Chinese and Sumerian

XIV INTRODUCTION

ZU, the Pronoun of the Second Person (Suff.), should also be expressed in writing by the symbol for ZU, ‘to know’, may be a mere instance of Phonetic Borrowing (Class vi; p. 23). In the S#z the Woman-character # is often to be read Zu, ‘thou’; and the same symbol is phonetic in the ordinary way of writing the pronoun (7 ‘ thou’, ‘you’ =water+woman. Cf. the Sumerian use of Vy, the Water-sign, for ‘thou’; Br. 11329). It seems likely, however, that there may be a connexion of thought as well as of sound, since the ordinary Sumerian symbol for a man (Es%) also signifies the Pronoun of the #irst Person (Br. 6400). Cf also ey ‘wife’, ‘thou’ (Szgn-les¢, No. 58), and perhaps the word ZU-ZU, ‘lady’ (Br. 745). From this point of view, the Second is the inferior Person, the companion or associate of the First, as the woman of the man.

The word ME, ‘battle’, may be etymologically identical with ME, ‘to do’ (see Lex. s.v.), with which it is homophonous; cf our English ‘action’ in the like use. In cuneiform, at all events, the two characters have been assimilated to each other apr}, dattle, now consisting of > P=] do, with £¥ soldier, inserted. In the oldest form we have, however, that of Gudea (D. 7), while we still see the horizontal bow which stands for soldier (p. 20), the likeness to ME, ‘to do’ (Szgn-Zst, No. 55), has almost disappeared; and the discovery of earlier forms of the character may hereafter confirm my conjecture that the character was originally an outline of a lance and oblong shield, such as we see the warriors of Eannatum bearing in the sculptured scene on the famous Vulture-stele (De Sarzec, Dé. Pl. 3. ii);1 or perhaps the picture of a bow, with an arrow on the string, held upright between the hands.

In another fragment of the same monument we have what I cannot but regard as a striking confirmation of my analysis of the character J] “[EY, the symbol for bearing and carrying (Szgu-list, No. 75). I refer to the two men ascending the tumulus and, with one hand, poising baskets of earth on their heads (Dé. Pl. 3). A variant like that of Lugalzaggisi only corroborates my view; for it is clearly a rough outline of the vessel being carried on the head wth both hands, as in the case of the Canephoric statuettes (Dé. Pl. 28). As in the corresponding Chinese characters (Szgu-dist, No. 75), only the essential parts of the pictograph are preserved. The character, like that for battle, may be reckoned as another instance of a Suggestive Compound (Class iii); though, considering its strictly pictorial origin, it might be referred to Class i (p. 15), except in metaphorical applications.

As the Sun-symbol “] appears, judging by its linear forms (Sigv-/st, No. 39), to figure the rising sun (p. 20), so the linear forms of the Light-symbol ><(5= would seem to portray the fully risen or the meridian sun, darting his beams above and below. The sounds connected with the sign, viz. SIR, NUR (SIL, DUR), also agree essentially with Zi, djit(su), nyit, nal, which are sounds of the Sun-symbol in Chinese (R. 72; see pp. 13; 21; and Szen-list, No. 107). The lines within the figure, which like those

* See Mr. Handcock’s Jesopotamian Archacology, Pl. XII, for a good photograph of this subject.