June3] SOCIETYOF BIBLICAL ARCHEOLOGY. [189c.
THE NEW ACCADIAN.By the Rev.C. J. Ball, M.A.,Oxon.,
CHAPLAINOFLINCOLN'SINN;FORMERLYCENSORANDLECTURERIN
KING'SCOLLEGE,LONDON.
(Continuedfrompage287, and including the substance of a paper
readApril6, 1890.)The Ideogram »f-.
Thischaracter,calledby the Babylonian scribesBant,and Mdsu,
fromits two principal values,mightbe read bar, par, bir, pir, even ba
(2 R 56, 36 a), and maS, mas,perhapsmus; but its usual soundswere
bar and mas. A relation betweenmasandmar,likethatbetween
kus and kur,gis and gir, is probable on the face of it. Moreover,
bar(bas)andmas (mar)are to be regarded as roots reallycognate
with each other,and not as two whollydistinct rootswhichhave
been arbitrarily representedby a single character. Thisfollows
from the well-known dialectic interchange of b and m, in both
Accadian and Chinese; a fact which, as we shall see, is fully
illustratedin the case beforeus. Similarmeaningsare found under
the two sounds. If bar (or bir) is a brother, maSis a twin; if mas
is to neglect, to forget, baris to let go, cast off, abandon ; if mas
was produce, harvest,so also probably wasbar (cp. bar, to sprout,
and the Hebrew 121, wheat). The same thing is seen in the
Mandarinmo, Amoy, bck, wheat; Mandarin,mat/, Amoy,bo (=ba),
barley.
TheAssyrianscribeshaveconnecteda great varietyof meanings
withthis character. I have beenableto verify mostof them, from
the Chinese. In many instancesthe Mandarin soundcorresponding
to the Accadian baris pao or p'ao. Nowthe twentieth radical,of a
few characters mostlyrelatingto wrapping andinclosing,is pao, "to
wrapup,"" to envelop," " to contain," "a bundle." Thesignf~l is not
altogetherremotefrom£_, a form o »f- which has been thoughtto
be the original characterfor the sound bar,while»f- was originally
maS. TheChinesesignin combination withfait," head," meansa
head-bandor fillet ; cp. bar, to enclose, surround,bind(kamu),and
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