Can all this be accident?
The letter c or g (for the two probably gave the same sound as in the
Phoenician) is given in the Maya alphabet as follows, ### . This would
in time be simplified into a figure representing the two sides of a
triangle with the apex upward, thus, ### . This is precisely the form
found by Dr. Schliemann in the ruins of Troy, ### . What is the
Phoenician form for g as found on the Moab stone? It is ### . The
Carthaginian Phoenicians gave it more of a rounded form, thus, ### . The
hieratic Egyptian figure for g was ### ; in the earlier Greek form the
left limb of the figure was shortened, thus, ### ; the later Greeks
reversed it, and wrote it ### ; the Romans, changed this into ### and it
finally became C.
In the Maya we have one sign for p, and another for pp. The first
contains a curious figure, precisely like our r laid on its back ### .
There is, apparently, no r in the Maya alphabet; and the Roman r grew
out of the later Phoenician r formed thus, ### ; it would appear that
the earliest Phoenician alphabet did not contain the letter r. But if we
now turn to the Phoenician alphabet, we will find one of the curious
forms of the p given thus, ### , a very fair representation of an r
lying upon its face.
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