POLITE LITERATURE. 



I. — On the Personal Pronouns of the Assyrian and other Languages, enpecialli/ 

 Hebrew. By the Rev. Edwakd Hincks, D.D. 



Head June 26, 1854. 



1. 1 HE observations which I am about to make on the forms of the personal 

 pronouns belonging to two great families of languages, the Hebrajo-Assyrian 

 and the Indo-European, and to the Egyptian language, which is referable to 

 neither of these, were intended to form part of a paper on the Assyrian verb, 

 which I have had in preparation for a considerable time. 



2. The quantity of matter, however, which I have already collected in con- 

 nexion with this subject, and to which I am making constant additions, is such 

 as to render it impossible for me to prepare this paper for publication during 

 the present session of the Academy. And, as what relates to the personal pro- 

 nouns is complete in itself, I have deemed it expedient to detach it from the 

 paper on the verb, and forward it at once. 



3. A great deal has been written on the subject of these pronouns ; and if 

 ingenuity and sound judgment could have elicited the truth respecting them 

 from the data heretofore available, I am very sure that it would have been 

 elicited; I believe, however, that the data in existence have been insufficient ; 

 and accordingly, while I feel perfect confidence that I have attained to a correct 

 view of the matter, I rest my convictions mainly on the evidence furnished by 

 the newly discovered Assyrian forms. 



4. In a paper which was read at the meeting of the British Association in 

 1852, I pointed out the identity of the latter part of the Assyrian andku* the 



* In reading Assyrian words, the vowels should be sounded as in Italian, and the accented 

 syllable marked. 



A 2 



