June3] PROCEEDINGS. [1890.which in the Cantonese means "a man," "a fellow;" lih (lik) =
Accadianlig,"strong."
Ar to the ^JEJ ki in >-- f fc^S ^HJ,it is natural to compare it
withthe Chinese ko, old sound ka, Shanghai ku, "an elderbrother";
cp. also ki, "the youngestof brothers," andkin,"a wife's sisters,"
"sisters-in-law." In this case, the whole group,dingir+ sis(si)+ ki,
god+ brother + brother, meansthe Brother God,thatis, I suppose,
the kinsman and protector of his worshippers.
Butnow,what Chinesetermcorrespondsto Sissi, "brother"?
We have seenthatthe term maybe analysed intosin + sin, just as
ninni is nin + nin. Theduplicationexpressesgreatness,andso
thedeep respect of the speaker; justas in Chinese niang-niang
(=. ninni) is "Lady," and ko-ko, "my elder brother." I think
I have foundthe equivalent of sin, brother, in 51, h'iiing, or as
some writeit, hsiiing, "an elder brother," which is used also as
a title of respect, like Mr., Don, Senor, etc. H'iiingor hsiiing
is a modification of h'l'm or h'in (hsim or hsin), as nidng is of
nin. Dr. Wells Williams remarks that the initial sound, which
he writes h', is like the Spanish x in Quixote ; " sh would be too
much," to represent it. This seems to savour of the Babylonian
hesitationbetween Sin and sin;cp. sikka andsukka, "he-goat"
(atHdu). At all events, the fact that se, "an elder brother,"is
given as the equivalent of this characterh'iiing in the Japanese
lexicon,stronglyconfirmsour identification of it with the Accadian
§(s(si)or ses(si). Theothervalue of E25^, uru,a synonym of
Sis, appears to be a worn formof kur, "brother,""enemy." (See
MarchProceedings.)
In speaking of an elder brother,youmaysay kia-hHung, "my
elderbrother." Kia, dialectic ka (Canton, Amoy, Shanghai), but
alsokia (Swatow, Chifu),Pekingchia,means"a household, a family,
a home," and then "a house, a building," and even "a village."
It is also usedas " a title of a husband andof some dignitaries,"
and is "a suffix to nouns to denote persons"; finally, it means
"the country or government," and "todwell" (cp. <ffi. ki and
ki-a," to dwell, dwelling,place,land,"etc.). In the expression kite
* The transitionfromsibilantto spiritusasper,so familiar in Aryanlanguages,
hardlyneeds illustration: Sanskr. shash, saptan, Latin sex, septem,Greek
i£, itto, six, seven, occurat once. So in Chinese underSUHwe find characters
pronounced h'ii,andundersin,A'un; just likeSanskr.sur.us, Zendhunu,
Sonne,son.
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