Explorations in Bible lands during the 19th century - H. V. Hilprecht

DURING 19th CENTURY: H1TTITES 785
dog's head and a boar's claw. The first hieroglyph, therefore,
must probably be read as kom, and the second as mogh.
Now the Hittite characters do not distinguish a and o, k
and g or gh respectively, while the Armenian word for bulldog
is gamp'r and that for claw magi/. Thus our interpretation
of the inscription of Mut(d)allu confirms our thesis
that the authors of the Hittite characters,/, e., of course the
Hittites themselves, were of Armenian stock.
turn bears out the correctness of our interpretation.
And this in
It is evident from the above that the Hittite symbols
or signs sometimes represented the full consonantal value
of the corresponding word, sometimes only the beginning of
it, and that therefore in the creation of symbols for single
sounds or syllables the principle of acrophony was employed.
The knowledge acquired goes far to determine the native
appellation of the Hittites, and this again, which is
a circumstance
to be welcomed, provides us with a new argument
for
the Hittite and Armenian relationship, thus supporting
our hypothesis. One of the kings of Hamath, the kings
of Karkemish, one of Gurgum, another who has left us an
inscription found at Izgin north of Mar'ash, one king of
Cilicia, the same to whom the inscription upon the bowl
refers, another king one of whose inscriptions has been discovered
at Kolitolu in Lycaonia, the author of an inscription
from Beikoi in ancient Phrygia, and perhaps the man
to whom the inscription recently discovered at Babylon
refers, call themselves, or are called, X, or X son of an X,
or grandson of an X. This X is differently written. When
written phonetically, with perhaps two exceptions, its first
symbol is a hand grasping a knife. Then mav come a shoe,
the sign for a dental, while the vowels following, which in
nominative at least are i or e and o or a, may be left out.
This phonetic writing alternates with the ideographical one :
a man's head with a handle or pole attached, where the