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. 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.
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 ### .