Dec.3] SOCIETYOF BIBLICAL ARCH/EOLOGY. [1889.
is borrowed from the Assyrian m?, m& ; for we have a Chinese
seriesto support its claim to be considered a genuine Accadian
vocable. The Chinese termsare as follows : man, " an expanse
of water"; "anoverflow";tnang(oldsound,mung),"water;"mao,
"watery"; "stagnant water"; mo, "small rain"; mo, "shallow
water;"met, "summerrains;" met,"flowingwater;"mi, "a vast
expanseof waters;" ho shut mi-mi"wideand full is the river";
cp. Accadian a-ma-ma= a-ga-ga, mi rahasu; mien, "a flood
bursting the barriers; a mighty stream"; min, "a vast sheetof
water"; "to flow off";ming, "the deep;" "drizzling rain;" me,
mo, "to sink in the water"; mu, "to bathe"; mu, "fine rain."
The obvious implication of this series of cognate terms is
strengthened by the fact that we have in Accadian G-form like
g'a,g'e, g'u, g'al,gur,implyinga corresponding M-formlike h!
I have notexhausted the points of agreement presented by
Chinese wordsunderthe letter m with theirAccadian doublesor
originals. Just as we should expect in Accadian an M-form
answeringto the gin of za-gin, so we actually find in Chinese min,
"a fine kindof stone, clouded alabaster";/^min, "purewhite
alabaster"; minshi(k), "common alabaster"; wan or min, "the
streaksin agate or jade"; and other cognateforms.
Andas we have mu-§, "serpent,"in Accadian, so we have in
Chinese man,mang,min,withthe same meaning(seeunderjan).
Withga, Sabatu, "to beat," we may comparema (mit), "to strike";
mie/i (mit), Canton mit, "to beat"; with gi, sahru, "little," mi,
"small, petty;" miao, "small"; mieh, "minute," etc.; with ga,
paSahu,andgin,kanuor taqanu, mi, "to soothe,pacify"; "settle,
establish";withga, saharu, mi, "around"; with gi, sanaku, kalA,
ga, ialamu, mi, " to prevent, closeup, stop ; to complete "; with gid,
"long,distant";mi, do.; withgin, ganti,mieh,"bamboos";with
gin,gam, "to bow the head," mien (min), "to hang down the
head";withgin,taru,mien,"to turnthe back on." But I need
not now say more than that under M it is easy to find doubles
for all or most of the Chinese wordsgivenunderJ.
I have saidthat the Accadian termsfor "ear," weregi-5,ge, mu-5.
I can now throwfurtherlighton this identification. Theideogram
is *y»-, withthe syllabic valuesma, a, me, bi, pi, tal, tu ; and the
nameof the sign is giltanii. Nowthis Assyrian conventionalname
is equivalent to giStanfi (cp. iltenii = iUeniS, and manyotherwell-
knownexamplesof / for S). gis being " the ear," whatis tan or
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