The Phonetic Values of the Cuneiform Characters

THE =0) SO PHONETIC VALUES OF THE CUNEIFORM CHARACTERS. By GEOBGE smith, OF THE DEPAETMENT OF ORIENTAL ANTIQUITIES, BRITISH MUSEUM, WILLIAMS AND NORGATE, 14, HENEIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON, AND 20, SOUTH FREDERICK STREET, EDINBURGH. MDCOCLXXI. Frice Two Shillings and Sixpence. J THE ! PHONETIC VALUES OF THE CUNEIFORM CHAMCTERS. By GEORGE SMITH, OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ORIENTAL ANTIQUITIES, BRITISH MUSEUM, WILLIAMS AND NORGATE, 14, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON, AND 20, SOUTH FREDERICK STREET, EDINBURaH. MDCCCLXXI. Price Two Shillings and Sixpence, SABRISOIT AKD SONS, PEINTEES IN OEDINAEf TO SEE MAJBSTY, ST. maetin's lane. THE PHONETIC VALUES OF THE CUNEIFOEM CHAEACTERS. The Cuneiform characters used in the Euphrates Yalley had their origin in a Hieroglyphic or Picture system of writing. In a few inscriptions, the style of which is more primitive than usual, con- siderable resemblance to the original hieroglyphics is still preserved, and the Lapidary Babylonian character retained, down to a late period, some of this Hkeness ; but in most of the Assyrian inscriptions the conventional characters preserve very little resemblance to their original pictures. One fragment of an Assyrian tablet now in the British Museum does, however, show the connection of several of these signs. In parallel columns down the tablet several rude hieroglyph ical pictures of objects are arranged, and opposite to each is placed the Cuneiform character derived from it. The different stages in the growth of the Cuneiform characters can be illustrated by the example of the character which is the sign of divinity ; this character originally representing a star is in Hieratic, ^ in Babylonian Cuneiform, and in Assyiian. The change undergone by some of these characters in their progress from the Hieratic forms to the Assyrian Cuneiform has not always been uniform, and thus it has happened in some cases that a single Hieratic character, by different modifications in different instances, has given birth to two distinct Assyrian signs, which have afterwards co-existed side by side, and been used as separate characters. One instance of this is the sign for a house, which has been modified into both Sf^| and ^]]]]' Opposite instances also exist in which 4 two Hieratic characters are both represented by a single Assyrian sign, thus the signs and ^| are both represented by the Assyrian J^J. This system of writing was invented and first used by a race speaking a Turanian language, quite different in structure from the Semitic tongues. The Turanian people being afterwards conquered by a Semitic race, the latter adopted the system of v/riting which they found already existing in the country. Most, if not all, of the Cuneiform characters were polyphones. Each sign originally represented some object, and had the sound of the Turanian name of that object, thus the figure of the sun had the phonetic value _par; an eye the sound a; and a mouth the sound ha. Each character was then taken as a representative of some action or idea in obvious connection with the original object, thus the sign of the sun stood for light and day, the figure of the eye for sight, and the character representing the mouth for speech. The sounds of these words were thus also attached to these signs, and, beside these, the Semites added the words which expressed these ideas in their own language, thus the character for the sun gained the value Samas^ the eye the sound enu, and the mouth the value pu, &c. A later step in the development of this system took place when the characters- were used merely as phonetic signs in writing new words, wîthout any reference to the original meaning of the characters. The original Hieroglyphic system from which the Assyrian cha- N racters were derived,, differed from the Egyptian and Chinese modes jof writing in the small number of characters employed, there being only about 180 original S'igns; but by combining two or more of these characters together about 200 compound characters were produced, raising the whole number of signs to about 380. Some curious points relate to these combinations, which serve also to show the nature of the phouetic system. The sign ^ was taken to represent 10, consequently two of them, represented thus 20, and three «< represented 30 ; now the sign of the sun and of one day or revolution of the sun was in Babylonian (a figure originally derived from the shape of a circle representing the sun's disc) ; a month consisted of 30 days^ so they placed the figure 30 m inside the figure representing day IZ^y^ producing the compound sign 55^? which means 30 5 days or one month. Tins compound sign in the Assyrian Cuneiform is simpHfied, becoming %]^T' Assyrian sign for a month. A con- siderable number of these compound signs were made by combining various characters with The sign ^^Û is the Assyrian character for the sign represents form of the mouth ; now ^ food, and placed inside the sign for mouth, thus ^^^J becomes the monogram for "food in mouth," or "eating;" again represents water, and when placed inside the character for mouth, thus >-^]^, becomes the monogram for "water in mouth," or drinking." Another of these compound characters is made up with Jpf^f and ly. The sign was originally the figure of a phallus, and is sometimes combined with ^y, the character for water, thus t^^^lf^j it then means "phallus-water," or "urine." Several characters are altered by the addition of the sign V^. An instance of this occurs in the monograms for an ox ; these in Assyrian are t^]^ and There is very little resemblance between these two forms, but their relation is at once seen on comparing their Babylonian equivalents, the equivalent of >=|i^ being ^f^? and of being ^y^>, which is the same character with the insertion of This addition appears to indicate the wild ox, and the simple character the domestic ox. The character ^S^f^? the monogram for a king, is another of these combinations. The Hieratic form of this sign is ^-QHlBlb' composed of meaning great, and [Iljjjiiili. meauing man, the whole meaning "great man," or "king." It will be observed that in this combination the character for the adjective gal, meaning "great," precedes the sign for the noun un, meaning "man," but the Turanian sound of the monogram iingal shows that they were pronounced in the reverse order. There are many combinations with J^, ^vhich originally meant an enclosure, and hence a gathering or collection. t^^^, as before stated, means an ox, and the plural is made by combhung the elements of two of these characters together, thus ^y^^ the meaning being cattle ; now when this compound character is combined with 0, thus IîJ/, it means a tloek or herd, and is generally attached to JEIJ, the sign of sheep. Other compound characters are formed by dcniblino- simi)le simis : ; — 6 thus ^1 is formed by doubling t-^} by doubling and ji:^^ by doubling Such double forms generally represent a stronger, or more forcible form of the root. These points will show some of the peculiarities of the Cuneiform system: one other point in it is this, a certain number of these characters, one sound of which consisted of a vowel or a consonant in conjunction with a vowel, served to form a syllabary. This syllabary, when divided into its elements, shows a correspondence with the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The following is a table of these characters : : Heb. (hardly distinguished from a), Vowels — ^} ; -<^*^*^y ^ Heb. ; and u, Heb. jrg Heb. V e, Heb. J^yyy^, <, <y-Ig[J, 1; iz]} ^; ]}]} ai; ^t]} ^ n V V VY / ^ ^j:yab, ^ûp, tijip; pi- 3 I Ef ^y^ gi. g^, g^, :i ^ ^ . j j=yyy^ ^yy^^ ak, JrV^ uk, >-\<!\^ ik 3 )S-y qa, qu, J£JJ qi. 1 f K^,^j^^^'^"'<^^^''^^Î'^«• ^di, ^^ tEfad, ^fud, Îfid; y (TTTcfdn, ''^ ta, .-tgy tu, .-<]f< ti, -li^-y te. I j^lTT -s-y^y n ah, uh; ha, ^y<y, hu, ^ w. {=âz, uz, ty iz; J y ^^y<y ^yy^^ I ^^yy I i^^"l^^fe.u,,,yy,. a"^' ^î? D ^>^yyy ^*ff * sy y^^ k^^^ ; 7 3 an, uu, 5^5f^ in; >--^y na, nu, ni, îl^^y ne. -II en. 1 as, us, is; and sa, and su, si, ^ ^ *^yy ^y J ^y>- «< es.' and se. It will be seen by this table that while each consonant has a distinct character whenever followed by a vowel, when the consonant is preceded by a vowel there is no distinction between h and between k, and q ; between d, d, and t ; and between s, z, and z that is to say, the same character ^^y is both ah and op, &c. When a syllable consists of two consonants with a vowel between them, this distinction is lost in both consonants ; thus the same character stands for gar, kar, and qar, &c. The characters in this list are again included in the following table, in which I have arranged all the Cuneiform signs I know. After each character follows whatever syllabic values belong to it, gar being understood to include kar and qar, rah to include rap, &c. then after the contraction mon. (for monogram) are all the Assyrian roots and combinations I can find it equivalent to. Sometimes more than one form is given, as in tlie case of the word for mouth. No. 30, where the three cases pu, pi, pa, are given ; the word for speech. No. 30, where the variations kihit and qahu are given ; the word for knowledge.

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