16b) - I wish that RAM were alive today to appreciate that correction! **"Particularly evident are the Chinese perceptions and terminology dealing with the twenty-eight 'lunar mansions,' parallels to the Indic nak ṣtra. *Along the way, Miller answers many other related questions, such as why there are only six stars in Subaru's logo when it is named after a constellation of seven daughters. AD) and astronomical / astrological lore**, that has become the world-famous logo of Subaru automobiles. What he does discover and demonstrate is the transmission of the idea and arrangement of a group of stars*, supported by astral myth (already documented in texts from the 8th c. Yet everywhere he turns, Miller finds insufficient grounds for establishing a route for the path of the Sumerian word to China and thence to Japan. 3) and a similar kofun tomb ceiling map in Japan, the Takamatsuzuka Tumulus Ceiling Star Map (p. He also diligently and meticulously attempts to trace the path of the Sumerian word through Proto- and Middle Turkic and putative Altaic, plus the famous Astana Tomb 65TAM 38 Ceiling Star Map in Eastern Turkestan (now called Xinjiang) (p. The most obvious obstacle is that MUL.MUL only means "Pleiades" in its reduplicated form. In his enormously erudite article, Miller takes note of these phonological, etymological, and astronomical / astrological resemblances, but finds reason to reject all of them as sufficient grounds for accepting a connection between Sumerian MUL.MUL ("Pleiades") and Sinitic mǎo 昴 ("Pleiades"). Nominalization of verb 上る, 登る ( noboru, “ to ascend, rise ” ).ġ988, 国語大辞典(新装版) (Kokugo Dai Jiten, Revised Edition) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: ShogakukanĢ006, 大辞林 ( Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN Nominalization of classical adjective 高し ( takashi ), modern 高い ( takai, “ high ” ). ( Chinese astronomy ) the Hairy Head constellation, one of the Twenty-Eight Mansions, corresponding to the Pleiades star cluster in English ( astronomy, regional ) the Pleiades star cluster, one of the Twenty-Eight Mansions Compare the development of 皇 ( sume-/ sumera- → sube-/ subera-, prefix of praise and respect to Shinto deities or an Emperor of Japan ) Possibly an allusion from 昴の玉 ( sumaru no tama, literally “ cluster of pearls ” ) referenced multiple times in the Kojiki (712 CE) probably the original form of Subaru above. ![]() ( astronomy ) the Pleiades star cluster, one of the Twenty-Eight Mansions Compare 統べる ( suberu, “ to command ”, transitive ). mid-8th century), phonetic spelling first attested in the Wamyō Ruijushō (938 CE).īy extension from 統ばる ( subaru, “ to bunch together to unite ”, intransitive ), due to the way the stars in the constellation all cluster together. Likely from Old Japanese, use of kanji in Japanese texts first appears in the Tango-no-kuni Fudoki ( c. from Penn in 1929 and was employed there until he retired in 1968), and the superficial resemblance between Sumerian MUL.MUL ("Pleiades") and Sinitic mǎo 昴 ("Pleiades"), the Old Sinitic reconstruction of which is: ( Baxter– Sagart): /*mˤruʔ/ ( Zhengzhang): /*mruːʔ/ That was based mainly on my cursory reading of the relevant parts of works like Joseph Needham's Science and Civilisation in China and Edward Schafer's Pacing the Void: T'ang Approaches to the Stars, plus the seminal research of Sumerologist Samuel Noah Kramer (Septem– Novemborn in Ukraine, he received his Ph.D. To return to Sumer and Subaru, during the late 70s and early 80s I had myself toyed with the idea that the Sumerian and Sinitic words for "Pleiades" might be somehow related. I didn't meet Miller in person, but did study for one year with Hurvitz, who was extraordinarily eccentric. Miller and Hurvitz both were immensely learned scholars who knew Chinese, Japanese, Tibetan, Sanskrit, and other challenging languages. from Columbia and, after teaching at the University of Washington, ended his career at the University of British Columbia. He was (in)famous for his harsh reviews, to be compared only with those of Leon Hurvitz (Aug– September 28, 1992), who also received his Ph.D. ![]() ![]() He taught successively at the International Christian University in Tokyo, Yale University, and the University of Washington. in Chinese and Japanese from Columbia University. " Roy Andrew Miller (Septem– August 22, 2014) was an American linguist best known as the author of several books on Japanese language and linguistics, and for his advocacy of Korean and Japanese as members of the proposed Altaic language family." ( source) "Pleiades Perceived" was the presidential address delivered Maat the American Oriental Society's 197th Annual Meeting in Los Angeles. Roy Andrew Miller, " Pleiades Perceived: MUL.MUL to Subaru", Journal of the American Oriental Society, 108.1 (January-March, 1988), 1-25. During the early part of my career, one of the most stunning academic papers I read was this:
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