Mar.4] SOCIETYOF BIBLICAL ARCHEOLOGY. [1890.still,if, as if," "all" (in the phrases ir-i or i-ir, "thatis all"; kiu
jan ir-i, "ninemenin all"). Thesemeaningsat once recallthose
of the Chinese termsrelatedto the Accadian gin,discussedin last
month'sProceedings(p. 208). Nowit is a noteworthy fact that just
as we have in Chinese a form ir or er (dr) cognateand synonymous
withgi (now /', ji), so we have in Accadian ir or er as a dialectic
equivalent of gin (j^:eri, ir, alaku, "towalk, go"=t2fcm,
alaku). Whatis the etymological relationbetweentheseAccadian
words? I think the Chinese dialects, if nothing else,mightteach
us. ir or er is simply gir denuded of its initial sound. Andif ir,
ir-raare relics of gir, gir-ra,eri may be the remnant of meri.
This suggestionis confirmed by the fact that gir, gir-ra(^E),
dialecticmeri,means"foot"(Sepu)and "track"(kibsu)or "path"
(tallaktu), and thatgir-ginis "to go," "to tread" (kab&su),and
"path." The same relationis traceable betweenthese terms as
between the Sanskritpad-yami, "to go,"padam, "a step," and
padas, " foot." To walk is to foot it, and a path is made by
footprints. Amongthe other usesof this Chinese particle,we find
that it may mean "asif," "like"; e.g., in the phrase, "to treat
darkness,ir ming, likelight,"or "as if it were light." This may
correspondto -^£js, whichsometimesmeansktma,"as,like,"and is
readir in the sense of kire u, libbu, "middle,""heart." (Theother
valuesof this sign illustratethe wearing downof initial g. They are
GUR,g'ur,ur; g'ar;g'ir; besidesmurandkir,kin.)
Amongthe uses of J^:, ir, we find it as a postposition, equated
withthe Assyrian ana,"to,unto,into, toward,"andina,"in,by,
with." In the former sense it is clearly identicalwithir, "to go,"
"to bring." Cp. (2) The Chineseir, dialectic /', jin, ir, " near, at
hand," "to approach"; ir-lai, "hitherto." Lai, "to come, to
reach, to bring," maybe compared with the postposition »-^E=TT,
Li,*ana, ina, " to, in," on the one hand,andwith^tjyra, ana,
ina,on the other, li is the Chinese postposition li, " to, in," as
kia-li,"untothe house," ye-li, "in the night." Now t£\is also
read ra in the sense of alaku, " to go." These postpositions,
therefore,are, as we suspected, merelyspecial usesof the verb of
motion. TheJapanesepronunciationof lai, " to come," is rai. It
is curious thatAccadian suppliesboththe /-form andthe r-form.
* That this li, "with," is not independent of an older rf-form,is evident
fromt^J,readDl, and rendered itli, "together with."
282