June3] SOCIETYOF BIBLICAL ARCILEOLOGY. [1S90.
Thesoleremaining characterwiththis sound is fljfl, hiung,"to
spy about, observe,watch, inform." In Accadian it is well-known
thattermsdenotinglightandsightare closely related,and we find
the same sign with the meanings " to be bright," and "to see"
(namaru,amaru). Thisuse of the Chinese sin, shin,is therefore to
be compared with^J>-, Si, which includes those two senses,and
moreoverwiththe groups
<T-eMand<T-tM^TTT,
whichI read Si-i'n(SfN),Si-In-dug-GA(sIn-dugga),whichare both
explained" to see " (amdru). Thetransition fromseeingto causing
to see, making known,informing,as in {|»-TTT. pad, " to shine, to
see,to show, to say," is easy enough. Q-,shi (shin) maybe the
5-form of zi, "to know," and of Di, "to judge" ( discern). Cp.
Chineseshen,"glittering,"shen-kien,"sawitan instant"; shen(eye +
blaze),"to glance at, to peep," shen-mu,"to take a look at,"shen-
shen,"glittering";shun,"to wink, to glance."
If after this demonstration of the close relation between the
Accadiansin, sin, sim, Sim, and the Chinese h'iungor hsiung, people
stillinclineto the opinion thatany Chinese word,or any Accadian
word,may mean anythingyou please,I will ask them to consider
whetherit is likely thatcorrespondingcompoundtermsshouldhave
fortuitously arisenin the two languages, and thento examine the
followinglist: —
Accadian. Chinese.
si-giSS£(f) (= si-gin-5£), a sacri- yin-si,a sacrifice; Japanese,gisci
fice. = Chinese hi-shdng,victims.
Sukum(= Sug-kum), an offering, shang-kung,to offer in worship.
zikum(= zig-kum), heaven. h'iiing-ts'ang,heaven.
gukkal(= gug-kal), ram. yang-ku,ram.•That6:1111,archaic Y^A I , E (f)> "house" (bitu)originallyhadthe
valueIN is clear fromits use in in-gar, 5 R 42, 56 g. IN became E (i) by wear
ing down, as in, "clothes," becamethe Chinese 1, "clothes," or as gin became
cl ; cp. —]1, iN, tiptu, witht^, E (i) kabti. But,further,this fN (en), "a
house,"like its other Accadianhomophones, representsa primitive GIN(CAN).
gin, "house," andGIN, "clothes," both meant shelter, covering;cp. J*~
yen,(gin),dialecticim siarn ngt!"(gin)," a shelter," of which the original formis
said by some to resemble a house. Thecharacteris the 53rd radical,andenters
into the composition of charactersrelatingto dwellings.
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