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<DIV align=center style="background-color:#C2CAD0;border-style:solid;border-width:1;font-family:arial;font-size:28pt" >Letter Alpha
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<BR>We are trying to trace the Phoenician aleph to the cuneiform sign LIM. LIM in Mesopotamia meant "thousand".
<BR>The West-Semitic "aleph" also meant "thousand", ("aleph" and "eleph" are written the same).
<BR>The shape of the sign LIM is very similar to the Phoenician aleph.
<BR>Schematically we can trace the following evolution:
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<TD><IMG SRC="igi_alpha.jpg"></TD><TD><IMG SRC="igi_05.jpg"></TD><TD><IMG SRC="igi_04.jpg"></TD>
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<TD bgcolor="white">step 3</TD><TD bgcolor="white">step 2</TD><TD bgcolor="white">step 1</TD>
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<BR>There are more reasons to equate the letter "aleph" with the sign LIM. The sign LIM served as a sign for the number "thousand" in all the region of Mesopotamia. It can be encountered in numerous cuneiform tablets.
<BR>The word "eleph" was very prevalent in all the dialects of the Western-Semitic languages. This word entered into the languages of South-Arabia and Ethiopia. It entered into Greek, as "alpha", meaning "thousand".
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<BR><U>References:</U>
<BR><B>Wilhelm Deecke.</B> Der ursprung des altsemitischen alphabets aus der Neu-Assyrischen keilschrift. 1877.
<BR><B>Joaquin SanMartin.</B> A glossary of Old-Assyrian. 2016.

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