22

The Loom of Language

a single isolated specimen So it may well be that many people with a
knowledge of Anglo-American would benefit by trying to learn German
along with Dutch; which is a half-way house between German and

SIGN SOUND SIGN iOUND SIO'J SOUND 1>IGN SOUND

TFT

t> —

ka

leu

ga

ha

cha

0-

Tf

KT

la

tu

da

da

du

T«

HrT

ba

fa

ma

wa

t?-

Tf

Tr:

Wl

la

thr a

Ideoqrams

8T or

shayathiya
KING

daliyu
PROVINCE

buuu

LAND

auramazda
NAME OF A GOD

FIG. 3—OLD PERSIAN CUNEIFORM SVIXABARY
Cuneiform is the name for a type of syllable writing which owes its distinctive
characteristics to the impress of a wedge-shaped tool on soft day Related
syllabaries of the same type were widely distributed over the Middle East
about 3000 B c. Elamxtes> Babylonians3 Syrians and Hittites all had cuneiform
scripts
Mayflower English. Every grammatical rule then becomes a fresh
layer of rock from which to chisel vestiges of creation. Each word is a
bone labelled with a question-mark,