6o

The Loom of Language

FIG. ii—CONSONANT SYMBOLS OF SOME CONTEMPORARY
Pronunciation changes in the course of centuries So it is somewhat arbitrary
to give fixed values to Greek symbols which iuve retained loughly the same
shape for two thousand five hundred years It sccnrt clear that $ ongmally
stood for an aspirated p rendered as PH in Latin transcription The symbol for
p (TT) replaces ^ in the first syllable of the reduplicated pai>t tense lorm of verbs