Chinese and Sumerian

AND THE SUMERIAN PARALLELS 21

3. LAG (in ZA-LAG), LAG, LA = (RAG), RA, RIG (in PI-RIG) = SHAG.

4. TAM, TAN, ZAL (from ZAN ?).

But, further, since it is a well-known feature of the two dialects of Sumerian that an LEme-ku G may correspond to an Ame-sal B or M, and since the interchange of D (T), R, L, S, Z, is as well known in Sumerian as in Chinese and other languages, we see that an original GAD (= GAS =GAL, &c.) may be cognate with BAR (= MAS). The change from the A- to the U- series (GAD, GUD, UD, &c.) is not uncommon (¢g. BAR = BUR), and the transition from final -D to final -G (UD = UG) is also frequent in Sumerian, and finds its counterpart in Chinese: cf in the former SUD = SUG, SHED = SHEG, and in the latter the regular equivalence of Fuhchau -k to Cantonese -t. We may thus bring our series down to the following sources :—

1. GAD (= BAR); 2, LAG (= RAG) = SHAG; 3. TAM (DAM) = TAN (DAN) = ZAL (ZAN). And since SHAG = SHANG = SHAM = TAM, &c, we may reduce our sounds finally to GAD and a cognate DAG.

But leaving for the present this question of ultimate etymologies, let us proceed to compare the sounds associated with the Chinese character for ‘sun’ with those which we have seen to be associated with the corresponding Sumerian character. Edkins long ago gave mt (= ngit?) and got as the old sounds of H (P. 120), used asa Phonetic. It represents got (or gud), and its labialized equivalent mo¢, do, in the character YH ku, mi, C. kwét, mik, K. kol, midk, J. beki, miaku, kot-, A. kuk, mik (G. 6249). With final -k for -t, these sounds agree generally with those of the Sumerian series 1 and 2, In the character tan, F. tang (= tam), ‘dawn’, ‘day’, H{ is Phonetic for the sound ¢az; in +H for tam, tan; and in = ch‘ang, tsang, A. hséng, ‘shining’, ‘bright’ (P. 496), it represents fam, zane, (The last character consists of H sux + Ef mouth, speak; see the old forms. This agrees with the Sumerian “7 +E] ZA, in the compound 4] -E]-] +b ZA-BAR, ‘shining’, which is written suw + mouth. ZA-BAR is perhaps for ZAB-BAR, from ZAM-BAR: cf. ZIM-BIR, Sippar, the Sun-city.) Sze the Sumerian series 4.

It remains to notice that the character H preserves in its dialectic pronunciations (see Giles, 5642) a number of sounds more or less approximating to those of the Sumerian sun-character. It must be admitted that ngyit, nyit, nyit, yét (yz), nyih, are philologically comparable with GUD, UD, UTU, U, E (I); that nal (= ng3l), il, resemble GAL, AL, UL; that mét (mzé#z), mih, may be related to MAS, and therefore to its cognates BAR, BIR; that jih, ji, jéh, (zih, Zi, Zéh), zai, djit-, agree with ZAL, ZA; and that nik (nig), jek (pronounced zh#kk), may be compared with LAG, LAG (L16), SHAG.

The close equivalence of the sounds associated with the primary characters of the two languages may be further illustrated not less strikingly by the following examples :—The Chinese =F nim, nin, P. 90a, as a Phonetic is also dim, dim, shim: