6 The Eev. Edward Hincks on the Personal Pronouns of the 



served, is in all the Hebrffio-Assyrian languages confined to the pronouns of the 

 first and second persons, the speaker and the persons spoken to, who are present 

 to one another ; while the pronouns of the third person are used also to repre- 

 sent the remote demonstrative pronouns, that and those. It is a strong confir- 

 mation of this view, that the Assyrian preposition ana, which must have been 

 originally an imperative or infinitive of this verb, denotes to, for, at, on* It is 

 the equivalent of the Hebrew el, or its abbreviation, the prefix le.f 



10. What I have said sufficiently explains one of the two Hebrew forms 

 for the first person singular, anoki ; the corresponding forms in the other 

 Hebra30-Assyriau languages ; and the forms for the second person, masculine 

 and feminine, singular and plural, in all these languages. It does not, however, 

 explain the other Hebrew form, ani, nor the forms for the first person plural 

 in the different languages. Of these I proceed to speak. 



11. The connexion between ani and anoki has been treated of by many 

 grammarians. Some have thought that the former word was a contraction of 

 the latter ; while others have represented anoki as a compound, of which ani 

 was the first part. I regard both these views as equally erroneous. I consider 

 the original signification of the two forms to have been altogether different. I 

 have shown that anoki was originally a verb " I am here ;" and I entertain 

 no doubt that ani is properly a noun, signifying " my presence," or " my person." 



♦ It is my belief that the English preposition on (the same in Anglo-Saxon ; in Mseso-Gothic, and 

 old German, and also in Greek, ana) is identical with the Assyrian ana; as the English, Gothic, and 

 Latin in is with the Assyrian ina, or, as it is sometimes written, in. In the Indo-European languages, 

 an is found with a signification not very different from what I have assigned to the Hebrseo-Assyrian 

 an; and I doubt not that they originally coincided. It is used for one of the cases of the demon- 

 strative this in old Persian, Zend, and Sanskrit. The corresponding Assyrian pronoun is in the 

 nominative masculine annu, with the second radical doubled. It is declined as a regular adjective. 

 Now, although it is essential to a proper knowledge of Hebrew or Assyrian grammar to consider 

 the roots as triliteral ; distinguishing those, for example, in which the second radical is an omissible 

 u or i from those in which it is the same as the third, there can be little doubt that if we go back 

 to the early state of the language, which we must do when we compare Hebrao- Assyrian with 

 Indo-European forms, we shall find the original root biliteral ; ]H alone being the parent of both 

 I^M, whence the Assyrian demonstrative " this," and IIS, whence the Assyrian preposition " to." 

 The connexion between " this " and " here" is evident. 



f The interchange of I and n in the Hebrew and Assyrian forms is analogous to what we meet 

 in the Latin alius and alter, compared with the Sanskrit ant/ah and aniarah. 



