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Bennett said: "There are four distinct species of tall, wiggly P-
or II-shaped characters [the gallows letters] which are similar to
characters found in early Bulgarian Glagolitsa (see, Diringer, 1953;
p. 476). The one labeled P [Currier B, Frogguy qj] in Fig. 4-22 often
starts paragraphs. The one labeled H [Currier P, Frogguy qp] is
similar to characters used for that letter in the Glagolithic
alphabet." (p. 193.)
John Grove and I have been discussing Istrin's book on Slavic
alphabets. Istrin's book covers the development of both the Cyrillic and
Glagolithic alphabets very thoroughly. However, none of the Glagolithic
letters really resemble the gallows letters closely.
It is not clear which Glagolithic letter Bennett was talking
about. I don't see a Glagolithic letter with an 'h' value. The 'h' value
is not too common in the Slavic languages. Ukrainain has it, and
indicates it with the letter like Greek gamma.
One table in Istrin gives Byzantine Greek cursive letters that are
related to Glagolithic letters. One form of Byzantine Greek cursive eta
looks very much like Frogguy qp. However, since none of the other
Byzantine Greek cursives resemble gallows letters, we conclude that this
is probably just fortuitous.
Dennis
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V. A. Istrin; *Tysiacha sto let slavianskoy azbuki. (1100 years
of Slavic Alphabets.)* Izdatyel'stvo Akadyemiy Nauk SSSR, Moskva (Moscow)
1963.
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