Chapter III. On the Persian Cuneiform Alphabet

The characters that have hitherto been discovered in the Persian Cuneiform writing amount to thirty-nine. The alphabet was doubtless formed with a special reference to the peculiarities of Persian pronunciation, and a general resemblance may thus be traced between its organization and that which distinguishes the Palaeographic systems of other branches of the Arian family; but at the same time the constructions are far from being identical. In the place of the very elaborate vocalic organization which characterizes the alphabets of the Zend and of the Sanskrit, and to a certain extent, even of the primitive Pali, the Persian writing exhibits a simplicity which more nearly connects it with a Semitic type. It employs three characters only to represent the “matres lectionis.”