20 Mr Cull on the recent Progress of Ethnology 



expressed indifferently by ana shallati and shallaiwh. 

 This last form has much of the nature of an adverb, and has 

 some resemblance to the Hebrew noun with the locative. In 

 place of hh, the pronoun, generally ma, is adopted as a sub- 

 stitute for ana. Thus su-ma is " to him," and answers to 

 le-ho, from which lo is contracted ; the Hebrew prefixing the 

 representative of " to," while the Assyrian postfixes it. 



3d, The Syro- Arabian languages make frequent use of a 

 preterite, in which the distinctions of number and person are 

 confined to the end of the root ; but the Assyrian rejects it, 

 or at least uses it in an exceedingly sparing manner. On 

 this account Dr Hincks proposes to consider the Benoni par- 

 ticiple, masculine, singular, in regimen as the root. 



4.th, The varieties in the termination of the future are not 

 connected with any particles that may precede them, but of 

 themselves indicate different tenses. The termination in u 

 is certainly a pluperfect. Thus, where mention is made of 

 "that Marduk Baladan, whom I had defeated in my former 

 campaign, 1 ' the verb is askanu: but whenever " I defeated" 

 occurs in the simple narrative, askun or askana, or, in a dif- 

 ferent conjugation, astalcan is used. This law has been fully 

 established. The addition of a seems not to change the 

 sense ; it is added to every verb when what it governs fol- 

 lows it, and to some verbs even where it precedes it. These 

 are chiefly such as denote locomotion. 



The resemblance of the most common Assyrian preposi- 

 tions, and that of the pronouns, also, to the Indo-European 

 form is curious, and points to a common though remote 

 origin. 



The Babylonian inscriptions are in the same language as 

 the Assyrian. This was probably the court language at' 

 Babylon ; but the common people most probably used the 

 Chaldean language, in which some parts of the Books of Ezra 

 and Daniel are written. 



Mr Hodgson is still contributing towards our knowledge 

 of the monosyllabic languages in Trans-Gangetic India, and 

 the results of his inquiries are recorded in the Transactions 

 of the Bengal Asiatic Society. The present war in Burmah 

 will, I trust, open up that and the surrounding countries for 



