In this way the old form of objects became, in all but a few cases, very indistinct; while generally it was lost altogether.
Originally each character had, it would seem, the phonetic power of the name borne by the object which it represented.

But, as this namee was different in the languages of the different tribes inhabiting the country, the same character came often to have several distinct phonetic values.

For instance, the character [--] representing "a house," had the phonetic values of _e, bit,_ and _mal,_ because those were the words expressive of "a house," among the Hamitic, Semitic, and Arian populations respectively.

Again, characters did not always retain their original phonetic powers, but abbreviated them.

Thus the character which originally stood for _Assur,_ "Assyria," came to have the sound of _as,_ that denoting _bil_, "a lord," had in addition the sound of _bi,_ and so on.