THE ORIGIN OF LETTERS AND NUMERALS.

The Book of Formation⁴) original Hebrew: "Sefer Yetzirah" emphasizes that the number of the double letters is no less and no more than ten, and the number of the simple letters no less and no more than twelve. The Book of Formation urges us to investigate and examine the letters, that we may have a clear insight into the subject. This proves that, at the time when the book was written, the nature of the letters, or of some of them, was misunderstood. We know, indeed, that at the time when the Greek translation of the Bible The Septuagint, the earliest Greek translation of the Old Testament from the 3rd century BCE. was made, it was believed that the ע The letter Ayin., for example, could be transliterated by e, a, or g, and the translators accordingly rendered it variously by one of these three sounds.

Arguments have repeatedly been advanced in favor of the view that the Hebrew ע Ayin had not only the sound of the Arabic ع Ain, a deep voiced pharyngeal sound., but also of the غ Ghayn, a voiced velar sound similar to a French 'r'.. But according to the Book of Formation, the ע is a simple letter. If it has the sound of the Arabic ع it is impossible that it should also have the sound of غ. Moreover, if the ע was originally a vowel only and had no sound of g, as maintained by Jerome Saint Jerome (c. 347–420 AD), the scholar who translated the Bible into Latin (the Vulgate)., it can have only one vowel sound. If we ascribe to it the sound of A, it is impossible that it should have also the sound of E or O, etc. Furthermore, according to the Book of Formation, the letters ח, ט, צ Het, Tet, and Tsade. are also simple letters, and each must have had only one sound and not two as in Arabic.

The author of the Book of Formation apparently cautioned against the very errors and mistakes into which all writers on Hebrew grammar have fallen. By dividing the twenty-two Hebrew letters into ten double and twelve simple, representing thirty-two sounds, the author desired to make clear how different the

⁴) See text, § 3.