprehension beyond certain intel- lectual limits. An example in point is the tardiness of the whole Anglo-saxon world in accepting the metrical system — long since naturalized even among our sister Ger- manic peoples. That this English trait is as striking in linguistic matters as elsewhere the pages of Notes and Queries — to cite one particular witness — abundantly and constantly testify; and everybody will recall the case of the American diplomatist who thought that all foreign governments should pass strenuous laws forbidding their subjects to speak any language but English. A student of almost any race but our own, with the fine early training given in so many continental schools, can readily The Egyptian Alphabet Something must be said in this place of the four semi-vowels to which Spitta had recourse in reducing- to writing the spoken Egyptian, in order to express the more obscure vocal articulations. These find no place in an al- phabet for permanent practical and popular use. That it is hardly the province of such an alphabet to indicate the more delicate shades of sound Spitta was himself aware. He expressly states that, in transcribing, he has largely confined himself to the simple vowels, a, i, and v, instead of always endeavouring to reproduce with exactness the ob- scurer vowel-tones, " da einestheils solche feine Niiancen doch wieder nur durch conventionelle Zeichen wiederge- comprehend that no Latin character so fittingly represents the consonantal z'-sound as does the letter /, but anybody who peruses the English philological literature of the day will frequently have occasion to observe that even experienced English-speak- ing writers on linguistic science cannot wholly rid themselves, in this respect, of their intellectual insularity; while in the case of less learned people the prejudice against the historical and true orthographic use of/ arises as much from a felt lack of mental quickness, training or adaptability, as from any other sentiment. Nothing seems simpler to the average foreigner, when he is authoritatively told that / is the best representative of the Arabic je than to so use it ; but the average Anglo-saxon will none of it. He says, or feels: — " Let the 'blamed furriner ' do what he pleases with his js, I am going to stick to my vs. " But the same obstinate Englishman, when he undertakes to learn German must of necessity acquiesce in the fact that our r-sound is to be expressed by /. Why should he find it more difficult to utter the Egyptian jd (oh!) than the German ja (yes) — the two being pronounced virtually alike? On the other hand, in acquiring French, he must perforce be content to know that /, in that language is pronounced like our z in azure, for he would hardly in- sist that the French be obliged to write z'ai (instead of j'ai) to suit his English eye and ear. In view of the differences in the orthography of the various modern tongues which must be mastered in these days of international intercourse, it ought not to require either a great brain or an extraordinary patience, to fix in one's mind the fact that the learner must write, in the idiomof Egypt, jigy (not yigy),jitkallim (not yitkallim), jom (not vom), c arabyje (not c arabyye or c arab/'ye). This letter/ is, in truth, one of the many confusing elements in our hybrid English alphabet. W T e writz gem , gin and George, but also jam, jelly and James. After the same fashion we articulate the initial con- sonants of get and genial, of gipsy and girdle quite differently, while the two varying orthographical forms, gaol and jail, are sounded exactly alike. The same is to be said likewise of the character y. We treat it as a consonant in you, yellow, steelyard, yonder, and as a vowel element in quay, key, stray, try, rely, while die and dye, The Egyptian Alphabet 43 geben werden konnen, die das Transcriptionssystem sehr complicirt machen wiirden, andererseits man bci richtiger Articulation der Consonanten von selbst seiner Stimme die Biegung giebt, welche der Aussprache am bequem- sten ist. " Another writer has perhaps expressed the same idea more forcibly by saying that " An alphabet intended for practical purposes can never aim at giving, as it were, a minute image of the varying sounds of language. Letters are meant to indicate the sounds of words, and not to pho- tograph every shade of sound, that occurs in spoken lan- guages. " l ) Such characters as have been referred to are naturally of utility in a dissertation markedly phonological in like lie and lye, are as similar in pronunciation as they are diverse in orthography. It is an alphabet like this which the unlettered — and some who style themselves lettered — desire to offer to any still unwritten language in search of a literary me- dium ! In reviewing the literature which concerns itself more or less intimately with the current Egyptian speech it will be found that it is the product of two conflicting classes of persons, all of whom, as friends of Egypt, are quite willing that the Egyp- tians shall learn to read and write. But each class attaches to its good will its own uncompromising condition. The first group consists of those who have passed safely through the wearisome hours necessary to be spent in order to make one's self mas- ter of the Old- Arabic alphabet ; they kindly wish to make the rest of the world undergo the same ordeal; and they thus insist upon applying this antiquated and in- commodious alphabet to everything that can possibly be styled, in any sense, Arabic. It is not even sure that they would not be gratified to witness its extension to other families of languages as well. In other words they say to the mass of the people of Egypt: — "Spend all the school-time — all the intellectual labour — which you can af- ford to spend, in the doubtful endeavour to familiarize yourself with this tedious al- phabet — then go plough your fields, gather your crops, support your families, and thank God all the rest of your lives that you know the Arabic alphabet when you see it ! " Then there is the second class of Egypt's benefactors, which cannot conceive of any alphabetical dress for the Egyptian speech other than that ungainly one so unfor- tunately and so inconveniently worn by the English language. These benevolent people declare that it is quite impossible to understand jiktib and jimsik, unless you write them yiktib and yimsik, or to read jasmyn or jemyn unless you write them yasmeen and yameen. Between these two classes the unhappy Egyptians, who stand waiting, with the untiring patience bred of centuries, for the blessing of a broader culture, may indeed feel that salvation lies only in getting rid of all their friends. i) Outline Dictionary for the Use of Missionaries, Explorers and Students of Language, by Max Mailer (London, 1S67), p. xxiv. TJic Egyptian Alphabet its purpose. To retain them in journals and books designed merely for general reading, or elementary instruction, would be like attempting to employ, in writing our own language, the multitude of signs, symbols and figures made use of by Ellis in his invaluable scientific treatise on " English Pro- nunciation; " or like trying to print one of the principal Romance or Germanic tongues of Europe by means of the " Standard Alphabet " of Lepsius. In the same way it appears allowable, if not advisable, to abandon, in prac- tical usage, the employment of Spitta's semi-vowels in their character of " Zwischenvocale, " that is, with the object of filling the hiatus (or cessation of utterance) caused by too many sequent consonants. This hiatus, although certain- ly more marked in the pronunciation of the Semitic dia- lects, is also sufficiently noticeable in some of the Latin languages, in which no expedient of avoiding it has ever been generally adopted. In Italian, for instance, the rule which requires Ispagna (instead of Spagna), after a preced- ing consonant, is fast falling into disuse. In such forms as " go over " and " wasps sting " in English, a similar hiatus is observable. It must then be always remembered, in studying the two important productions of Spitta, that they are in a great degree pioneer works. He was en- deavouring to put on record, for the first time in an intel- ligible way, and at the same time in a final shape, the principal phonetic peculiarities of the Cairene dialect. But he never, in doing this, lost sight of the fact that his main and greatest purpose w r as, as has been said, to provide a proper means of writing that dialect, — -that it might be- come an efficaceous instrument for the education of the whole Egyptian community. The Egyptian Alphabet The Alphabet. It is to be noted first of all that the new Egyptian alphabet has one feature in common with the old alphabet of the written Arabic and with all other Oriental alpha- bets — it knows nothing of capital letters. In this respect, too, it fulfils the dream of the philologist — of men like the founders of modern Germanic linguistic studies, the brothers Grimm, in whose noble lexicological work cap- itals have been discarded. The}-, as many other pro- found students of language have done, looked forward to the day when written and printed speech everywhere shall be simplified by the total abolition of the uncial alphabet. The continued use of capitals, after the exigencies of cur- rent writing had led to the adoption of the smaller or technically-styled " lower-case " letters, is a heritage from the mediaeval scribes, who loved variety more than sim- plicity, ornament more than utility, elaborate decoration more than beauty unadorned. Without capitals — large or small — the cost and toil of typography would be sen- sibly diminished — not to speak of the economy of labour effected in teaching and learning. In this latter regard, it would be interesting to understand exactly the feelings of a child, when, after convincing himself, through a pe- riod of much distress, of the individuality and identity of A, B, C, D, E, he finds himself confronted by another long series of characters — a, b, c, d, e, — very different in appearence, which he is told are positively the same thing, having the same names and powers, although he speedily finds that he has to begin to exercise all over again his not vet very robust mental faculties before he can fully complete his alphabetical knowledge. The Eg} p- tian alphabet possessing no capitals, initial words ot sen- 46 The Egyptian Alphabet tences, as well as names of persons and places, begin with the same kind of characters as all other words — as there is indeed no reason why they should not — and so there is one perplexing orthographical rule the less to learn and apply. Compared with the Old-Arabic alphabet the Egyptian ABC has 34 characters instead of the 130 or more neces- sary to represent by the former all the consonantal and vocal elements. The so-called " chancery " Arabic — that bar to Saracenic progress — in its journals and other pub- lished works, is obliged to employ this huge Old-Arabic conglomeration of alphabetical signs. Imagine a compos- itor in an English, French or German printing-office con- demned to handle 1 30 distinct types (which do not even include any upper-case characters, nor any marks of punc- tuation, nor any numerals)! But the evil does not end with the printer. The reader likewise suffers; and, above all, edu- cation suffers. Nobody can fail to be struck by the irreg- ularity and distortion of the Arabic printing-alphabet, so far removed, in that respect, from the graceful symmetry and uprightness of the Kufic and other early forms of writ- ing; while the eye is wearied by the indistinctness of the finer lines, the minuteness of the vowel-marks, and the imperspicuity of the various diacritical points and strokes, — all of which are so liable to be shattered or mangled by a little usage as often to make half a dozen words, in a page or column, nearly illegible. No educational torture can be more cruel than to subject the tender eyes of children to such a typography. Many western scholars, although commencing their Arabic studies in adult years, can testify, by sad experience, to the injury inflicted by the Arabic calligraphy upon human eye-sight; and the typographical characters are even more hurtful, because The Egyptian Alphabet 47 much smaller and less clear. To be concise it may be said that the Old-Arabic alphabet, especially as it is used in the press, seems designed to promote illegibility, and to limit the spread of knowledge. With its continued service, as the handmaid of speech, the highest stage of general, or popular, enlightenment can never be attained in the cast. But sober sense, uninfluenced by the fad dishness of the scholastic specialist on the one hand, and the sentimentalism of the religious bigot on the other, will sooner or later bring about the substitution everywhere of a better medium both for the pen and the press. In the phonetic, as in the inflexional forms of the Egyp- tian dialect there* are many deviations from the mother- tongue. Just as in the case of the verb, the passive voice and various modal peculiarities, as in the case of the noun, the dual, the feminine plural and the case-endings have dropped away, so in the pronunciation three sounds, once expressed by the Old-Arabic letters o, 3 and -£?, have dis- appeared, and, of course, require no written or printed rep- resentatives. Three of the existing Egyptian consonant- al elements (/, d and s) — and possibly a fourth (//) — are not unlikely to follow, at a not very remote period, since their enunciation, in some special words, at least, not in- frequently goes over to the sounds of /, d, s and // re- spectively. Moreover most of the attributes formerly belonging to the first letter of the Old-Arabic alphabet have ceased to be exercised; and its position, as a distinct phonetic expression, has thus been greatly weakened. It is for this reason that it seems not improper to give its place to the vowel-group, which heads the living Egyptian alphabet. In this group the long vowels are indicated, except in the case of the lone i, by the circumflex accent above the 4 8 TJie Egyptian Alphabet corresponding short-vowel character. If one carefully exam- ine the reasons for the use of this diacritical sign, rather than of the customary long-accent mark (as in a, for in- stance), they will be found to be not altogether illogical. In writing, the circumflex accent cannot interfere, so to speak, with the preceding or the following letter. It can- not well be prolonged in either direction, but must be begun with the upward stroke and ended with the down- ward ; it thus occupies only the space existing above the letter, and included in the outline, or contour, of the char- acter to which the sign is attached. The ordinary long- accent sign, in the rapidity of calligraphy, is easily carried too far. In printing, the circumflex has the advantage, as every printer knows, over the slender long-accent line in being less easily marred or broken; this is owing to its shape, and to what is technically described as its greater weight of metal. So much for this feature. The long /-sound, as will be noticed, is an exception to the system followed in portraying the other long-vowel sounds; instead of a circumflex /, the letter y is employed to express this sound, and some weighty reasons have already been given for this variation in the graphic scheme of the long-vowel elements. But there is an obscurer aspect — a more imag- inative view — of this instance of discontinuity in the vowel method, which is worthy of a word, even if that word must be addressed only to minds of a certain sensitiveness of observation. This view of the matter has reference to that subtle law of orderly beauty, which makes a too symmetri- cal symmetry, so to speak, repulsive ; and to that other law, which proves an unbroken series of things to be less strik- ing, and therefore less easily fixed in the memory, than an interrupted series. In all the arts the mind shrinks from a succession of unvaryingly similar objects; a list of words The Egyptian Alphabet 49 all ending in -Hon is more difficult to acquire by heart than if, now and then, words of different terminations intervene; and an alphabet of letters all round, or all quadrangular, in their external lines, would be neither attractive nor of facile acquirement. But this digression is running too near the boundary-line of fancy to be continued. As to the consonants, the unusual, or non-Roman characters are eight in number, representing sounds not expressible by single letters of the Latin alphabet. Of these, four, /, -• es saijad we ibnoh hikaje masryje l)il lisan el masry masr el qdhira 1316 ma w > 3 t 2 ^ c 1* >• rrt d T; X.- rd rt id ^ 3 OJ r^ £ c )> h( c ), b(^), d(o), d(^), r( J ), z(j), s (u*), «(ufc), s M, c ( 5 ), f(- ; )> q(o)> k(*), l(sJ), m( r ), n( ), w(*)» J (is)- I HI afandyna ismok ' ''abbas hi I my et tdtiy. huwa ibn mehammad taitfyq, ibn ismayl bdsa auwil "ivdhid ism oh fredewy viasr. huwa itwalla z ala masrfy 18 gam ad tdny sanet ijog. rabbina jedym Jin a hcdenyna! D \ w< ), bioi, U \ JO), V \ ~ ) . V I = i- I I ■ n ■ 3^ a 3 P 3 5-' p>Jd «^. p g'S- cr p — £1 P 3 £L p 7T CJ" p S>S 3 ^'£ 3 rr3 p ?^ 1 — ■ < >. c ft, ►fi ~ EL a. K p 7C ^ p 3 3 3 p '"" ' 55" •in i— ?r *"» Si" n <_:. p> 3 CD 3 — 1 ft) CD cr ~ •2. p> ? c, £L P p v; P £L £L fc>55^^ el alifbe el masryje. a, a, e, e, i, y, o, 6, u, ft (alif), b f^J, t (7 q fr^>' k f/^/), 1 (7tf7/*J, m f»iywj, n (nun), w (w«^, j 0*0- ^^^c><>c ; < *>o>o^^ -/ 5 7 c? 9 "jekun min bahty iza kunt, bikitabaty di, aqdar agyb li masr ashab gudad — masr el qadyme, we el mahbube, we el munkasira, we el mahfyje, lfikin el qawyje bi hararet narha el gCiwanyje — masr di elly mus ma c rufe la c and ashab el amwcll wala c and es sijasijyn, elly min aijam el farfi na li hadd dilwaqt fadlc zai ma kanet we ma itgaijarets. " — siif " Contes Arabes " sbitta be, wiss z aiara. iniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii i alifbe ahl masr, a. a, e, e, i, y, o, 6, u, u ( t ), b(v), t(o), 't(Jo), g( s ), *(£), h(.), h( z ), h( t ), d(o), d(^), r( J ), z(j), s (u»), s U), s H, c ( 5 ), f (o), q (j), k( 1 1 1 ■ 1 ■ 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 > ■ 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 > 1 1 1 1 1 i 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 el alifbe cl masryje betact es sab el masry. USUI, IclKlIl clllcl ell L1K11 11111 Cl Kiuiu net jivvaii_y mil ci lisan ed darig mus zai ma bijiftikru we inn loh qawa id we usul, we inn basatet agrumyjetoh hyje elly tihallyh naii c qawy. jatara et taljany kan ahsan min el masry fy waqt ma dante katab as c aroh boh, we mus mumkin inn gam c yje min c ulama masr jimkinhum ji c milu aktar ketyr min elly c amaltoh ana el garyb? " — suf " agru- myjet " sbitla be, wiss hamastdsar . p bj SL ft cd p cr cW cd ^< CO- 3" B. 3 CK5- o

3 ' — ] • 3 cr p> £3 i: s ■&* p r^ cr p> 3 I.S, r-t- P? 3 p <3i: _ p cd cr ■Cu p § 2L £L -i° £ 3 F £T p & Q3> j-j. p p P> I 1 ^ r P -co a. ^3 P *r •tr - p -t cr. p co co ^ ^ rr =-■ p> S- *r p. 3 i p | CfQ CD "~ B •g* £5 ^> l*£ 3 s «—. B • 3 3 ^3 ° _- 3 p> cr ^ p EB c/s "l Orq 2- 2 p > a 4 ' cd cr ■— p 3".cr 3-X2 p> p- cr^ 5 ^ ^ p> ' P>^ £ I - g> p2 3,^ g » "] ^: p^ *f 1 ^r o- S ' ^ o- p> £L S p> -, i — . v 3 3 P 2) " P C/s _, C I P : 2 CD , _ ocr i 3 * rj- Qrq. P - 5* P^ CD> =L 5= P * o $ tf J3 "8 O 3 • «-i o P r O a; "3 D rv. 3 rv. >-* P ^x ; - -m 3 u rt 12 <^ ,M r5 73 >> u 3 D 3^ 3 15 °rt ^ O'? ''- P 5 _, N ^.3 33 ••— » b T— • r-H CO CU B ^ . cc *S .5 S 8 j| 13 g <3 ^ ^ -^ 3: CD ^ ' rt iH fe ~ w en- 1 1ll II 'P B , | ■»-> 3 «J ^;^ CO rO P . //, /^//;, /;/;//. ha dru jigy harfrn taqryban zai ba c d, auwilhum / (te) we nutqaha zai ma fil kilmat: tult, tyn, tdny, we ha dru t (ta) we nutqaha zai ma til kilmat ter, tyn, quit. ba'den jigy harfen zai ba c d we humma g (gym) we/ (g^n). tiqdar tiraf lafz el harfen dol iza basset fil kilmat di : gab, gum > a, mog ; we gab, luga, get. ha drn fy talat huruf zai ba c d, we humma h (he), h (ha), // (ha), el // nutqaha zai ma til kilmat: hat, laha. boh; we el // zai ma fil kilmat: harb, ryh, has an ; we el // zai ma fil kil- mat: hrt, habat, syh. miu el huruf di, el ha hyje el harf el saba tasar, baqa dilwaqt hallasna nuss huruf alifhe tamam. ba'den fy harfen kaman zai had we humma el d (cUU) we el d (clad), el d zai ma fil kilmat: dyk, dukkdn, 'yd, dugry ; we el d zai ma fil kilmat: dahr, day/', ard. amma el harf el etnen we c esryn huwa el z (zv) we nutqoh zai ma fil kilmat : zit, zawdt, izz. haden jegyna talat huruf muhimma zai ba c d we humma s (syn), s (syn), \ (sad); el s tigy fy kilmat zai : syh, sane, seryr ; el s tigy fil kilmat: subra, sains. -4 c asam, c es; e\ s tigy fil kilmat : sef, subh, c asdjc. ba c d£n jigyna asgar harf fil alifbe we ismoh c ( c en) we huwa jiban zai nuss harf; huwa el harf es sitte we c esryn, we huwa musta c mal fil kilmat : c eb, z igl, gdmi. el harf elly jigy ba c d el c huwa el / (fe) we jitnitiq zai ma fil kilmat: fuldn, fulus, sef. ba c den fy harfen ismuhum taqryban zai ba c d, we humma el q (qaf) we el k (kef). we el harfen dol nelaqyhum maugudyn fil kilmat, el q tigy fy: qalb, qadam, buldq ; lakin nutquhum mus wa- hid fy kull masr c asan innaha fy es se c yd titnitiq zai g; we el k tigy fil kilmat : kitdb, kursy, sdhibak. ba c d£n fy harf / (lam) ; buss lil kilmat : l&kin, lele, gama/, jetull we ente tifham nutq el harf da. ba c den tegy el m (mym); da harf muhimm qawy. fy kilmat auwilha ;// aktar min gerha min huruf alifbe. el kilmat di fyha harf m: mchammad, maije, mamluk, muslim. dilwaqt jigyna harf zai el m fy es sikl we hiiwa harf el n (nun), nutqoh zai ma fil kilmat : nuty^ nusrdny, min, my)/. ba c d^n fy harf el w (wau) we jitnitiq zai ma. fil kilmat : wa/ad, widn, wihvdt, wiqi . we ahir harf huwa el / (j£) we hCiwa el harf el arba c a we c esryn min el huruf elly ma lahas sot, ja ny el harf el rabi c we talatyn min huruf alifbe kullaha, we jigy fy kilmat ketyra zai : jd, jemyn, jam, aijdm. Mm id. — ana sajif inn tartyb el huruf di mus zai tartyb el huruf elly a c rafha? ahmad. — kalfimak fy mahalloh, lakin hene el huriif — 25 — elly zai ba c daha tigy sawa c asan jekun hifdaha sahl. u c a tinsa inn fy sitt huruf kull etnen minha zai ba e d we humma el / we el /, el g we el g; el d we el d ; we sitt huruf tanijyn kull talate zai ba c d we humma el // we el // we el //, we el s we el s we el s. hally balak kaman inn el huruf i we g we / c alchum kull wahid nuqta, we kaman inn el huruf t we h we d, we s taht kull wahid minhum nuqta c asan timaijizha c an el / we el // we el d we el s. hdmid. — we tiqdar tiktib we titba c kull el kalam el masry bil arba c a we talatyn harf dol? ahmad. — ma c lum aqdar aktib we atba c kull kilme bi sihdle we zabt, we iza kunt tiqabil el alifbe di bil alifbe el faransawyje walla el ingelyzyje tilaqyha ahsan we ashal. kaman inte ti c raf inn fy et tab c el alifbe el c araby jilzamha 134 harf matba c a, am ma el alifbe di ma jilzamhas ilia 34 harf bass. hdmid. — ala kide azunn el wilad jibqu jehibbu el madrase aktar min zaman? ahmad. — ma fys sakk inn el alifbe di mufyde balis li es subban el masrijyn we li kull es sa c b el masr}'. dilwaqt jishal c alehum jekunu met : allimyn, we bi et taryqa di jekunu aqwyje. DIVERSITY md baqas lizum li ahtdm! Jjally hull masry jiktib ismoh bi ydoh. el fall ah loh haqq jifallim zai el bdsa. Idkin kull en nds via jinikinhums jif allium min ger alifbe qusaijara, basyla, we sahle zai alifbe ahl masr. el alifbe el masryje. a alif all h Ijd a alif a d rial ( a ) e alif eli d dad (■o») e alif e r re (j ) i alif Hi ( ' ) z zen ( ■> ) y alif y s syn (o~) o alif oh s Syn ( U" ) 6 alif 6 s sad ( O" ) u alif uh c z en (e ) u alif u f fe (o) b be ( V ) <* qdf (o) t ti ( ° ) k kef ( «> ) t td ( ^ ) 1 lam ( J) g gym ^ r (re), z (zen), s (syn), £ (sy?i), s (W), c ( c en), f £#), q (qdf), k f /£), h( c ), b(^), d(o), (J(o,), r( J ), i(j), s(u-), *(ufc), ?M, c (e), f(^), q(o)« k(4), 1(H m(,), n( ), w( 5 ), j(yr)- rm 1 1 1 1 1 1 n 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 n 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 iiniiiiiHiiminii mi it iiiniiiiti mini 11 in minium mm.