212 Sino-Iranica 



very well aware of the fact that the speech of the people of Fergana was 

 Iranian, for he stated in his report, that, although there were different 

 dialects in the tract of land stretching from Fergana westward as far 

 as Parthia (An-si), yet their resemblance was so great that the people 

 could make themselves intelligible to each other. 1 This is a plain 

 allusion to the differentiation and at the same time the unity of Iranian 

 speech; 2 and if the Ferganians were able to understand the Parthians, 

 I do not see in what other language than Iranian they could have 

 conversed. Certainly they did not speak Greek or Turkish, as some 

 prejudiced theorists are inclined to imagine. 



The word brought back by Can K'ien for the designation of alfalfa, 

 and still used everywhere in China for this plant, was mu-su H fit, 

 consisting of two plain phonetic elements, 8 anciently *muk-suk (Japa- 

 nese moku-Suku), subsequently written H" Hf with the addition of the 

 classifier No. 140. I recently had occasion to indicate an ancient Tibetan 

 transcription of the Chinese word in the form bug-sug, 4 and this appears 

 to come very near to the Iranian prototype to be restored, which was 

 *buksuk or *buxsux, perhaps *buxsuk. The only sensible explanation 

 ever given of this word, which unfortunately escaped the sinologues, 

 was advanced by W. Tomaschek, 6 who tentatively compared it with 

 Gllakl (a Caspian dialect) buso ("alfalfa"). This would be satisfactory 

 if it could be demonstrated that this buso is evolved from *bux-sox or 

 the like. Further progress in our knowledge of Iranian dialectology 



Annam and the Annamese (cf. Cam Yuan or Yuon, Bahnar, Juon, Khmer Yuon, 

 Stien Ju6n). This native name, however, was adapted to or assimilated with Sanskrit 

 Yavana; for in the Sanskrit inscriptions of Campa, particularly in one of the reign 

 of Jaya-Rudravarman dated a.d. 1092, Annam is styled Yavana (A. Bergaigne, 

 L'Ancien royaume de Campa, p. 61 of the reprint from Journal asiatique, 1888). 

 In the Old-Javanese poem NagarakrtSgama, completed in a.d. 1365, Yavana 

 occurs twice as a name for Annam (H. Kern ,Bijdragen totde taal- land- envolkenkunde, 

 Vol.LXXII, 1916, p. 399). Kern says that the question as to how the name of the 

 Greeks was applied to Annam has not been raised or answered by any one; he over- 

 looked the contribution of Bergaigne, who discussed the problem. 



1 Strabo (XV. n, 8) observes, "The name of Ariana is extended so as to include 

 some part of Persia, Media, and the north of Bactria and Sogdiana; for these peoples 

 speak nearly the same language." 



2 Emphasized by R. Gauthiot in his posthumous work Trois Memoires sur 

 l'unit6 linguistique des parlers iraniens (reprinted from the Memoires de la Societe" 

 de Linguistique de Paris, Vol. XX, 1916). 



3 The two characters are thus indeed written without the classifiers in the Han 

 Annals. The writings tfc j^f *muk-suk of Kwo P'o and 7^ ^| *muk-swok of Lo 

 Yuan, author of the Er ya i (simply inspired by attempts at reading certain mean- 

 ings into the characters), have the same phonetic value. In Annamese it is muk-tuk. 



* T'oung Pao, 1916, p. 500, No. 206. 



6 Pamir-Dialekte (Sitzber. Wiener Akad., 1880, p. 792). 



