Chinese and Sumerian

IN SUMERIAN AND CHINESE 29

primitive Sumerian symbol, it has become needless to discuss which of the half-dozen old variations of the Chinese derivative is the most authentic; but we may compare

the form given by Chalmers (56) 7 and Morrison’s fe and, above all, x (Luh-shu

Sung, s.v. ff) with the Sumerian prototype, of which they are ingenious perversions. Whether used to suggest the idea of ‘black’ or the idea of ‘night’, the symbol, of course, depicts darkness descending from the concave sky. There is thus a glimmering of truth in the opinion of those who derived 7 ‘night’ from /7 ‘evening’, with a line to indicate the horizon above it. The view which makes AR yA, 472, present in the character as a Phonetic, correctly indicates that ye, ‘night’, is from yz&, as the Sumerian GE, ‘night’, is from GIG. ¥ is dialectically ya (H., F., N., K., J.); cf the Sumerian value GA. The Annamese gza or 7a seems to indicate da=ga. As a Phonetic, the character has the values yz# and wk (P. 394; of P. 619). With the latter sound cf. Sumerian DIR, DIG (or SIG), ‘dark’, as also DI-RIG (=DI-DIG= DIG-DIG ?), in the like sense.

We have still to notice a final point of striking agreement between the Sumerian and Chinese characters for ‘black’ and ‘night’. It is this. Besides GA, GE, GIG, the Sumerian night-symbol had the value MI (from MI-G); and this is its ordinary sound in the Assyrian syllabary. MI(G), however, was a Sumerian word before it was adopted to play the part of a mere syllabic sign in phonetic writing. It was, in fact, the M-form of GIG, characteristic of the Aywe-sa/ or Accadian dialect. With this MI (MIG, MUG? Vd. SU-MUG ap. Lex.) we must surely compare Bk mZék, muk, mo, K.mik, Jap. moku, ‘dark’ (an old character also written ), with the mouthRadical, like Sumerian >E[GET ‘gloomy’, Br. 832), and the younger Ha mek, mo, ‘ink’, ‘black’, with the Radical earth (circ. 220 a, D.); 44 mei, mi, ‘black’, with the Phonetic 7% wee, mz, ‘small’ (P. 903); and Ji mei, mui, ‘soot’, ‘coal’, ‘charcoal’, written with the Phonetic $f mow, mu (mu-k, P. 541), ‘a certain one’, and the Radical 4k ‘fire’, That Chinese writing has striven to eliminate ambiguity by the addition of Radicals, the use of Phonetics, and the invention of new characters appropriate to the various meanings of the sound, instead of being content with a single primitive symbol like 4 (or the original form of it), is only natural, and should not be allowed to blind us to the perception of the real relation between that and the Sumerian character and between their respective sounds.

Edkins observed that He chu, shud, A. fuz,‘to drop’, ‘let fall’, ‘hang down’, P. 456, has in the Seal-character a form something like that of Ny 2%, ‘rain’ and of

rain-drops, and was perhaps an imitation. Cf the ku wén an and A with their far-off

progenitor Oy DUGUD (DUG+GID), ‘heavy’ (a picture which suggests falhug

4 down). The idea of flowers drooping on a stalk, or leaves pendent on a tree, doubtless

modified the shape of the symbol after the real meaning of the primary form was forgotten. It is used as a Phonetic in Fi chzz, ‘to weigh’, gif chad, fw, ‘the weight