Dec.3] PROCEEDINGS. [1889.dan? Let the following Chinese series help us to decide: ta
"greatears,hangingover";tan,"earswithouta rim on the lobe";
tan,"pendentears,reachingto the shoulders"; fan,"earthenware
jars, withearsor handles"; tang, "ear-pendants";tang, "anear
whoselobereachesto the neck," suchas we see on images of the gods
(e tang), and which is regarded as a mark of intelligence. This
recalls Ashurbanipal'sboast that the gods had givenhim "large
ears" (uzna rapiati). Cp. further fu, " yellow ear-flaps" ; ti, " a
jar with smallears";ting, "a tripod kettlewithtwoears";ting,
"a running fromthe ear"; to, pendent things";I to, "lobe of the
ear";t'ing,"to hear." gildan,or gistan, therefore,is gis (ges) +
dan, " ear + ear." With gis, "ear,"cp. gin, maga.ru, "to hear,
listento." gi5-tug,mus-tug,"to hear,"seem likewiseto combine
bothtermsfor " ear."
As to the phonetic values of the ideogram, ma,me, answer to
Mu(S),as in so many similarinstances; A has lost the initial con
sonant(as i, "to speak," = me, "to speak"); bi is a hardening of
mi, suchas regularly takesplace in the Amoy dialectof Chinese,
e.g. ming, "a corn-fly," Amoyding;cp. Accadian ban,"a bow," with
gin,gam,"to bend." tal is to tan, as til to tin, or dil, "man,"
to din (mudin), and tu answers to Chinese to, "pendent" (vid.
supr.);cp. Cantonese tit, Amoy tb, Shanghai tu. The ordinary
wordfor "ear" in Chinese is e, which Wells Williamswrites'rh,
Edkinser, and Wade erh. But r is not to be found anywhereelse in
the Chinese lexicon; and the sound intendedappearsto be merely
the open e, heard in such wordsas "ere," "mere";so that all the
homophonesgivenunder'rh really consistof a single vowel,and
oughtto be transcribed e. The dialects pointto the same con
clusion, e, "ear," is the Cantonese i, Amoyft", Shanghai ni. Now
e, i, have lost their initialletter,like the Accadian a (for the deflexion
of the vowel, cp. Accadian a, "water," andfi, "water; Accadiana,
"clothes, Chinesei, "clothes"); whilethe Amoy ji", ni", vulgar hi,
andthe Shanghai ni, point to older formsidenticalwiththe Accadian
gin,"tohear,"gi-5, "the ear,"mu-5, "theear." In Chinese, we
havealsowan,Cantoneseman, "tohear"(oldsounds,menmun),
obviouslycorrespondingto the Accadian terms.
Thecharacter^|-,"ear,"is like ^|>-,"eye";andthe Chinese
lexiconnotesthatthe charactersfor ear and eye are often writtenalike.
AnotherChinesee {'rh), means "thewhiskers,""hairy." It is
the Cantonese i, Amoy ji, Shanghai e. gi or ge is the form pre
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