174 THEO. G. PINCHES, ESQ., NOTES UPON SOME OP THE 



my opinion on the subject, merely in confirmation of this view, and 

 because I have arrived at it independently through comparing 

 Akkadian with modern Osmanli, and more particularly with the 

 Turko-Tataric tongues of Central Asia. The resemblance is not 

 confined to words, but on a comparison being instituted between 

 these languages and Akkadian, one is struck by observing that the 

 methods of expressing grammatical relationship, the terminations 

 of the cases, the pronouns and pronominal affixes, and in fact the 

 system underlying, so to speak, the whole framework and arrange- 

 ment of these tongues are very similar. This incidentally proves 

 — what it is hard to realise having ever been doubted — that Akka- 

 dian was really a spoken language, and not a merely artificial 

 tongue invented for the purpose of preserving the secrets of the 

 priesthood. (A similar theory was once urged and learnedly sup- 

 ported by Professor Dunbar with regard to Sanskrit, which he 

 believed was never a spoken tongue, but a literally language formed 

 out of Latin and Greek by the Brahmans !) The grammar of the 

 Akkadian is so very different in system from that of all Semitic 

 languages that it is impossible seriously to maintain the theory that 

 it was invented by Semites. 



It has occurred to me — though I have not worked the idea out 

 — that we may still find in other languages words borrowed from 

 the Akkadian which bear witness to the early proficiency of the 

 Akkadians in architecture. The Hebrew ~OTT Aram. 7^H 



*V?TT; Syr. ^.aJoi, flkloi; Arabic J£j^, "a palace," "a 



temple," are known to be derived from the Akkadian He-gal, 

 "large house," " palace." The Assyrian word temennu, " founda- 

 tion-stone," is known to be of Akkadian origin. May not the 



Osmanli-Turkish l^j (temel) "foundation," be the same word, 



and is the Greek tfe/teX-to? or 0efii\-iov certainly a purely Hellenic 

 vocable ? 



The Akkadian nen means "mother." I have heard the same word 

 in the form nana from the lips of a native of Tabriz, who told me that 

 the word is used as frequently in his native city in this form as in 

 the form ana (\j\) which alone is found in Turkish dictionaries. 

 It is well known that the Akkadian Dimir or Dingir, a god, is the 



Turkish iJSJj {tangri, tengri, tenri) ; Cbagataish tangri, God ; 



