The parent of this letter is disclosed to be the Sumerian right-angled pictogram of a lever "Balance" ᒥ with the value of La or Lal.[1] The older form thus had its bar at the top, although this was conjectured by Taylor to be a "newer form" than the bottom barred.[2] The modern form ᒪ derives from the later Sumerian style of writing with the sign turned on its left side. This ᒪ form is already found in Pre-dynastic and Early-Dynastic Egypt alongside the earlier form with the bar at the top. The vertical direction of its stem distinguished this sign from the other Balance-sign 〈, Gi for G with which the ᒪ was apt to be confused; and the tendency to make the angle more acute (see Table I) was obviously to emphasize the difference from G, which letter in some of its Cadmean forms was also written ᒥ.
In the Brito-Phœnician cursive of King Partolan this letter has the tailed form of λ (see col. 16), the style of the Greek minuscule for that letter and is found on some Ancient Briton coins and in Early Egypt. The reversed form with the foot of the ᒪ directed to the left is also found on Early Briton coins.[3]
The supposition that the letter ᒪ and its sound were late[4] can no longer be held, as it is a common consonantal sound in Sumerian words from the earliest times, apart from its L or La phonetic sign.
In Egyptian hieroglyphs ᒪ is supposed by Egyptologists to be absent, and its kindred lingual R is used by them for spelling the ᒪ in foreign and indigenous words.
M. This labial or labio-nasal letter-sign occurs in Egypt in its earlier forms from the Pre-dynastic period onwards, and on through the Cadmean and "Semitic"
