328 Is the Pushto a Semitic Language ? [No. 4, 



cuneiform inscriptions in the same sense ; and the Sanskrit a^ma is 

 " a cloucl." There may possibly be a general connection between 

 this thoroughly Arian word, and the Semitic, not peculiarly Hebrew, 

 root ''U-*», but that is all. 



(3). " A third Hebrew term in the Pushtoo language, not in Mr. 

 Elphinstone's catalogue, viz. 1712, nahar, a river, has been elsewhere 

 noticed in the Pushtoo term Ning-nehar, the nine rivers." — Ñor will 

 this corrobórate Mr. Forster's position materially. Ning-neliar (the 

 ñame of a locality beyond the Peshawur Frontier) is far more fre- 

 quently written and called^dy^ (ningrahar), or jl$£¿ (ningahár), 

 so that the naliar necessary for the proof entirely disappears. Were 

 there a naliar in the word, the derivation given could not be relied 

 on, as it is given by Afghan etymologists, who are almost as wild 

 as Mr. Forster himself. In this case they are themselves not agreed as 

 to the derivation ; for some say the ñame is J^f^ (mm-nahar) " half- 

 hungry," and that the región is called so from the frequent scarcity of 

 bread there ; others say the ñame is really jlgj|t^j¿ (nehanhár) " the 

 good or puré streams ; anliár is a puré Arabic plural — the Hebrew 

 plural would be quite diíferent. And lastly, j& is not a Pushto word 

 at all, is known only in the book language, and not among the people ; 

 and even if the latter were the case, it would prove nothing ; for if 

 a connection between the Hebrew and the Pushto is to be proved, 

 all such words must be excluded from the evidence as are common 

 to the Arabic and Hebrew ; for everybody is aware that all Ma- 

 homedan nations use Arabic terms very largely, whatever their lan- 

 guage be. 



If such sporadic resemblances as the Philo-Semitics have hitherto 

 searched for, helped the matter at all, one might be ready to suggest 

 to them to compare the Hebrew ptl (kheq) with the Pushto j¿¿ 

 (ghe/) # " embrace," which is pronounced by the Khalil, Momund, and 



* This article does not adopt, in its spelling, either of the two standard 

 alphabets that have been proponed ; the reader will have no difficulty, it is appre- 

 hended, in making out the words. The vowels have the continental souncls, as 

 proposed by Sir William Jones : the consonants their general English valué j 

 Ich =; A, ; gh = k ; j the Pushto^ which answers most completely to the Polish z ; 

 zh = the Persian { t which in the same manner is pronounced precisely like the 

 Polish 2 (s in " pleasure" is between these two sounds) ; 9 = Sanskvit ^;. 



