Ignatius Donnelly - Antediluvian world

—the Roman L.

The Maya letter b is shaped thus, ### . Now, if we turn to the Phoenician, 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 Phoenician ### , 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 Phoenician 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 Phoenician, ### : 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 Phoenician 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 Phoenician 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 Phoenician 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 Phoenician, ### ; or the Moab stone, ### ; or the later Phoenician ### 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 Phoenician 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 Phoenician 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, ### ; Phoenician, ### .

Or take the letter o:

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

Or take the letter t:

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

Or take the letter q:

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

Or take the letter k:

Maya, ### ; Egyptian, ### ; Ethiopian, ### ; Phoenician, ### .

Or take the letter n:

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

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 Phoenician 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 Phoenicians 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 Phoenician, 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 Phoenician 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 (Osiris, the Egyptian god), the inventor of the three letters.” Did these three letters include the d and r, which they did not receive from the Atlantean alphabet, as represented to us by the Maya alphabet?

In the alphabetical table which we herewith append we have represented the sign V, or vau, or f, by the Maya sign for U. “In the present so-called Hebrew, as in the Syriac, Sabaeic, Palmyrenic, and some other kindred writings, the vau takes the place of F, and indicates the sounds of v and u. F occurs in the same place also on the Idalian tablet of Cyprus, in Lycian, also in Tuarik (Berber), and some other writings.”

(“American Cyclopaedia,” art. F.)

Since writing the above, I find in the “Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society” for December, 1880, p. 154, an interesting article pointing out other resemblances between the Maya alphabet and the Egyptian. I quote:

It is astonishing to notice that while Landa’s first B is, according to Valentini, represented by a footprint, and that path and footprint are pronounced Be in the Maya dictionary, the Egyptian sign for B was the human leg.

“Still more surprising is it that the H of Landa’s alphabet is a tie of cord, while the Egyptian H is a twisted cord. . . . But the most striking coincidence of all occurs in the coiled or curled line representing Landa’s U; for it is absolutely identical with the Egyptian curled U. The Mayan word for to wind or bend is Uuc; but why should Egyptians, confined as they were to the valley of the Nile, and abhorring as they did the sea and sailors, write their U precisely like Landa’s alphabet U in Central America? There is one other remarkable coincidence between Landa’s and the Egyptian alphabets; and, by-the-way, the English and other Teutonic dialects have a curious share in it.