Chinese and Sumerian

IN SUMERIAN AND CHINESE 31

offers a remarkable correspondence with the known values of the Sumerian symbol, which are DU, TUR (from DUR), SHIR, SHAG (2 R. 19. 66 Strassmaier), and SAG (¢f. Nabt-SAG-usur = Vadd-apla-wsur, Nabopolassar); cf Medic shak-ri, ‘the son’.

Bl, ji, yii, zii, lu, J. niu, dju, A. ngiu, ‘teats’, ‘milk’, ‘to suckle’ (G. 5691), is apparently composed of 4* fw, OS. po-t, bu-t, ‘to brood on eggs’, ‘to hatch’, and GQ yth, ‘a period’. 4 is a picture of claws over a young one. It agrees with Sumerian 4 MUD, ‘to bring forth’; a figure originally intended to represent a d’rd over an egg. But the 4 wéx form of 4], which is =D, does not agree with the modern analysis. It, in fact, resembles the old Sumerian @ GA, TA-G (from DA-G), ‘milk’, ‘breast’ (D. 416; Br. 6114f), laid on its side and opened, much more nearly than it resembles its own modern equivalent. Compare also the old tripod form 4p. The primitive pictogram may have represented a feat; but already in Sumerian this has been modified, so as to suggest a vessel full of liquid (milk): cf D. 380, 390. The sounds also agree. GA, dial. DA (¢f TA-G, TU, TI, as values of the Sumerian character) in UME-DA=EME-GA, ‘pregnant + giving milk’, ‘pregnant woman’, are clearly akin, not only to the sounds associated with 4], but also to those of J} nai, lai, na, J. dai, dei, ‘woman's breasts’, ‘milk’, ‘to suckle’ (G. 8114), OS. perhaps na-k (P. 8), and ay nou, ngieu, also read k‘ou, ‘milk’, ‘to suckle’ (G. 8386). K’ou is very noteworthy in the light of GA; of Sumerian KA (GA), ‘mouth’, which similarly corresponds to the Chinese k‘ou, ‘mouth’.

The remark of the Shwo Wén that the character #2 (4) kiai, kai, ka, katt P. 256, represents vegetation growing in a tangle (kien shou, ts‘ao-ts‘ai ye; siang ts'ao shéng-chi san-lwan ye) would seem to indicate that the figure is a simplification of the primitive Sumerian fr KUSH, ‘herbage’, as it might very well be. Even the sounds agree ; for as a Phonetic the character may stand for kat, kot, or kit (=kut, kus): of ki, kit (P. 776), ‘grass growing thickly’, G. 954, and especially 3p hui, J. ki, kut, ‘plants’, ‘herbs’, ‘vegetation’, G. 5214, P.244a. Thesame symbol, however, appears as the Phonetic in +)) ki, ‘ai, ‘to cut a notch ina stick’, G. 1051, P. 256 (Chalmers, 114: k’at, ‘to engrave’), which is itself Phonetic in #1 k'i, kei, k‘a-t, ‘ to carve’, G. 1052, and in 32 ki, kai, kat, k’ét, ‘covenant’, ‘bond’, ‘ deed ‘, G. 1053, P.567. Accordingly the Phonetic Shwo Wen asserts that the character represents ‘the notches made on a stick or bamboo in the first efforts at writing’, and then comes to mean ¢o draw or mark boundary lines (see Chalmers, 114). Now for this last sense Sumerian presents us with SEE @ : Sign-list, No. 90), GAR (=Kat), GUR, GUR (MUR, UR; GIR), ‘to draw an outline or design’ ; ‘to sculpture reliefs’ ; ‘ boundary’, ‘limit’,‘ban’, It would seem, therefore, that we have here an instance in which the later simplified character has come to represent two (or more) originally distinct symbols. Cf also EE (#), (G)ASH, ‘curse’, ‘wish’, which certainly resembles the Chinese sound and symbol (gas’=kat). Similar examples of the later assimilation or identification of characters