Notes on the Common Architecture of

Alphabetical Structures
Joannes Richter

1: Flinders Petrie's Periodic Table in

the Greek alphabet (1912)

2 A Periodic Table for the Ugaritic alphabet (transliterated in Latin letters).

Abstract
The alphabets of Sanskrit and Old-Persian have their own categorizing system, which sorts the
bundled categories in a linear row.
The perfect architecture of the Old-Persian alphabet is founded on a well-designed set of triads. The
ternary coding system is the optimized code for perfect communication.
In contrast the alphabets of western languages (such as Phoenician, Greek, and Italian alphabets)
distribute their letters in a repetitive pattern of the letters vowel, labial, guttural, and dental, to be
extended to (1) vowels, (2) labials, (3) gutturals, (4) dentals, (5) liquids1, and (6) sibilants”. These
extensions may have been performed completely or (in a number of alphabets) partly:
There are slight differences in the categorizing definitions between the structures of the Semitic
alphabets (such as Hebrew) and the Indo-European alphabets (such as Sanskrit and Old-Persian,
Greek, Latin...). The letter “D” may be categorized as a dental or as a labial.
The document A Periodic Table for PIE-Alphabets describes a Periodic Table for the Ugaritic
alphabet, which correlates with Flinders Petrie's periodic tables of the Greek alphabet (and other
PIE-alphabetical sequences).

1 The letters L, M, N.
Alphabets

The Old-Persian alphabet

The ego-pronoun (“I”) in old-Persian is spelled “Adam”2. In itself the word is a triad: a-da-ma. Why
is this word identical to the name “Adam” of the first human being?

In the Old Persian alphabet the categorization of the letters strictly follows the phonetic
regions in the Respiratory tract: Gutturals, Linguals, Palatals, Dentals, and Labials. The
structure of the alphabet (25 letters) contains 7 triads named (1) Vowels, (2) Gutturals, (3)
Palatals, (4) Dentals, (5) Labials and (6) Semi-vocals and (7) Sibilants. Additionally the
alphabet contains 2 Nasals, 1 Glottal and 1 inherited consonant L.
The Old-Persian has been composed for an imperial state and imperial documents. The
usage of cuneiform is applied to use a solid foundation for the symbols. In an imperial
environment easy learning may have been irrelevant.

The Ugaritic alphabet

In contrast the Ugaritic alphabet is optimized for practical communication and easy learning. From
this practical standpoint the Ugaritic merchants and their neighbors modified the system and
reduced the complexity. This reduction proved to be successful and was to be spreading in all
derived European alphabets.
Maybe Alexander's revolutionary Hellenic strategy contributed to the spreading of the simplified
alphabetical structures.
Some of the old linguistic architectures seem to be correlating in their architecture. The
reconstruction of the inheritance of writing and symbolic representation of the phonemes may be
reconstructed from the remaining documents.
The Ugaritic texts had been discovered by French archaeologists in 1929.[3][4][5][6][7]. Therefore
Flinders Petrie (in writing the paper The formation of the alphabet, dated 1912)3 had been unaware
of the Ugaritic alphabet.

2 The Role of Ego-pronouns in the Creation Legend | Adam And Eve

3 The formation of the alphabet (Petrie, W. M. Flinders) (1912)
Notes to The formation of the alphabet by Flinders Petrie

The Repeated sequence of letters in the Greek alphabet

In 1912 Flinders Petrie analyses the alphabetical structures, in which he suggests a repetitive pattern
of the letters vowel, labial, guttural, and dental, to be extended to (1) vowels, (2) labials, (3)
gutturals, (4) dentals, (5) liquids4, and (6) sibilants”.
These extensions may have been performed completely or in a number of alphabets partly:
It had long ago been noticed by Lepsius, Donaldson, and Taylor that, embedded in the
Phoenician, Greek, and Italian alphabets there is a repeated sequence of letters,—vowel,
labial, guttural, and dental.

What has however been ignored is that this system is extended a whole series further in
the Greek than in the Phoenician alphabet, forming a fifth row and the beginning of a
sixth. The liquids (L, M, N) and sibilants (Ś, Ṣ, S) were added later and form no part of
such a scheme. If we follow the Greek alphabet we may put the original series in
capitals, and the additions in minuscules, thus :5

Fig. 3: (Uncompleted) Repeated sequence of letters in the

Greek alphabet; From: The formation of the alphabet :
Petrie, W. M. Flinders (William ...), 1912.

The reason that the signs of the last row soon fell into abeyance may well be that they
were so much alike that they seemed confusing ; and as alphabets tend to diminish by
careless approximations of the sounds, so the last row was dropped from most
alphabets, and the last but one, or fifth, row was also dropped out of the Phoenician.

The previous and the following tables have been composed by Flinders Petrie in 1912. His amazing
concept allows us to understand the composition of the Ugaritic signary and the Greek alphabet.

4 The letters L, M, N.
5 The formation of the alphabet : Petrie, W. M. Flinders (William ...,) 1912.
Completing the Repeated sequence of letters in the Greek alphabet
The further letters that were inserted in the alphabet were R and the sibilants Ś, Ṣ, S. It is
likely that R had been omitted at first as equivalent to L, and that it was afterwards
inserted next to the cognate forms of p and q, so as to be readily distinguished.

In the same way we see that similar forms are grouped together in the modern Arabic
alphabet reconstructed in medieval times (see Appendix 2 - Flinder Petrie's “Note on the
Arabic Alphabet”).

We have now reviewed the various evidences of the wide diffusion of the signary, from
which the alphabets were selected, and the antiquity of the beginning of that system.
The knowledge of the fuller form of the alphabet has enabled us to reconstruct the first
arrangement, most of which still remains embedded in our own alphabet. That in turn
has led us to see in Northern Syria the source of this systematic arrangement.

Fig. 4: (Completed) Primitive horn-book, From: The

formation of the alphabet : Petrie, W. M. Flinders
(William ...), 1912.
Comparing the Ugaritic Table with Flinders Petrie's tables
In A Periodic Table for PIE-Alphabets I describe the Periodic Table for the Ugaritic alphabet,
which correlates with Flinders Petrie's tables of alphabetical sequences:

Fig. 5: (Uncompleted)Repeated sequence of letters in the

Greek alphabet; From: The formation of the alphabet :
Petrie, W. M. Flinders (William ...), 1912.
Both tables are correlating up to the vowel symbol Ƕ28 (I). From here the symbols Φ (phi), Χ (chi),
Ψ (psi) are missing in the Ugaritic table #1 between the vowel Ƕ28 (I) and the labial Ω29 (U).
The letter “F” represents a Digamma /w/ at W7. At line #2 both letters Z8, H9 may be identified.
The concept for the Ugaritic alphabet may be expanded to 6 lines if the letter Ω29 (U) is categorized
as a vowel.
Flinders Petrie's table 6 lines periodic table also accepts the locations for the symbols Φ, Χ, Ψ.
Therefore only the 6 lines periodic table (#2) must be preferred over the 5 lines periodic table (#1).
Vowels Labials Gutturals Palatals Linguals Dentals Nasals Sibilants (?)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1 A1 B2 G3, Kh4 D5
2 E6 W7 Z8, H9 Th10 (Θ, Þ)
3 Y11 (y) K12 Ś13 L14 M15, N17 Z16 Ẓ18 S19
4 O20 P,Φ21 Q23 Ṣ22 (?) R24 Θ 25, Gh26, T27
5 Ƕ28 (I) Ω29 (U) S30
Table #1 A Periodic Table for the Ugaritic alphabet (transliterated in Latin letters).

Vowels Labials Gutturals Palatals Linguals Dentals Nasals Sibilants (?)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1 A1 B2 G3, Kh4 D5
2 E6 W7 Z8, H9 Th10 (Θ, Þ)
3 Y11 (y) K12 Ś13 L14 M15, N17 Z16 Ẓ18 S19
4 O20 P,Φ21 Q23 Ṣ22 (?) R24 Θ 25, Gh26, T27
5 Ƕ28 (I) {Φ (phi)} {Χ (chi)} {Ψ (psi)}
6 Ω29 (U) S30
Table #2 A Periodic Table for the Ugaritic alphabet (transliterated in Latin letters).
The insertion of the sibilants
In the reorganized Old Persian signary (or “alphabet”) we may identify 7 triads. The script contains
three vowels, A, I, U, and twenty-two consonants, K, X, G, C, Ç, J, T, Θ, D, P, F, B, N and M, Y,
V, R, L, S, Z, Ś, and H. The structure of the Old Persian alphabet (25 letters) contains 7 triads named
(1) Vowels, (2) Gutturals, (3) Palatals, (4) Dentals, (5) Labials and (6) Semi-vocals and (7)
Sibilants. Obviously the Old-Persian alphabet considered the Vowels, Semi-vocals Y, R, L
respectively Y, V, R, L and the Sibilants Ś, Ṣ, S respectively Y, V, R, L as separated groups.
In the Arabic alphabet the grouping of the sibilants has been documented as follows: “as 11 Ze
begins the sibilants, then follow 12 Sin, 13 Shin, 14 Sad, 15 Dad.”6

Sanskrit Old Persian Latin Staveless runes

1 Vowels A, Ā,I, Ī, E, Ai, A,I,U A,E,IJ,O,U A, H, I, U
RRi, RR i, LRRi, LRR i,
U, Ū, O, Au,
2 Guttural K, Kh, G, Gh, Ṅ G, H, K, X, (W) G,H,K,Q,X
3 Palatals C, Ch, J, Jh, Ñ J, Ʃ, TTƩ, DTƷ C,Y K
4 Linguals Ṭ, Ṭh, Ḍ, Ḍh, Ṇ D,R,Z D,R,Z Th, N, T, L
5 Dentals T, Th, D, Dh, N N, Θ, T,S, L, TTS L,S,T R,S, (R)
6 Labials P, Ph, B, Bh, M B,F,P,M B,F.P.V,W F,M,B
7 Nasals M, N
Liquids
8 semi-vowels Y, R, L Y, V, R, L
9 Sibilants Ś, Ṣ, S S, Z, Ś (?)
10 Glottal H H
Table 3 Classification for various alphabets
According to Flinders Petrie the Sibilants Ś, Ṣ, S may also be replaced by a “H”, which is listed as a
separate category “Glottal” in Sanskrit and Old Persian.
The question now arises, when and where was this system of the alphabet devised ?
There is a promising indication in the fact that the sibilants were disregarded. Had they
been in frequent use we should have found a fifth column of sibilants, probably
following the dentals. At first it might be thought that no language could be practicable
with without sibilants. But they are entirely unknown in various parts of the world at
present. The Polynesian languages generally avoid them ; and nearer at hand in Europe
we see that the French have steadily eliminated them, century by century, till there are
only a few left of the sibilants sounded originally in their words. In past times we see
how H stood in place of Ś, Ṣ, S, the Iranians writing of haoma for the Indian soma.
Similarly now children acquire s last of all sounds, and use h instead of it, saying hun
for son. There is nothing surprising in a people avoiding sibilants, but where was there
such a people anciently ? Unfortunately at the period which we should regard, before
1000 B.C., there are but few languages known to us within the possible region of the
alphabetic system. After the grouping of the signs came the addition of the sibilants, and
the omission of the less-needed signs.

6 See the appendix 2. (titled: Flinder Petrie's “Note on the Arabic Alphabet”)
The numerical system of letters
The numerical system of letters stabilizes the alphabetical structure by avoiding inserts. Only
appended letters may be accepted without disturbing the numerical system of letters.
At this stage another system came into play, namely, the use of the letters for numerals.
These ran A to Θ 1 to 9, I to Ϙʹ (Koppa), 10 to 90, P to Ω 100 to 8007. This system was
quite foreign to the Greek mind ; all the earlier Greek inscriptions state numbers either
in words or in a numerical notation apart from the order of letters. The region where this
numerical system of letters belonged is indicated by the use of it for recording dates on
coins from fixed eras.

The reconstruction of the first arrangement

The reconstruction of the first arrangement may be considered as a primitive Hornbook:
We have now reviewed the various evidences of the wide diffusion of the signary (or
“alphabet”), from which the alphabets were selected, and the antiquity of the beginning
of that system. The knowledge of the fuller form of the alphabet has enabled us to
reconstruct the first arrangement, most of which still remains embedded in our own
alphabet. That in turn has led us to see in Northern Syria the source of this systematic
arrangement.

The Order of the Alphabet

We must next trench on a later chapter, that on the Order of the Alphabet. In that chapter
it will be shown how we may develop further the old view that the order is (1) a series
of vowel-labial-guttural- and-dental, a b c d, e f g θ, i k, o p q t, with (2) some losses in
the third row, (3) some additions of liquids, and (4) addition of sibilants irregularly.

All this has long been recognized, and it is granted that this order belongs to a stage
long before the separation of Phoenician and Greek, as the losses and gains are found
alike in both. The old order was already therefore lost to sight when the Greek parted
from the Phoenician. Now the point as yet ignored is that the Greek has the whole of a
fifth series, and the beginning of a sixth, υ, φ, χ, ψ, ω. . . . The sign ψ is of varying
values, ks, ps, and tz in different countries ; it seems to have been a sibilant dental form,
which might well be at first. Further, on recognizing these six rows of values of the
same construction, we see that the liquids L, M, N, are put in at the middle in a neutral
position, as I further suggest probably on the handle of the primitive hornbook.

Now it is always granted that the Greek had broken up this old order, before it parted
from the Phoenician ; and yet, nevertheless it has a further form of the old order, in the 5
th and 6th series. Therefore it is apparent that the 5th and 6th series cannot have been
composed later, but must be a primitive feature which the Phoenician has lost.

It is true that the Greek may not have had these signs in use at first, but if so the Greek
must have taken them over from some more complete form of the alphabet, from which
it supplemented and made good the losses of its Phoenician source. However this detail
may be, the Greek maintenance of a piece of the old order, which was not in Phoenician,
shows that the Phoenician was a reduced form of a fuller original.

7 Greek numerals
The Vowels and the Labials
The order adopted here for all those signs with known values, which can be compared in
many lands, is to group them in the primitive order of the alphabet—

“(1) vowels, (2) Labials, (3) Gutturals, (4) Dentals, (5) liquids8, and (6) sibilants”.

This order has the advantage that the cognate sounds which are interchangeable are kept
together.

The aspirates and gutturals are so blended that they can only be treated as one class ;

8 The letters L, M, N,
The Hornbook
The Hornbook originated in England as long ago as 1450,[1] or earlier.[2] 9. Examples are found in
the web.

Fig. 6 Details of a Hornbook (Battledore, public domain)

Probably the concept of the Hornbook had been inherited from the wise men, who recorded human
“inventions”:
HORN-BOOK, a name originally applied to a sheet containing the letters of the
alphabet, which formed a primer for the use of children. It was mounted on wood and
protected with transparent horn. Sometimes the leaf was simply pasted against the slice
of horn. The wooden frame had a handle, and it was usually hung at the child’s girdle.
The sheet, which in ancient times was of vellum and latterly of paper, contained first a
large cross—the criss-crosse—from which the horn-book was called the Christ Cross
Row, or criss-cross-row. The alphabet in large and small letters followed. The vowels
then formed a line, and their combinations with the consonants were given in a tabular
form. The usual exorcism—“in the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the Holy
Ghost, Amen”—followed, then the Lord’s Prayer, the whole concluding with the Roman
numerals. The horn-book is mentioned in Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost, v. 1,
where the ba, the a, e, i, o, u, and the horn, are alluded to by Moth. It is also described
by Ben Jonson—

“The letters may be read, through the horn,

That make the story perfect.” 10

The vowels A,E,I,O,U, which normally form a (horizontal!) line in the Hornbooks, match the basic
structure of the periodic tables found in Wadell's “The Aryan Origin of the Alphabet”.
However Wadell's description positions the vowels in a (vertical!) row. I never saw a vertical
column of vowels in the depiction of the historical Hornbooks, which always contain horizontal
lines of vowels.
9 Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Horn-book". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
10 Hornbook quoting 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 13
Wadell's notes to the Hornbooks
The vowels A, E, I, O, Y, Ω, which are forming a (horizontal!) line in the Hornbooks, match the
basic structure of the periodic tables found in Wadell's “The Aryan Origin of the Alphabet”.
However Wadell's description positions the vowels in a (vertical!) row. I never saw a vertical
column of vowels in the depictions of the historical Hornbook. Usually the Hornbook is based on
horizontal lines of vowels.
Therefore I prefer to name the tables “periodic tables” in analogy to the equivalents in chemistry.
The earliest alphabet in Wadell's “The Aryan Origin of the Alphabet” is the Early Etruscan Formello
alphabet (ca. 700 BCE)

Fig. 7: periodic tables found in Wadell's “The Aryan Origin of the

Alphabet”
Conclusion
The alphabets of Sanskrit and Old-Persian have their own categorizing system, which sorts the
bundled categories in a linear row.
The perfect architecture of the Old-Persian alphabet is founded on a well-designed set of triads. The
ternary coding system is the optimized code for perfect communication.
In contrast the alphabets of western languages (such as Phoenician, Greek, and Italian alphabets)
distribute their letters in a repetitive pattern of the letters vowel, labial, guttural, and dental, to be
extended to (1) vowels, (2) labials, (3) gutturals, (4) dentals, (5) liquids11, and (6) sibilants”. These
extensions may have been performed completely or (in a number of alphabets) partly:
There are slight differences in the categorizing definitions between the structures of the Semitic
alphabets (such as Hebrew) and the Indo-European alphabets (such as Sanskrit and Old-Persian,
Greek, Latin...). The letter “D” may be categorized as a dental or as a labial.
The document A Periodic Table for PIE-Alphabets describes a Periodic Table for the Ugaritic
alphabet, which correlates with Flinders Petrie's periodic tables of the Greek alphabet (and other
PIE-alphabetical sequences).

11 The letters L, M, N.
Appendices
Appendix 1 - Overview of Sanskrit, Persian, Latin, Hebrew and Runic alphabets
The following overview of the Sanskrit, Persian, Latin, Hebrew and Runic alphabets illustrates
where categorizations of the alphabetical symbols are correlating:12
Sanskrit Old Persian Latin (& Hebrew Staveless
Derivations) runes
Symbols 8 + 25 + 7 = 40 6 + 22 25 (except "X") 22 15
Vowels 1 Velar A, Ā, A, Ā A A,E,H,O A, H
Gutturals
2 Palatals I, Ī, E, Ai, I, Ī E, I I I
3 Retroflex RRi, RR i,
Cerebrale
Linguals
4 Dentals LRRi, LRR i,
5 Labials U, Ū, O, Au, U, Ū O, U U U
Conso- 1 Velar K, Kh, G, Gh, Ṅ K, X, G
nants Gutturals
2 Palatals C, Ch, J, Jh, Ñ C, Ç, J C,K,Q,G,J Ch,K,G K
3 Retroflex Ṭ, Ṭh, Ḍ, Ḍh, Ṇ D,L,N,T D,L,N,T, Th, N, T, L
Cerebrale Th
Linguals
4 Dentals T, Th, D, Dh, N T, Θ, D, N Z,R,S Z,R,S, Ts, R,S, (R)
Sh
5 Labials P, Ph, B, Bh, M P, F, B, M B,M,P, B,V,M,Ph F,M,B
F (→ V,W,Y)
Semi- Y, R, L Y, V, R, L
vocals
Sibilants Ś, Ṣ, S S, Z, Ś (?)
Glottal H H
Reference DYAUS DIĀŪṢ ḌIAVS IHV FIThAR
Table 4 Overview of the Sanskrit, Persian, Latin, Hebrew and Runic alphabets

Fig. 8 Vowels and consonants, Semi-vowels and Sibilants

(sorted according to Gutturals, Palatales, Cerebrals, Dentals, and Labials)
(Source: Page 13 at A Practical Grammar of the Sanskrit Language (1864): Sir Monier Monier-Williams)

12 from A Periodic Table for PIE-Alphabets

Appendix 2 – Flinder Petrie's “Note on the Arabic Alphabet”
Flinder Petrie's “Note on the Arabic Alphabet”13 describes the sequence of the symbols in the Arabic
alphabet:
Though at first sight the Arabic alphabet seems senseless in the irregularity of its order,
yet the original construction can be traced, and also the reasons for the alterations that
have been made.

The letters in original order are : 1 Alef, 2 Be, 5 Gim, 8 Dal, 11 Ze, 16 Te, 21 Kaf, 23
Lam, 24 Mim, 25 Nun, corresponding to Alef, Beth, Gimel, Daleth, Zayn, Teth, Kaph,
Lamed, Mem, Nun, of the usual Semitic order.

Owing to the desperate corruption of forms in the Cufic, different numbers of dots were
added above and below certain forms to distinguish the letters.

• It was then desirable to group these similar forms together in order to distinguish them
readily. Hence after 2 Be, were put in 3 Ta and 4 Tha ;

• after 5 Gim were put in 6 Ha and 7 Kha ;

• after 8 Dal was the variant 9 Dhal ;

• 10 Re was put before 11 Ze, because as the commoner letter it was not dotted.

Another principle here comes in, that of grouping the sibilants ; as 11 Ze begins the
sibilants, then follow 12 Sin, 13 Shin, 14 Sad, 15 Dad.

After 16 Ta is the variant 17 Za.

18 Eyn and 19 Gheyn were perhaps brought in here owing to a similarity to the next
signs.

20 Fe is like 21 Qaf, but having one dot it precedes Kaf with two dots. 21 Qaf is brought
in owing to the sound being like 23 Kaf, which is in its old order, succeeded by 23 Lam,
24 Mim, 25 Nun.

Lastly the three semivowels 26 He, 27 Wau and 28 Ye were banished to the end with a
truly Semitic hatred of vowels.

Thus the similarity of form has guided most of the rearrangement, and the similarity of
sound has also had influence. If ever the Arabic alphabet is to survive it must go back to
good distinctive Aramaean forms ; perhaps if such were introduced as " the Quran
alphabet" the present disgraceful writing might be amended.

13 The formation of the alphabet : Petrie, W. M. Flinders (William ...,) 1912.

Appendix 3 - Notes to the Ugaritic alphabet
The interface between the historical alphabets may be found in the Ugaritic alphabet14, which is
much older than the Old-Persian alphabet (ca. 500 BCE). The first cuneiform symbols have been
found 1928 in Ras Schamra (Ugarit) (today located in Syria).
The Ugaritic alphabet is dated 1400-1300 BCE and is considered as the documented source
for the alphabetical “ABG...”-sequence. The Greek and Latin alphabets have been based on
the sequence of the Ugaritic alphabet. The Ugaritic, Greek, Latin and other derivative PIE-
alphabets are structured according to a pattern for the Gutturals, Linguals, Palatals, Dentals
and Labials elements.
In the Periodic Tables for the Futhark the sequence in the categorization for the consonants
(Dentals & Linguals, Palatals, Gutturals, Labials in the columns 5, 6, 7, 8) is reversed with
respect to the Periodic Table for the Latin alphabet (with the sequence Labials, Gutturals,
Palatals, Linguals & Dentals).
The runic alphabets and the Gothic alphabet may have been based on the code-word F-U-Þ (F-U-
θ):
In the Elder and Younger Futhark alphabets the 3 Aetts seem to represent the markers for the
beginning and ends of the four “periods” of the Periodic Table.
The Gothic alphabet is founded on the Greek alphabet. The Visigoth bishop Ulfilas seems to
have distributed the letters F-U-Þ (F-U-θ) in reversed order at the exactly chosen positions
within the Greek alphabet. The Periodic Table for the Gothic alphabet is composed as
follows: {Vowels, Labials, Gutturals, Palatals, Linguals & Dentals, Nasals}, which exactly
matches to the Periodic Table for the Latin alphabet.
Especially the vowel combination G ᛃ →J, ᚢ → U (at the beginning of period 4) illustrates the
composition, which accurately follows the Periodic Table for the Gothic alphabet. The F and U and
Þ are inserted at positions which exactly match their required category.
The Periodic Table for the Ugaritic alphabet (transliterated in Latin letters) may be categorized in 5
“periods” as follows:

Fig. 9: A Periodic Table for the Ugaritic alphabet (transliterated in Latin letters).

14 A Periodic Table for PIE-Alphabets..

Appendix 4 - Laurence Waddell's “scientific order of Alphabetic Letters”
Basically the concept of the “scientific order of Alphabetic Letters” (as on a "Hornbook" board) is
correct, but the Hornbook does not refer to the classification of the letters.15
In his documentation The Aryan Origin of the Alphabet (1927) Laurence Waddell describes details
to the classification of the letters such as the sibilant S, the liquid R, the sibilant/dental Z and D.
labials, gutturals, palatals, linguals & dentals,
It was long ago noticed that in the Phoenician, Greek and Latin or Roman alphabets
there is a repeated sequence of the letters as vowels, labials, gutturals and dentals. This
sequence is well displayed by Professor Petrie, in arranging the letters on a square table
like the old "Horn-book" board for teaching children their ABC. This arrangement is
seen in Fig. 2 with the necessary modifications in view of the new evidence for the
antiquity of the letters U, W, X and Z.

This appears to indicate that originally the letters were arranged for learners in
perpendicular rows, according to their phonetic class qualities, and that later on they
were read transversely across the board, which gave them the apparently capricious and
irregular order in the modern alphabet. The old letters, the sibilant S and the liquid/
guttural R were presumably too few to form separate groups. The position of the R
immediately after the Q suggests that the sound of that letter was guttural-the guttural
R. The concluding letter Z, the sibilant, appears to have been perhaps regarded by the
Romans as a dental, and significantly the Z sign is often rendered by the dental D by
Egyptologists16 and Tch by others.17

This fixed alphabetic order was, no doubt, conduced to by the early practice of giving
numeral values to the letters according to their relative position in the alphabet, thus A =
1, B = 2 and so on; and this practice was adopted from the Phoenicians along with the
Sumerian letters by the Semites, as seen, for instance, in the order of the books of the
Old Testament, and especially in the 119th Psalm.

Here it is noteworthy that the Sumerian A sign possessed the value of " One" 18 in the Sumerian, long
anterior to the formation of the Cadmean and "Semitic" Phoenician alphabets; and similarly A had
also this numeral value in Egyptian.19

15 The formation of the alphabet : Petrie, W. M. Flinders (William ..., 1912. - quoted in Wadell, L.A. 1927, in his
documentation “The Aryan Origin of the Alphabet (1927)”
16 Hieroglyphs. F. L. Griffith, 1898. xi.
17 An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary. E. A. W. Budge, 1920.. 893 f.
18 See Diet, (WSAD.), and Br. 6542, 6549. It presumably derived this value as a contraction for As, " one" or " ace,"
but it is given the equivalency of the Water-sign A, i,e., the source of the letter A. (Etymological Lexicon of the
English and other Aryan Languages ancient and modern and the Sumerian Origin of Egyptian and its Hieroglyphs.
1927.) quoted in The Aryan Origin of the Alphabet (1927)
19 See Diet, (WSAD.), and BD. I05a; and it is by the same Hand-sign as in the Sumerian, Sumer-Aryan Dictionary:
(Etymological Lexicon of the English and other Aryan Languages ancient and modern and the Sumerian Origin of
Egyptian and its Hieroglyphs. 1927.) quoted in The Aryan Origin of the Alphabet (1927)
Contents
Abstract.................................................................................................................................................1
Alphabets..............................................................................................................................................2
The Old-Persian alphabet.................................................................................................................2
The Ugaritic alphabet.......................................................................................................................2
Notes to The formation of the alphabet by Flinders Petrie...................................................................3
The Repeated sequence of letters in the Greek alphabet.................................................................3
Completing the Repeated sequence of letters in the Greek alphabet...............................................4
Comparing the Ugaritic Table with Flinders Petrie's tables.................................................................5
The insertion of the sibilants................................................................................................................6
The numerical system of letters.......................................................................................................7
The reconstruction of the first arrangement.....................................................................................7
The Order of the Alphabet...............................................................................................................7
The Vowels and the Labials........................................................................................................8
The Hornbook.......................................................................................................................................9
Wadell's notes to the Hornbooks....................................................................................................10
Conclusion..........................................................................................................................................11
Appendices.........................................................................................................................................12
Appendix 1 - Overview of Sanskrit, Persian, Latin, Hebrew and Runic alphabets ......................12
Appendix 2 – Flinder Petrie's “Note on the Arabic Alphabet”......................................................13
Appendix 3 - Notes to the Ugaritic alphabet.................................................................................14
Appendix 4 - Laurence Waddell's “scientific order of Alphabetic Letters”...................................15