Is it not another remarkable coincidence that the
p, in both Maya and Phoenician, should contain this singular sign?
The form of pp in the Maya alphabet is this, ### . If we are asked, on
the principle already indicated, to reduce this to its elements, we
would use a figure like this, ### ; in time the tendency would be to
shorten one of these perpendicular lines, thus, and this we find is very
much like the Phoenician p, ### . The Greek ph is ### .
The letter l in the Maya is in two forms; one of these is ### , the
other is ### . Now, if we again apply the rule which we observed to hold
good with the letter m--that is, draw from the inside of the hieroglyph
some symbol that will briefly indicate the whole letter--we will have
one of two forms, either a right-angled figure formed thus, ### , or an
acute angle formed by joining the two lines which are unconnected, thus,
### ; and either of these forms brings us quite close to the letter l of
the Old World. We find l on the Moab stone thus formed, ### . The
archaic Phoenician form of l was ### , or ### ; the archaic Hebrew was
### and ### ; the hieratic Egyptian was ### ; the Greek form was ###
--the Roman L.
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