Note on the Language of Fu-lin 437 



the spiritus asper of the initial Greek r. In some Iranian dialects the 

 spiritus asper is marked by an initial vowel: thus in Pahlavi Arum, in 

 Kurd Urum. The ancient Armenian words with initial hr, as explained 

 by A. Meillet, were borrowed from Parthian dialects which transformed 

 initial Iranian / into h: for instance, Old Iranian jramana (now fertnan, 

 "order") resulted in Armenian hraman, hence from Parthian *hraman. 

 Thus *FrOm, probably conveyed by the Sogdians, was the prototype 

 from which Chinese Fu-lin, *Fu-lim, was fashioned. In my opinion, 

 the Chinese form is not based on *FrOm, but on *Frim or *Frfm. Rim 

 must have been an ancient variant of Rum; Rim is still the Russian 

 designation of Rome. 1 What is of still greater importance is that, as 

 has been shown by J. J. Modi, 2 there is a Pahlavi name Sairima, which 

 occurs in the Farvardin Yast, and is identified with Rum in the Bun- 

 dahisn; again, in the Sahnameh the corresponding name is Rum. This 

 country is said to have derived its name from Prince Selam, to whom 

 it was given; but this traditional opinion is not convincing. A form 

 Rima or Rim has accordingly existed in Middle Persian; and, on the 

 basis of the Chinese transcription *Fu-lim or *Fu-rim, it is justifiable 

 to presuppose the Iranian (perhaps Parthian) prototype *Frim, from 

 which the Chinese transcription was made. 



1 What Pelliot remarks on the Tibetan names Ge-sar and P'rom is purely 

 hypothetical, and should rather be held in abeyance for the present. We know so 

 little about the Ge-sar epic, that no historical conclusions can be derived from it. 

 For the rest, the real Tibetan designation for Byzance or Turkey, in the same 

 manner as in New Persian, is Rum (T'oung Pao, 1916, p. 491). In regard to the 

 occurrence of this name in Chinese transcriptions of more recent date, see Bret- 

 schneider, Mediaeval Researches, Vol. II, p. 306; and Hirth, Chau Ju-kua, p. 141. 



2 Asiatic Papers, p. 244 (Bombay, 1905). 



