, 
ye 
Assyrian Personal names. XXIII 
Many cuneiform names which JUSTI included in his book must be eliminated as 
not Iranian; e. g. Erisinni, Telusina, Iranzu, Ullusunu, Uassurme, Ualli, Ninni, Kibaba, and 
so forth. That the name A%$eri — borne by a ruler of Man — which JUSTI was inclined to 
derive from the Iranian base y3a, is not Iranian seems to me proved by the fact that it is 
written A%-$e-e-ri in Assyrian but AA-si-ri in Babylonian (KGAS 24), while Iranian x3, as a rule, 
was rendered in Assyrian by £s and in Babylonian by Z3 (see below) Like Erisinni, Ualli, 
Ullusunu, Lutipri, Arame, Sardur, and other Urartian names, so also 43er? seems to belong 
to the widespread group of Hittite names. The names Kundaspi and Kustaspi, which were 
borne by two princes in Kummukh-Commagene in 854 and 740 B. C, have generally been 
regarded as Iranian, ever since FRANC. LENORMANT!, ALFR. VON GUTSCHMID?, BALL?, ROST! 
and HOMMEL5 connected them with Gundäsp (Vindäspa) and Guátasp (Vista$pa) The necessity 
of supposing the sound change vi > gu (ku) to have occurred already at that remote time 
(9^ and 8 century) to which these names belong is, however, calculated to awaken doubts? as 
to the correctness of these identifications, since the sound change in question is with certainty 
known to occur only in a much later period namely in Middle Persian in the time of the Arsacids 
and Sassanids. Further, these supposed lranians, in spite of their predecessors in Mitanni, are 
historically isolated, all other known princes of Kummukh having purely Hittite names: Kurirpa, 
Muttallu, Qatazilu. And as xovv8« and Kocro and oxi are common elements in names in Asia 
Minor? and the Hittite names, as a general rule, correspond with them (see below), it is most 
probable that Kundaspi and Kustaspi are Hittite names. 
As for the name Ni-di-e, which was borne by a son of Da// of Ellipi, a half-brother (?) 
of the Iranian /X*pabara, JUSTI's attempt to connect it with the Iranian naiba "handsome" seems 
quite plausible, and yet the name is rather a hypocoristicon belonging to a Cassite name such 
as Nibi-Sıpak®. 
These examples show how difficult it is to decide with certainty under which group 
of languages certain names ought to be classified. This is especially the case with a number 
of names coming from the borders of Media, which have a strikingly Iranian ring but defy all 
the efforts of the etymologists. Under such circumstances, to attempt to establish the laws 
regulating the representation of Iranian sounds in Semitic cuneiform characters is a hazardous 
undertaking. I will, however, venture upon a few observations which throw light upon the question. 
Iranian s, like the West Semitic s, appears in Babylonian as s, e. g. ViStaspa — Ustaspi, 
Vahumisa — Umissu, Vayaspara = Misparü, Suguda = "t Su-ug-du, Parsa — "^! Pa-ar-su (Beh.), 
Aspumitäna® — As-pu-me-ta-na- 'TNB, Av. spitama = /s-pi-i-ta-am-mu UMBS II 1, and so forth; 
seldom as $, e. g. Aspa-zanta* — AS-pa-za-an-da- BE X; in Assyrian as Sand s, cf. aspa = afa, 
iipa, ispa (cf. BROCKELMANN, p. 166 n) in Aspabara, IS-pa-ka-a-a. In the Amarna letters and 
Boghazköi texts the proto-Iranian or Old Indian s (> %) is represented by i!9, e. g. Nasatya 
I) Lettres Assyrzologiques, Paris 1871, p. 144. 
2) Neue Beiträge zur Geschichte des alten Orients, Leipzig 1876, p. 66. 
3) C. J. BALL, Zranian Names among the Hetta-Hattt, in PSBA, X (1887/8), p. 424—436. 
4) MVG II (1897), p. 184. 5) Hethiter und Skythen, 1898, p. 1 ff. 
6) Cf. MEYER, KZ, 42, p. 17. 
7) €f. SUNDWALL, Die einheimischen Namen der Lykier nebst einem Verzeichnisse kleinasiatischer Namenstämme, 
Leipzig 1913, pp. 78, 98, rrr. 
8) CLAv, Personal Names, pp. 37f. dismembers our names kun and kust daspi registering them among 
Cassite name elements. 
9) Cf. Hüsıng, MVG III (1898), p.317; the name read there as Ni-de-Sar-usur ought, in accordance with 
HABL 466, R. 4, to be read A-mat-sarri-usur. 
10) Cf. above, p. XXI. 
No. 1. 
