Summary

Peter Giles 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 15… (1911)

B.C.) in the form (written from right to left) of and . Similar forms are also found in early Aramaic, but another form or , which is found in the Phoenician of Cyprus in the 9th or 10th century B.C. has had more effect upon the later development of the Semitic forms. The length of the two back strokes and the manner in which they join the upright are the only variations in Greek. In various places the back strokes, treated as an angle <, become more rounded (, so that the letter appears as , a form which in Latin probably affected the development of C (q.v.)
Source: Wikisource

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