Dec.3] SOCIETYOF BIBLICAL ARCHEOLOGY. [1889.as it is also in the Odes, wherefor "you" we haxe/ung, pronounced
nung(Evolutionof the Chinese Language, p. 86). The termpre
supposesa primitive gun(gin),coincidingwithAccadiangin,"I."
Are the pronouns /, thou, relatedto the numerals one,two 1 GiS,
"one,"min(a), "two,"curiouslyresemble gin, "I,"men, "thou."
TheChinesephrase,yi-erh," one two," is used in the sense of " we."
Gis, "one," impliesa form mu or me, "one," and min, " two,"implies
the existing gi(n)fan/2," second," " other." It is evident thatforms
so nearly alike might easily be confused with each other. The
Accadian mi-n, "two,"may be compared with Chinesemeu, "to
double,"meu,"equal";wu (mu) "a comrade," and wu, "a pair";
so that it is a true synonymof tab, "two." Dr. Edkins explains
the use of nung for the first and second personalpronounsby regarding
it as originally a demonstrative.
In Accadian, na, ni, are suffix pronouns meaning"him,""her,"
"them." But ni is also a suffix of the first person, "my,"andna
is also a suffix of the secondperson, " thy " (see Briinnow, s.v.).
Thisexactlyagreeswiththe Chinese phenomena. In Chinese, nai
is sometimes " your," " yours"; sometimes " that," " those" ; na is
"that," "there," "cela"; na-kozhan, "that man"; while ni-na
is " you, sir! " in respectful address. TheordinaryChineseword
for you is ni, " thou," " you," " yours " ; but ni, written with a
modified formof the same character,is "we," "us,"in Kiangsu ;
and ni-ko is ours. In Cantonese ni is this; ni-ko, "thisone";
ni-tih," this." Thesefactsare surely enough to demonstrate that
the Accadian is not singular in using identicalformsfor pronouns
of different persons.
I may here briefly consider the other personal pronouns.
ProfessorDouglas( Chinese Manual, pp. 70, sq.) givesthe following
list for the Chinese : ngo or wo, anciently pronouncednga,ga, go,
kan,a ; " I " (" mine," " my," " me," " our," " we," " us "). Every
one of these old soundsmay be paralleled from the Accadian.
Nga, Shanghai ngu=Accadiangal (ngal)ga "I"; ga and go =
Accadianga ; kan = Accadian gin," I " ; a = Accadian |{, A, " I."
Wo and wu, "I,""my,"go back, as we have seen,to Accadian ma,
me, mu, "I," "my." Yii, "I, we, our, myself,"= ku(gu), gi(n).
ngan, an, " I," " myself," in the vernacular of certain parts of
northernChina= ngal, gin (ngin); cp. til, tin, "life,"for
the interchange of 1, n.
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