Nov.5] SOCIETYOK BIBLICAL ARCHEOLOGY [1889.differencesexistedor were puton record by the Assyrian scribes.
But Accadian availed itselffreely of another expedient which is
foreignto the Chinese. The same character wasused to signify
quite different sounds(»-< = bat, be, til, mid, etc.), whereas in
Chineseeverydistinctsoundhas a character all t6 itself. Andsome
timeswe find the same Accadiansyllable representedby different
characters,eg. -< and fctjSfare both bad.
As regards meanings,the same or similar notions are repeated
undereachsoundof the Chinese series; throughout the whole, the
changesare rung, as it were, uponone or two leadingideas. Over
and overagain we encounter variationsof the ideas of splitting,
opening,striking,burstingforth,rushing,running,shining,whichare
all plainly reducible to one or two principal notions. The same
thingis observable in the Accadian series. If ba is " the opening
of the mouth," bi is " to speak," andso is pad, and so is bai. ; if bad
is " to open," so is bar. Thiscorrespondencein mechanism is surely
remarkable; and wouldprobablybe more so, if we had the com
pleteseriesof Accadian sounds,insteadof only a part of it. Let
us now proceedto compare the two series, so far as possible.
Ba has the meanings qaSu, "to give"; az&zu, "to be angry,"
"enraged"; nasd.ru, "to tremble, shake, fall" (jAj)> "to throw
down," "overthrow"; and////, "opening of the mouth." In
Chinese,//' and pei are " to give," andping is " to invite with
a present," andpan is "to confer rewards (on soldiers)." Pi
is "great androbust," "angry";p'ieh, "to be soon angry"; p'a
is " to fall to the ground,"po, " to shake," p'a, " to fear," /'«,
" frightened," pien, "alarmed,"///, "afraid"; whileka-bais repre
sentedby pa, "the mouthopen,"pa, "large mouthed,"/>«, "crying
and wrangling of infants," "hubbub." Ba as a verbal prefixansweis
to pa as " a sign of the optative." Ba is also a pronoun, Suatu, iu,
" that," " he, him," and pi is " that," a demonstrative.
Bi ^ qibii, /amtl," to speak, say, order,adjure,"may be com
paredwith piao, "to make known,"pan, "to publish abroad,"po,
" to sow, scatter,promulgate,"///,"publish,"p'ien,"discuss, argue,
describe." Bi, ina, "in, with,"is pa, "with." For the pronoun bi
( = s"u, sittitii, sasuiunu),see ba. As bi is both singularandplural,
so the Chinese//' is "that " and "those." So na, "he, his, him,"
= Chinese na, "that." Bi, "and," as in itu-bi ud-mu-bi,arhulimit
u sattu, " month, dayand year,"coincides withpa, " over," " up
wards,"" more," "besides,"as in s/ii/ipa, "a thousandand more." Bi,
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