44 



ON THE CLASSIFICATION 



a girl Oma here, Kaihi vahina, Pho mu and Ada bidda. u In 

 Tulu An means "male and boy," Punnu "female and 

 girl." In Turkish, Tuda and Samoyedish Kiz, Kuhh and Ne 

 signify both " female and daughter." 



When contrasting this mode of expression with that 

 adopted by abstract dialects, we directly perceive that the 

 words chosen for "boy" and "son," "girl" and "daughter" 

 indicate certain qualities usually ascribed to children. We 

 may remark here, that we do not contend that concrete 

 expressions of relationship were never used in abstract 

 languages, but we say that if they were used that they were 

 dropped at a very early stage, so that hardly any traces of 

 them can now be found in any abstract language. In the 

 Semitic languages we meet with words signifying " son" and 

 " daughter," but no bond fide equivalent for child. From 

 this fact we infer — and on closer investigation this conclu- 

 sion will be corroborated — that a third or neuter gender 

 does not exist in the Semitic group of languages. Its 

 presence among the Aryan branch is evidence of the 

 existence of a term for child. 



(44) In the Sumerian language which has lately been discovered by the 

 eminent cuneiform decipherer Professor Julius Oppert, Tur signifies child, us 

 male, and rah female. Tur-us therefore signifies "boy, son," and Tur. rah 

 " girl, daughter." In a printed letter addressed to M. E. de Ujfalvy 

 Professor Oppert suggests, that the Sumerians can be properly styled 

 Turanians in consequence of their language containing this word Tur. 

 Professor Sayce is, I believe, mistaken, when he says, I.e., page 268 : "in 

 Accadian 'daughter' was denoted by sal-tur, literally 'woman-son.'" As 

 Accadian is, what is generally termed, a Semitic dialect and therefore an 

 abstract language, such a formation is impossible. Professor Sayce alludes 

 to the concrete Sumerian, and here tur means originally "child, and as 

 the child ha? exochen is the son, tur can be used in this sense when 

 standing alone, but when it is joined with such a word like "female" tur 

 can only signify child. When I heard that Sumerian was declared to be 

 a Scythian or Turanian language, I was persuaded that under these 

 circumstances no terms corresponding to ' 1 boy, son, girl, daughter, 

 brother and sister" would be found in it, and on further inquiry, I was 

 informed that such abstract words do not exist in Sumerian. 



