Identifier: archaeologyofcun00sayc (find matches)
Title: The archæology of the cuneiform inscriptions
Year: 1908 (1900s)
Authors: Sayce, A. H. (Archibald Henry), 1845-1933 Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (Great Britain). General Literature Committee
Subjects: Cuneiform writing Civilization, Assyro-Babylonian Assyria -- Antiquities
Publisher: London : Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge New York : E. S. Gorham
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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his way a sketch of Arzawan grammar can nowbe made, as well as a list of Arzawan words. Thelanguage which is thus disclosed is of an Asianictype, with features that remind us of Lycian onthe one side, and of Mitannian and Vannic onthe other. But in what may be termed the funda-mentals of grammar it agrees with Mitannian andVannic. At the same time, certain of these same fundamentalshave a curious but superficial resemblance to what wehave hitherto been accustomed to regard as character-istics of Indo-European grammar. The nominativeand accusative of the noun, for example, are dis-tinguished by the suffixes -s and -n, the plural nomin-ative and accusative often terminate in -s, and thepossessive pronouns of Arzawan are mis, mine;ti-s, thine ; and sais), his ; while si is (to) her.The third person of the present tense ends in -t; es-tu,is may it be ; es-mi, may I be. Yet with all theseremarkable coincidences, I can assure the comparativephilologist that Arzawan is certainly not an Indo-
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ONE OF THE PROCESSIONS TN THE (See p. 174.) KAVINE OF BOGHAZ. (To face p. 176. ASIA MINOR 177 European language, and I must leave him to explainthem as best he may. We have, however, learnt a good deal more aboutthe Hittite populations of Asia Minor from the Telel-Amaraa tablets than the nature of the languagewhich they spoke. In the closing days of theEighteenth Egyptian dynasty we find them on thesouthern side of the Taurus, sending forth bands ofadventurers, who hired their services to the king ofEgypt and to the rival governors and princes ofPalestine, and from time to time carved out principal-ities of their own with the sword. We are even ableto follow the fortunes of some of the leaders of thecondottieri, who had no scruple in transferring theirallegiance from one vassal prince to another whentempted by the prospect of better pay, or in murder-ing their employer when the opportunity arose, andplundering or occupying his city. They had, it istrue, a wholesome awe of Egyptian pow

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