Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology

(Jeff_L) #1
Dec. 3] SIOCETYOF BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY. [1889.

"shade;"andall these termsare represented by {££., ga, ge, gig,
or, with a phonetic complement,(£.£tiff*,gig-ga. Besidesthese,
we have (tt(ZZ,gigig,iklitu," darkness,"alsopronouncedkukki
(a modification of g to k, of which Chinese presents plenty of
instances); kukki,etiitu, "darkness"; ge-ag'u, issurmusi,"the
birdof night," alsocalled in Assyrian salamdu; gigig, da'umma/u,
"gloom,""mourning"; kukki, du'ilmu, "to mourn," and gig-ga,
pitii, "toopen." Now the ordinary value of the sign {^.Z, as
a syllable in the Assyrio-Babylonian writing, is not gig or ge,
but mi. I do not believe thatthis valueis arbitrary; it rather
pointsto the use of this soundin Accadian as a by-form of ge,
gig, such as we should expect fromthe analogy of ga, dialectic
ma, gu, dialectic mu, and so on. Andthis inferenceis confirmed
by the Chinese, where we not only find ye, " night," which
represents ge, "night," but also the following cognates of an
Accadianmi (mu, me): mu, "evening,""sunset"(oldsounds,mu,
mot,mok),Chifu,mu;mu," evening," "dusk"(seemoh,old sounds,
mak, mat), and under the same head, mo, "dark,""obscure,"
"black;"mo, "dark," "cloudy,"" night," mo, "still," "silent,"mo,
"a screen"; ming, "dark," "obscure," "doleful," "night-like";
mingt" the sun obscured,"" night," " dark " ; ma (ma, mak), in a
Cantonese phrase,"dim,""obscure";ma, "dim sight";mat,"to
secrete, cover, conceal" (mai, ma, mat); man, " dull, half-shut
eyes";man,"a curtain," "screen";man(mtfn),"to cover"; man
maklit, "a dark unlighted road"; mang(oldsoundmung),"the
sun obscured " ; mao (mo,mok)," the covering of animals or birds,
hair,fur, feathers," " herbage, the covering of the earth " ; mao, " a
coveringfor the head, a cap" ; mei (mi, mai, mik,mit),Shanghai,me,
" soot," " charcoal," " embers" ; mei, " mouldy or black spots" ; ma,
" no sun," " dark" ; mei, " smutty grain" ; mei, " colour-blind " ; meu
(mu, milt),"dim," "indistinct vision"; mi, " beclouded " ; mi-mi
mdng-mang," a thick shade" ; " overcast," " cloudy,"—a very instruc
tive phrase : mi (mai, mei, mi),ShanghaiandChifu,mi, obviously
reproduces (££. mi (erne sal?), and mang(mong), see MUNG
Cantonesemung(=mug) means "foggy," "gloomy,"as in mang
mangtHen," foggysky,"i.e., gloomy weather. Mangis also, the sun
belmuthe horizon, and the moon aboutto set, and to cover, and blind,
and dark: jih yiieh mang-mang,"thesun and moonare darkened,"
(ana mi, '■'■heaven-darkness or eclipse"). Mi is also a riddle, an


enigma;cp. mi-a-gin-Gin = ha'idu, riddling(?) ; "Tin, iTTTT- We
72

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