(_maim_=_waters_), _Nun_, _Samekh_, _Ain_ (_Oin_), _Pe_, _Tsade_, _Koph_, _Resh_ (=_head_), _Shin_, _Tau_. We have no actual knowledge of the Chaldæo-Aramaic sounds of these names, but we know that the Eastern Syrians would probably have written them thus:-- _Alpha_, _Beta_, _Gamla_, _Dalta_, _He_, _Vau_, _Zaita_, _Hheta_, _Teta_, _Yoda_, _Kappa_, _Lamda_, _Mu_ (=_water_), _Nun_ (_Nu_), _Samkha_ (_Simkha_=_Sigma_), _Oin_ (_Oi?_), _Pe_, _Tsada_, _Koppa_, _Rash_ (_Ro?_=_face_), _Shen_, _Tau_. Leaving aside for the present any consideration of the changes and additions in the Greek alphabet, we may assume that it passed from Babylonia through Cilicia to the Phrygians and Lydians; and that, whatever intercourse may have taken place between the European Greeks and the Phoenicians then or afterwards, the Ionians of Asia Minor had already formulated the Hellenic alphabet before it reached the Thebans. As it seems to be nearly certain that the Phrygians possessed it in the tenth century before Christ, the Aramæans must have had it much earlier, and we may credit them with the use of writing as far back as 1300-1200 B.C. It is very unlikely that the Western Syrians were far behind, but the oldest monuments extant go no higher than the tenth century, and are probably surpassed in antiquity by some of the Sabæan (Himyarite or Homerite) inscriptions of Southern Arabia. The Himyari alphabet, which is the direct ancestor of the modern Abyssinian, introduces some novel forms, and has less resemblance to the Aramaic original than any of the others. Most of the letters are, however, ultimately traceable to the Aramaic, although the date must have been remote, to judge from the large divergences in shape which had had time to develop themselves before the type was fixed.