The Essential Works of George Rawlinson: Egypt, The Kings of Israel and Judah, Phoenicia, Parthia, Chaldea, Assyria, Media, Babylon, Persia, Sasanian Empire & Herodotus' Histories. George Rawlinson
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Chapter IV. Language and Writing
"Γράμματα και γλώσσα Χαλδαιων " —Dan. i. 4. (Sept, vers.)
It was noted in the preceding chapter that Chaldaea, in the earliest times to which we can go back, seems to have been inhabited by four principal tribes. The early kings are continually represented on the monuments as sovereigns over the Kiprat-arbat, or, Four Races. These “Four Races” are called sometimes the Arba Lisun, or “Four Tongues,” whence we may conclude that they were distinguished from one another, among other differences, by a variety in their forms of speech. The extent and nature of the variety could not, of course, be determined merely from this expression; but the opinion of those who have most closely studied the subject appears to be that the differences were great and marked-the languages in fact belonging to the four great varieties of human speech—Hamitic, Semitic, Arian, and Turanian.
The language which the early inscriptions have revealed to us is not, of course, composed equally of these four elements. It does, however, contain strong marks of admixture. It is predominantly Cushite in its vocabulary, Turanian in its structure. Its closest analogies are with such dialects as the Mahra of Arabia, the Galla and Wolaitsa of Abyssinia, and the ancient language of Egypt, but in certain cases it more resembles the Turkish. Tatar, and Magyar (Turanian) dialects; while in some it presents Semitic and in others Arian affinities. This will appear sufficiently from the following list:
Dingir, or Dimir, “God.” Compare Turkish Tengri. Atta, “father.” Compare Turkish atta. Etea is “father” in the Wolaitsa (Abyssinian) dialect. Sis, “brother.” Compare Wolaitsa and Woratta isha. Tur, “a youth,” “a son,” Compare the tur-khan of the Parthians (Turanians), who was the Crown Prince. E, “a house.” Compare ancient Egyptian e, and Turkish ev. Ka, “a gate.” Compare Turkish kapi. Kharran, “a road.” Compare Galla kara. Huru, “a town.” Compare Heb. צץ Ar, “a river.” Compare Heb. דהך, Arab. nahr. Gabri, “a mountain.” Compare Arabic jabal. Ki, “the earth.” Kingi, “a country.” San, “the sun.” Kha, “a fish"(?). Kurra, “a horse.” Compare Arabic gurra. Guski, “gold.” Compare Galla irerke. Guski means also “red” and “the evening.” Babar, “silver,” “white,” “the morning.” Compare Agau ber, Tigre burrur. Zabar, “copper.” Compare Arabic sifr. Hurud, “iron.” Compare Arabic hadid. Zakad, “the head.” Compare Gonga toko. Kat, “the hand.” Compare Gonga kiso. Si, “the eye.” Pi, “the ear.” Compare Magyar ful. Gula, “great.” Compare Galla guda. Tura, “little.” Compare Gonga tu and Galla tina. Kelga, “powerful.” Ginn, “first.” Mis, “many.” Compare Agau minch or mench. Gar, “to do.” Egir, “after.” Compare Hhamara (Abyssinian) igria.
The grammar of this language is still but very little known. The conjugations of verbs are said to be very intricate and difficult, a great variety of verbal forms being from the same root as in Hebrew, by means of preformatives. Number and person in the verbs are marked by suffixes—the third person singular (masculine) by bi (compare Gonga bi, “he”), or ani (compare Galla enni, “he”), the third person plural by bi-nini.
The accusative case in nouns is marked by a postposition, ku, as in Hindustani. The plural of pronouns and substantives is formed sometimes by reduplication. Thus ni is “him,” while nini is “them;” and Chanaan, Yavnan, Libnan seem to be plural forms from Chna, Yavan and Liban.
A curious anomaly occurs in the declension of pronouns.’ When accompanied by the preposition kita, “with,” there is a tmesis of the preposition, and the pronouns are placed between its first and second syllable; e.g. vi, him“’-ki-ni-ta, “with him.” This takes place in every number and person, as the following scheme will show:—
1st person. 2d person. 3d person.
Sing. ki-mu-ta ki-zu-ta ki-ni-ta (with me) (with thee) (with him) Plur. ki mi-ta ki zu-nini-ta ki-nini-ta (with us) (with you) (with them)
N. B.—The formation of the second person plural deserves attention. The word zu-nini is, clearly, composed of the two elements, zu, “thee,” and nini, “them”—so that instead of having a word for “you,” the Chaldaeans employed for it the periphrasis “thee-them”! There is, I believe, no known language which presents a parallel anomaly.
Such are the chief known features of this interesting but difficult form of speech. A specimen may now be given of the mode in which it was written. Among the earliests of the monuments hitherto discovered are a set of bricks bearing the following cuneiform inscription
This inscription is explained to mean:—“Beltis, his lady, has caused Urukh (?), the pious chief, King of Hur, and King of the land (?) of the Akkad, to build a temple to her.” In the same locality where it occurs, bricks are also found bearing evidently the same inscription, but written in a different manner. Instead of the wedge and arrow-head being the elements of the writing, the whole is formed by straight lines of almost uniform thickness, and the impression seems to have been made by a single stamp.
This mode of writing, which has been called without much reason “the hieratic,” and of which we have but a small number of instances, has confirmed a conjecture, originally suggested by the early cuneiform writing itself, that the characters were at first the pictures of objects. In some cases the pictorial representation is very plain and palpable. For instance, the “determinative” of a god—the sign that is, which marks that the name of a god is about to follow, in this early rectilinear writing is