Philip Newton wrote:

>On Thu, 20 Jan 2005 10:31:04 -0500, Mark E. Shoulson <mark@...> wrote:
>
>
>>This led to the development of the
>>non-final letters in the Hebrew alphabet as we know it today (since the
>>long strokes at the ends of the letters would bend up in preparation for
>>the next letter, except word-finally. The final MEM is another story,
>>and an interesting one).
>>
>>
>
>Please tell!
>
>

OK, OK...

It's not too complicated. At the time in question, the letter MEM was
drawn in two strokes: first a stroke kind of like a digit 7, then a
short stroke crossing the upper horizontal. Remember, primordial MEM is
an image of water, up-and-down waves, and the vertical stem on the right
got exaggerated. Here, they're showing the up-and-down by actually
having a second stroke cross the top.

So, with a two-stroke drawing, the bottom of the vertical stroke is
going to be drawn up (like what happened to the other non-finals)
whether or not it's word-final, in anticipation of the second stroke.
But the second stroke will also get bent out to the left in non-final
cases, in anticipation of the next letter, leaving the letter open, but
if it's word-final it will just be drawn straight down... just in
position to hit the bent bottom of the first stroke.

~mark