Page:Discovery and Decipherment of the Trilingual Cuneiform Inscriptions.djvu/418

Rh by Hincks, who, however, signally failed in his attempt to identify them. On the other hand, we are now introduced for the first time to the compound syllables that foini so lai'ue a ijortion of the Babvloniau simis. Th(^se, unlike the simple syUal^les so successfully treated l)y Hhicks, c(jnsist of two consonants separated l)y a vowel. It is true that a. few made their appearance in Ilincks's sliort translation from the Khorsabad inscription (February ISoO), such as \sib/ ' kun/ 'bul' and 'gur/ alnt»* with three others that are incorrect.' We also learn from a later ])ublication that before the appear- ance of Itawlinson's ISvllabarium Hincks knew the values of upwards of twenty other compound syllal)ic siiius.- Hut they do not seem to have been made known to the world, and they all, with the exception of live, a!e now met in the Syllabarium for the first time. Kawlinson uives sixtv-eiuht of these svllables, and no less than (iftv are correct. He has Ijeen unable to Ljive anv ])lionetic value to sixtvout of his two hundred and forty-six ])]-iiicipal siirns, l)ut in several cases he has determined their ide;>'raphi(* meaning. The distri- bution of the signs, as exi)lained by llincks, considerably diminished the numl)er of sup])osed homophones, and the compound syllables now enumerated tended in the same direction. But Kawlinson dwells with increasinir bitterness on the extreme confusion introduced into the language by polyphones. He complains that 'after vears of laborious research he has overcome the difficulty to but a limited extent.' ' The meaning of a word,' he says, ' may be ascertained from the trilingual inscriptions, or from its occurring in a variety of passages with only one possi])le signification ; but

^ Trans, li. I. Acad. xxii. 70.

- See those marked 11 1849 or 1850 in *As8yrio-Baby Ionian Phonetic Characters ' {Trans. li. I. Acad. 1H52, xxii. 293, flf).