written from right to left; it appears in a form resembling the ordinary
Greek [lambda]; this form apparently arose from writing the Semitic symbol
upside down. Its form in inscriptions of Melos, Selinus, Syracuse and
elsewhere in the 6th and 5th centuries suggests the influence of Aramaic
forms in which the head of the letter is opened, [2]. The Corinthian [3],
[4] and [5] (also at Corcyra) and the [Two Bs] of Byzantine coins are other
adaptations of the same symbol. The form [6] which it takes in the
alphabets of Naxos, Delos and other Ionic islands at the same period is
difficult to explain. Otherwise its only variation is between pointed and
rounded loops ([7] and [8]). The sound which the symbol represents is the
voiced stop made by closing the lips and vibrating the vocal chords (see
PHONETICS). It differs from _p_ by the presence of vibration of the vocal
chords and from _m_ because the nasal passage as well as the lips is
closed. When an audible emission of breath attends its production the
aspirate _bh_ is formed. This sound was frequent in the pro-ethnic period
of the Indo-European languages and survived into the Indo-Aryan languages.
According to the system of phonetic changes generally known as "Grimm's
law," an original _b_ appears in English as _p_, an original _bh_ as b. An
original medial _p_ preceding the chief accent of the word also appears as
_b_ in English and the other members of the same group. It is not certain
that any English word is descended from an original word beginning with
_b_, though it has been suggested that _peg_ is of the same origin as the
Latin _baculum_ and the Greek [Greek: baktron]. When the lips are not
tightly closed the sound produced is not a stop, but a spirant like the
English _w_. In Late Latin there was a tendency to this spirant
pronunciation which appears as early as the beginning of the 2nd century
A.D.; by the 3rd century _b_ and consonantal _u_ are inextricably confused.
When this consonantal _u_ (English _w_ as seen in words borrowed very early
from Latin like _wall_ and _wine_) passed into the sound of English _v_
(labio-dental) is not certain, but Germanic words borrowed into Latin in
the 5th century A.D. have in their Latin representation _gu_- for Germanic
_w_-, _guisa_ corresponding to English _wise_ and reborrowed indirectly as
_guise_.

The earliest form of the name of the symbol which we can reach is the
Hebrew _beth_, to which the Phoenician must have been