Nov. 5] PROCEEDINGS. [1889."tender." Withthesewe may convenientlytakea = mu = "water."
The Chinese for water is shui; but under the same headingYIU,
we find_>'/V, "hand,"yiu',"young,"and yiu, "to go on the water,"
yiuas part of the name of several rivers,yiu," water flowingalong
rapidly,"^yiu,"oil,"j>iu,"to float," "to swim," "to drift," andjiu
as the name of several plantsgrowingin the water. Thisseemsto
showthat yiu as well as shui oncemeantsimply" liquid" or " water."
Thuswe get fair parallels to the Accadian a = " hand," a = " son,"
anda = " water." Whatmaywe suppose werethe original formsof
k (son) and a (water)? The Chinesefor river is ho ; and under
this headingthe old sounds ha, ha, ga, are given. In the dialects
we find ho and o, hu and u. The Chifu hwoasuggestsan original G.
I believe the primitive formto have beenga(d),in the sense of " to
flow";cp. Accadian g'al,"toflow,"and gur,"toflow,""to run,"
andga, " milk " (" that which flowsfromthe breast," gab ; as Assy
rianiispu),andid (g'id ?), "a river"; cp. Hid-deqel. "Water"is a
naturalandnot uncommon metaphorfor offspring {cp. Num.xxiv,7).
The initialh of so many modern Chinesewordsappearsas k in
the age of the ancient poetry,as is remarked by Dr. Edkins ; and
this k often correspondsto an Accadian G.
The syllabarypresentsus with yet another Accadian(|^) a, in
the sense of "dress," "clothing" (lubsu). The commonChinese
term for clothes is /', which is found in all the dialects, and may
representan original a.
Let us now look at the dental t, d. The Accadianfor "to
hear,""listen," is gis-tug (dialecticmus-tug),Simu,magaru. The
Chinese fing, "to hear," "listen" (old sounds, t'ing and ding\
answersto this as kin, "gold," answers to guS-kin, and as tsiu,
"wine," to ges-tin (din). Thenasalisationof the finalg is not
remarkable,and may havebeenheardin the Accadian itself.
In the case of shut syllables,the initial consonantis generally
indeterminatein Accadian (tin-din,kar-gartab-dib). ThegiS in
gistugmeans " ear " ; cp. the dialectic ^ = g£ = uznu, " ear," =
"TT-^GI = GU (CBk) > anc as TUK (tug)is " to have andhold,"
gi$tug="to have or hold ear."
Til,dialectictin,andti, are familiar Accadianterms,denoting
balatu,"to live." I did not at once succeed in my endeavour to
identitythem in Chinese. Butwhen I remembered thattu was
Accadianfor "the wind"(idru),andthatin most languagesterms
denoting "wind," "breath," and "life"or "spirit," wereakin to
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