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CHINESEAND

SUMERI ANBYC. J.LECTURERIN

BALL, M.A.,IN

D.LiTT.

ASSYRIOLOGY

THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESSLONDON HUMPHREY MILFORD:

HORACE HART M.A. PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITYOXFORD:

PREFACEAAndlength.

LENGTHY preface would hardly goa pertinent question to askall

well with a slender book.author, of whatever sort,

it is

why an

should labour to say over again in brief

that he has already said atis

The

slenderness of the present volume

happily not due to

an early consumption of the available material. The introductory chapter, with its analyses of various Sumerian characters, mostly determined years ago, although here published for the first time, might have been considerably prolonged; especially if Professor Barton'svaluable work on the Origin

had come

to

hand before

this

and Development of Babylonian Writing book was sent to press (September 1912).

The

pages or so of philological discussion which precede the detailed comparison of vocabularies, might easily have been extendedfifty

to a

hundred or more, had the writer chosen to publish everything

lying at his disposal in the miscellaneous accumulations of years.it is,

As

some may think that he has given more than sufficient evidence of the imperfection of his own equipment for dealing with the difficult problems of speech and writing which the book makes some attempt to solve and he will not be altogether dissatisfied with results, if an examination of his work should induce a few younger minds, starting with the advantages of a better education and higher natural endowments, to follow in a path in which it is perhaps not entirely presumptuous on his part to hope to be regarded hereafter as a humble pioneer. The writer's thanks are due to the Staff of the Clarendon Press for the care and intelligence exhibited in the production of a work;

involving

many

material difficulties.

He

is

especially sensible ofis

obligation to the

draughtsman whose calligraphy

well displayed in

the Plates of Characters.

CBletchington Rectory,Oxford.

J.

BALL.

TO

PAUL CARUSAND

HERMANN VICTOR HILPRECHT

INDEX OF REFERENCES AND ABBREVIATIONSyiC. = Terrot and Chipiez, A History of Art in Chaldea and Assyria. London. 1884. AL^. = Assyrische Lesestiicke, von Friedrich Delitzsch, ed. 5. Leipzig. 1913. Ar. = Arabic; Aram. = Aramaic As. or Assyr. = Assyrian. B. (in the Sign-list) = Barton, G. A., The Origin and Development of Babylonian Writing. Leipzig.;

1913-

BPS.=Babylonische Busspsalmen, von Dr. Heinrich Zimmern. Leipzig. 1885. Br. = Brunnow, R. E., A Classified List of all Simple and Compound Cuneiform Ideographs. Leyden. 1889. (The numerals in. the Sumerian column of the Comparative LexiconmainlyC.(in

refer to this indispensable work.)

the Sign-list)

= Couling,

Samuel

(a

MS.

list

of old Chinese characters from inscribed

fragments of bone).

Chalmers=Tke Structure ofLondon.1882.;

Chinese Characters,

by John Chalmers, M.A., LL.D. Aberdeen.

Char. = character charr. = characters. Cogn. = cognate cogn. c. = cognate with. C. T.= Cuneiform Texts frotn Babylonian Tablets, &c., in the British Museum. D. = Dangin, Franfois Thureau, Recherches sur forigine de Ucriture cundiform.;

Paris.

1898.

(A work of priceless value for comparative purposes.) Ddc.Dkouvertes en Chald^e, par Ernest de Sarzec. Paris.for ever.')

1891.

('A thing of beauty

is

a joy

Perse.=De Morgan, D^Ugation en Kish there published.) Z>,f/. = Deluge-Tablet {NE. xi).enrot de/?