This here is applied to the wind, which is always in motion. The suffix du, idu Cx is here an auxiliary verb. I adjured you by heaven, I adjure you by earth In the name of the celestial beings, you all go away.
In the name of the earth you all go away. The repeated and continuous recitation of specific mantra will remove the evil spirits. The word ene is a plural marker. The same use we find in Sumerian word gal — la, too.
Here ends the first recitation. Enuru recitation II 1. We can asag understand as a negative form like na — sag and means something not good. The Sumerian phrase pap — hal mu — un — da — ru — us means the karmic deposits of evil actions, which become active.
This is a very important concept and it is exciting to meet it in Sumerian texts. In the following lines we read on the details of medical knowledge to the Sumerians, which we still find in the texts of the Siddha, which have continued the tradition, while showing advanced considerably in their understanding of the human anatomy, the causes of disease and so forth. It says that an average person though knows that the diseases are caused by various kinds of elements.
They are evil winds, worms and insects and so forth. From this it is clear the translation as demon is wrong, because there is already the practice of examining the anatomy and the locating of the location of the specific disease. This is a scientific bent to the understanding of the nature of the ailment. Bring in the temporal notion and make the entire complex a verb. This word carries the intentional sense.
The Sumerian phrase sa — a — su giribi, means something that is intended out. We see in these lines the beginning of a medical system, which is a combination of scientific diagnosis and build up the immunity system as a defence against diseases.
We do not find here any descriptions of the used medicine, but we find the recitation of mantras for recovery. We can conclude from the texts we saw in our volumes until now on the existence of different types of mantras. Here in this text we see the subanam, the mantra of well being. I the hymns from the temple of Kes we saw mantras for the well being of the country and the temple.
There they are called uru — sub and e — sub mantra. From the verses here we get the suggestion, the treatment consisted of a selection of the appropriate mantras and they became recited by the patient or by the priest. From this we can conclude; by the recitation of the right mantra the evil spirits, which bring the diseases and others, can be made without effect and the presence of the divine forces will keep the body will. The presence of the divine powers provides the immunity against all the disease producing agents.
From view of philosophy this verses are very much exciting. The recitation imply that the disease bringing evil winds, spirits and so forth attack only people full of the karmic traces of really bad actions, those actions which are morally objectionable.
It appears that the evil actions of people like lying, stealing, cheating and other crimes increase the evil karma, which reduces the immunity and makes a person an early victim of the disease carrying agents that are always all around.
The evil deeds worked woe in him The agents of suffering stood there to ride over him In Sumerian We read how the direct agents of the diseases, the wind of dust, which blows around, reach the person. It is the evil act, done in the past that emerges from the depths and come over the person in order to inject something like a poison. The deposits of the evil deeds act like demons emerge to the force at a certain time and attack the person bounding his limbs, mouth and his entire body.
This makes him to suffer with the disease and finally brings death to him. We see again here, the bad deeds of the past are the reason for the weakening of the system of immunity.
This is the result of the karmic deposits of evil actions in the past. Included here the curses a person receives from other people. The aasi B] in itself is a blessing, as the as — hul in Sumerian becomes the evil blessing and hence curse. The curses of people somehow act on the person cursed and it is believed here, that it weakens the immunity system.
However here is an analysis and connecting with karma, we understand the recitation is not a primitive kind of magical thought. This we can understand as a kind of Siddha philosophy that has interchanged with the Saiva Siddhanta from very ancient times. We can suggest the word devil is not a corruption of the Sanskrit word deva, but a later variant of dingir hul , which got changesd into diwer and then into devil.
From these verses it is clear the heavenly beings in the umerian and obviously Tamil histories are good and evil, the sura and the asura. Sur here means bright and resplendent. While the good beings bless the person with good health, happiness and prosperity, the evil are doing the opposite. Once the good great god has gone, his place will be filled up by the evil spirit. This evil spirit is a production of the great god. In Saiva Siddhanta we read on the various forms of Lord Siva.
This is what we have here. The evil spirits are in squares. This is a very common believe any notion, which we can read in the great Tamil epic Manimekalai. This is called in Sumerian the papkal, the one, who have done evil actions and elicited karmas to that effect.
This is the beginning and rudimentary picture that immoral actions cause the beak down of the health system and therefore a person becomes easily victim of the evil spirits in the air and the streets. We can conclude from the verses in this recitation, what is done to cure this kind of disease is a form of exorcism. This is the removing of the evil spirits by reciting certain mantra.
The purpose is to re — install the presence of the great gods, for the evil spirits to be no more present anymore. This can be done only by a servant of Enki, a priest, a sage or a shaman, who is said to be a servant of the Lord of the Earth.
He becomes to mouth, the breath and the hands of the god, he is therefore possessed of Enki. His limbs are therefore the limbs of the great deity himself. The Sumerian word Sangu means Shaman and he becomes a medium for the manifestation of Enki and because of this he can recite verses for to make the evil spirits to leave the sick man. The reason is for to cure him and bring the great god back to him.
The coming verses are the final part of this recitation and have references to Agastya, the famous sage. We meet again the word sid connected with the Siddha tradition of the ancient Tamils, who combined the healing of the soul with the healing of the diseases. We understand the development of religious thoughts in the coming verses. The word of heaven is highly symbolic. We find many references to this in the treatises on dance, like Sillappatikaram.
He reigns over the weapons in battle. The Sumerian word sid becomes in Tamil cittu ]zx , to recite. Agastya is the great scholar of the water world, retained in Tamil tradition, where he is said the one, who has formulated the grammar of Tamil language.
He gave the grammar of the first Sangam academy. Conclusion From view of history the verse 54 is very much exciting; we have the essential of the sid as recitation together with the Sage Agastya, the scribe of the waters. Here Gestin Anna is a female form from the scribe of the netherworld, which is called arali in Sumerian. The female Gestin Anna is a most skilful dream interpreter and one, who understands the mythical stories. He is great scholar, who is brought in connection with Lord Siva.
The word arali denotes here a metaphysical world, which is the world of prayers and mantras. We can take various conclusions from the careful study of these recitations. When it contracts with a preceding long vowel then the result is the preceding long vowel, see, e. The contraction is, however, reflected by the writing only when the preceding morpheme is written with a phonographic sign.
If it is written with a word sign, see ex. The equative case-marker attaches to the noun phrase that functions as the basis of the comparison, called the standard in linguistic literature.
In linguistics one may distinguish between i equative constructions, which express sameness of extent, and ii similative constructions, which express sameness of manner. In English, the equative and the similative constructions are different, as the examples in Table 3. They may be distinguished only on the basis of their meaning. The goddess Bau functions as standard, and the standard marker is the equative enclitic. Note that the two adnominal cases discussed in this lesson differ in their syntactic behaviour.
The genitive relates two nominals within a noun phrase, i. The noun phrase in the equative, however, constitutes a separate noun phrase, outside the noun phrase with which it compares.
The 3rd ps. For a typological study of equative and similative constructions in the languages of Europe, see Haspelmath and Buchholz The grammatical function of the noun phrases is indicated in brackets. Translate the noun phrases, too. What is the consequence of these differences on the meaning of the noun phrases?
Please translate them! Please, identify the problem in each case. Find and make a list of the graphemes that may be used to write the ergative case-marker, depending on the morpheme or phoneme before the case-marker! Try to find differences depending on the location or period of the texts!
Find and a make list of the graphemes that may be used to write the 1st ps. Try to find out differences depending on the location or period of the texts!
Gloss all the words of the text except for the verbal form in the way it is done in this textbook. Which grammatical elements are not written in the orthography of this early text?
In modifying genitive constructions, the noun phrase in the genitive functions as the modifier of the head, which also affect its syntactic behaviour: it occupies P2 but not P3 of the noun phrase.
In left-dislocated genitive constructions the possessor occupies a position before the noun phrase whose head is the possessum. In genitive constructions with suspended cliticization only the last of the coordinate genitive constructions is case-marked. Accordingly, the noun phrase in the genitive stands in P2 of the noun phrase whose head it modifies;8 and a possessor, see ex.
B Lagash, 22nd c. Modifying genitives have two main subtypes: i non-referential genitives and ii locative genitives. In exx. In a non-referential genitive construction, the structural unit in P2 may only consist of a noun or another non-referential genitive. Under certain conditions, however, the possessor may occupy a position before the head of the noun phrase, i. In a left-dislocated genitive construction the possessor is in the genitive, and P3 is occupied by a resumptive pronominal enclitic that agrees in person, gender, and number with the possessor.
This doubly left-dislocated genitive construction may be derived from an underlying double genitive construction in two steps as is shown in a —c below. A —2 Lagash, 22nd c. NH In Sumerian, the order of the words preceding the verb is determined by the information structure of the clause. The left-dislocated genitive functions to move the possessor into a sentence-initial position, thereby making the possessor the topic of the clause, because of which the clause will be construed as being about the possessor, i.
Suspended cliticization in appositive constructions is often attested in inscriptions of the 3rd millennium BCE. The same happens in ex. The appositive construction is regarded as one unit, the genitive case-marker governed by the head of the noun phrase therefore attaches to the end of its second unit. Here too, the possessor is case- marked with the genitive only in the last of the three genitive constructions.
Exercises 4. Try to find differences depending on the provenience or period of the texts! Provide morphemic segmentation and glossing to them, use bracketing, as well. All expressions are assumed to be in the absolutive. What is the trick? You must produce only the morphemic segmentation and glossing 2nd and 3rd line of the examples. Relabel its brackets now based on what you have learnt in this lesson about modifying genitive constructions.
Use your creativity, more than one solutions are possible. Note that one of the constructions is erroneous. P Volk no. Translate the text.
Compare the orthography of this text with that of Ur-Nanshe 26 treated in the exercises of the previous lesson. What are the differences? The enclitic possessive pronoun is discussed in Lesson 3 above. The second part of the lesson describes the adverbs of manner and the forms and function of the adverbiative enclitic.
The lesson concludes with a section on numerals in Sumerian with an emphasis on the syntax of the numeral expressions. The main reason for this is that verbal participants that are contextually identifiable are referred to not by independent pronouns but by pronominal affixes incorporated in the finite verbal form see Lesson 6, section 6. H VEN As for me, I am indeed only second one to you. The 1st and 2nd ps.
Table 5. Nouns are marked ergatively, while independent personal pronouns are marked accusatively, i. The interrogative pronouns The interrogative pronouns behave like nouns, and accordingly they take case- markers. An interrogative pronoun may occur: i in a sentence-initial position; or ii immediately before the verb. In sentence-initial position it is as a rule accompanied with a 3rd. When it stands immediately before the verb, then it usually occurs alone, see ex.
H MOD The pronoun may occur without a possessive enclitic when used as the object of a compound verb, see ex. If she stops working, it is these i. The following groupings are attested in grammatical and lexical texts: Table 5. It is also often used as a quasi-definite article, and it is likely to be the source of the 3rd ps.
First we discuss the adverbiative in detail as its exact classification is controversial. It is the easiest to distinguish them after words ending in a consonant.
The adverbiative is therefore not a case which signals a grammatical relationship between words, but a kind of derivational formative that functions to change the word class of an expression.
The adverbiative can be attached to nouns, see exx. All these expressions change into an adverb. As numerals normally were written with logograms, the reconstruction of their phonological and morphological form is not without problem. In construction a the cardinal number functions as the modifier of the head noun as in exx. S MID-stand In these texts the written word order is governed by scribal convention and not by grammatical rules. The tendency that numerals precede the quantified nouns apparently serves visual clarity.
The former order, which reflects the spoken language, is used in ex. On the forms and uses of the independent personal pronouns, see Klein and Attinger For the different constructions with numeral modifiers, see Jagersma and The adverbiative was first identified by Attinger — , who considers it a case, unlike this textbook. An important contribution to its form, spellings, and history is Meyer-Laurin Exercises 5. Provide transliteration, morphemic segmentation, and glossing. Assign morphemic segmentation and glossing to all words, except for the finite verbs.
How could you characterize the text in terms of suspended cliticization? The text is no. Assign morphemic segmentation and glossing to all words, except for the finite verb. In addition to the modality, voice, tense, and direction of the verbal event, it may also indicate the syntactic function of up to four of the verbal par- ticipants, even when no noun phrase or independent pronoun is present in the clause.
This lesson gives an overview of the structure and functioning of the Sumerian finite verb. The detailed description of the functions of the morphemes it may consist of can be found in the subsequent lessons of the text- book. These affixes and the verbal stem may be arranged into 15 structural positions or slots on distributional grounds. There are eleven slots before the stem, which itself fills slot 12 henceforth, S12 and there are three slots after the stem.
Unlike in German or English, where only the subject is cross-referenced with an affix on the verbal form, Sumerian verbal forms may cross-reference up to four participants of the verb.
Table 6. The finite verb is almost always the last constituent of the clause; only in literary texts may a constituent stand behind it. The syntactic function of these verbal participants is mainly indicated by the position of the affixes that cross- reference them; so, e. S12 contains the verbal stem. The morphemes of S11—S14 are involved in the expression of the grammatical categories of verbal tense and verbal plurality. The detailed description of their functioning is the subject of Lessons 8 and 9.
It changes the clause of the finite verb into a subordinate clause, which may then function as a relative or a complement clause. The subordinator suffix is discussed in Lesson 7. These participants may be cross-referenced either by a composite or by a simple adverbial prefix. A composite adverbial prefix is composed of i a pronominal prefix and ii an adverbial prefix.
The existence of simple adverbial prefixes follows from the structure of the verbal prefix-chain: there is only one pronominal slot, S6, before the adverbial prefixes this rule, however, is valid only with some qualifications, for which see below.
So, if, for example, the prefix-chain contains a dative prefix in S7, then any subsequent adverbial prefix must occur as a simple adverbial prefix, i.
Consequently, the initial pronominal prefix specifies the person, gender, and number of the verbal participant in the locative2 case.
Other adverbial prefixes may have either composite or simple form depending on the structure of the prefix-chain: only the first of the adverbial prefixes of a finite verb may be composite preceded by a pronominal prefix, every subsequent adverbial prefix is simple and refers to a 3rd ps.
Or, conversely, only a composite adverbial prefix containing a human initial pronominal prefix can refer to a 3rd ps. The pronominal prefix of a composite adverbial prefix is as a rule a morpheme in S6. There exist, however, three exceptions to this rule: i There is no initial pronominal prefix in S6 cross-referencing a 3rd ps.
The mutually exclusive distribution of the middle prefix of S5 and the 3rd ps. So, in ex. The mutually exclusive distribution of the middle prefix and the 3rd ps. S], approx.
The adverbial cases and their verbal markers are discussed in detail in Lessons 12— The ventive prefix in S4, the 3rd ps. The structure and functioning of the adverbial prefixes impose restrictions on their co-occurrences. Some of these restrictions will be discussed in later lessons. The restriction on the co-occurrence of the composite 3rd ps. Co-occurrence restrictions circumvented by changing one of the incompatible adverbial prefixes into a dative prefix will be discussed in Lesson 15, section Their function is discussed in the last lesson of the textbook, Lesson The prefix of anteriority of S1 is involved in indicating the relative time of the verbal event in Sumerian, it is discussed in Lesson 9, section 9.
The modal prefixes will be treated in Lesson 16, section The finite-marker prefix has a complicated history that is obscured by the phenomenon that in many morphological environments it went lost.
In the Sumerian texts we know, in many verbal forms it only indicates that the verbal form functions as the predicate of the clause and not as a modifier of a noun. The coordinator prefix in S3 functions as a clause coordinator. The middle prefix in S5 indicates that the verbal action or state affects the grammatical subject or his interests. The prefixes of S2—5, except for the modal prefixes, are discussed in Lesson The existence of a relatively large number of structural positions does not entail that a finite verb should have a morpheme in every slot.
In fact, no finite verbal form is attested in which all slots are filled with a morpheme. The shortest finite verbal form contains at least three morphemes: a finite-marker in S2, the stem in S12, and a pronominal suffix cross-referencing S in S14 as in ex. It concluded that Sumerian finite verbal forms in this corpus typically contain only one adverbial prefix.
If they contain two, then one of them is the dative in the great majority of occurrences. Finite verbal forms with three adverbial prefixes see, e. Chart 6. If the verbal form contains a third adverbial prefix, then as a rule it refers not to the location of the event but has some other function, as in ex. B —13 Lagash, 22nd c. There is, however, no one-to-one correspondence between the verbal affixes and the case-marked noun phrases of the clause.
Two types of discrepancies may be distinguished: i The noun phrase in an adverbial case is not cross-referenced with any adverbial prefix The co-occurrence between the noun phrase in the dative, the comitative, and the locative cases used in a local meaning is quite strict.
A noun phrase in any of these cases occurs as a rule together with a corresponding adverbial prefix in the verbal prefix-chain unless the structure of the prefix-chain obstructs its presence, see Lesson 14, sections In case of the ablative and terminative the co-occurrence is much less strict. Noun phrases in the ablative or terminative may quite often occur without a corresponding adverbial prefix, see Lesson 13 below.
This is obviously a semantic issue; a detailed examination of the phenomenon is needed. These affixes are therefore not agreement markers: they may occur either without or with a coreferential noun phrase in the clause. They may exceptionally also occur with independent pronouns, but only to express a contrast. The adverbial prefixes and the pronominal affixes of S11 and S14 function similarly to the pronouns of other languages, a verbal participant introduced earlier in the discourse may be encoded only with a verbal affix in Sumerian.
Both verbal participants were mentioned in the text previously, they are therefore referred to only by pronouns, as in other languages. The independent personal pronouns of the English translation correspond to the verbal affixes. Some scholars translate sentences like ex. This assumption is unfounded, the pronouns are there, but they are part of the finite verbal form. In this case their function is to modify the meaning of the verb, similarly to the verbal prefixes of German verbs, like aus- oder weggehen, see, e.
Exercises 6. Find all the adverbial prefixes and decide whether they are composite or simple. A b VEN P d FIN You do not have to know the meaning of the stem, just concentrate on the slots and the information hidden in the glosses. P them, …. Assign morphemic segmentation and glossing to all words. It is followed by a section on the subordinator suffix, which transforms the clause of a verb into a subordinate clause. The subject of the third section is the relative clause, which may be formed either from a non- finite verbal form or from a subordinate clause with a finite verb in Sumerian.
The lesson concludes with two sections on constructions involving non-finite verbal forms. The first functions as a purpose clause, the second as a temporal clause.
In all three forms the stem may undergo a plural-reduplication, see, e. The opposition between the preterite and the present-future is maintained only with verbs expressing an action.
Non-finite verbal forms expressing a state always use the preterite form. Future forms often express modal meanings. The tenseless non-finite verbal form consists only of the verbal stem without any material suffix, indicating iconically that it is a form which expresses the verbal state or action without any temporal reference point as permanent and essential. The use of a preterite non-finite verbal form nu-tuku-a would refer to a king who until a given point of time has not had or at a given point of time does not have a rival.
Sumerian is a language without a distinguishable word class of adjectives. Adjectival concepts are expressed with non-finite verbal stems or with structures like the modifying genitive construction, see Lesson 4, section 4.
Verbal stems with an adjectival meaning e. They occur in fewer contexts than a verb expressing an action. This is, however, the consequence of their meaning which affects in which grammatical forms they can occur, but does not justify the postulation of a separate word class of adjectives in Sumerian.
Tenseless non-finite verbal forms are one of the main sources of compound nouns. Unlike in many other languages, these two functions are not distinguished morphologically in Sumerian. Used as a verbal adjective they modify a head noun in P2 of a noun phrase, or form a predicate with the copula, see, e.
Although it attaches to the verb as the last constituent of the clause, it affects in fact not the verb but the clause. It transforms the clause of the verb into a subordinate clause which may then function either as a complement clause, having the properties of a noun and taking a case, or as a relative clause, occupying P2, the position of the modifier in a noun phrase.
The finite relative clauses are discussed in section 7. In both examples the subordinate clauses function as possessors. Note the functional and structural similarity between the constructions in ex. H MID In Sumerian, a head noun may be modified by two varieties of relative clauses: clauses containing a finite verb and clauses containing a non-finite verb. In both cases the relative clause follows the noun. In the following, the first type will be referred to as a finite relative clause and the second type as a non-finite relative clause.
In non-finite relative clauses, the verbal form is a non-finite verbal form: in exx. The non-finite relative clause also occupies the modifier position of the noun phrase whose head is the relativized noun. The A of the non-finite verbal form may be expressed either by a noun phrase in the ergative case preceding the verbal form as in ex.
Less frequently the possessor of the relativized noun expresses the indirect object of the verb as in ex. Note that in finite relative clauses the syntactic function of the head noun within the relative clause is marked in Sumerian not with a relative pronoun but with a pronominal affix of the finite verb. This syntactic function is indicated merely by the composite ablative prefix S5b-S9ta in the verbal prefix- chain of the subordinate finite verb. The case- marker in P5 marks the syntactic function of the whole noun phrase in the main clause.
NH VEN Only the last of these noun phrases is case-marked with the genitive, which is to be understood as the case-marker of all noun phrases in the sequence. A —12 Lagash, 22nd c. P Lit. NH next. Occasionally the head noun may be missing from these constructions. There is no difference between constructions in which the A of the subordinate clause is the same as the A, see ex. Functionally these constructions are comparable to infinitives. Note that the phenomenon that the morpheme used to express the infinitive is the same as the one used to mark the indirect object is attested in other languages, for example in English: cf.
A —10 Lagash, 22nd c. NH 12 This noun phrase is the first in a sequence of noun phrases standing in apposition to each other. Only the last of these noun phrases is case-marked with the terminative, which is to be understood as the case-marker of all noun phrases in the sequence. This construction was referred to as pronominal conjugation in earlier literature.
Table 7. NH 1st and 2nd person plural forms are not attested. The morphological analyis of these forms is controversial. Being verbal nouns these forms too should be case- marked with a case.
The table above assumes that the 1st and 2nd ps. It may represent a secondary development on the analogy of the preterite forms starting with a reanalysis of the most frequent 3rd ps.
The preterite forms express anteriority, see ex. In texts from the first part of the 2nd millennium BCE and in later texts the 3rd ps. Further readings The word class of adjectives is controversial in Sumerian. A general survey of the word classes of Sumerian is provided by Black His arguments for a separate word class of adjectives in Sumerian are detailed in Black He, and also Jagersma — , assume that Sumerian has a closed word class of adjectives.
On the function of the possessor of the head of a relative clause, see Peust On the archaic locative enclitic, called here locative4, see Krecher 96— Exercises 7. Pay special attention to the genitive constructions used in this text, and find the constructions where the text uses suspended cliticization.
Lugal-zagesi 1 —35 RIME 1. Add morphological segmentation and glossing to the text. Identify and list the non-finite verbal forms. Can you notice something about the orthography of the text? The more common type is the one in which the predicate contains a verbal copula.
If the S of the non-verbal predicate is in the 3rd ps. This lesson describes both kinds of non-verbal predicates, and the various other uses of the copula. It has two forms: the independent and the enclitic copula. The independent copula is a finite verb with at least one verbal prefix, while the enclitic copula is attached to the last word of the clause without any prefix.
As a rule, the predicate complement is situated next to the copula; if the copula is enclitic, then it cliticizes to the predicate complement. In copular clauses, where the constituent next to the copula is the predicate complement, the predicate complement as a rule predicates a property about a referential S. Both the independent and the enclitic copula are suffixed with the set of pronominal suffixes that are coreferential with the participant in the absolutive case in preterite tense verbal forms called Set B in Table 9.
Table 9. If a noun phrase ends in a vowel, the vowel of the 3rd ps. The contraction is, however, reflected by the writing only when the preceding morpheme is written with a phonographic sign as in ex.
In a similar example, ex. The form may, at least originally, have expressed epistemic certainty, see Lesson 16, section The copula agrees in person and number with the S. The S of a copular clause may be expressed in three ways: i both as an overt lexical noun phrase and by a pronominal suffix on the copula, see, e. Less frequently it may be in the genitive, as in exx.
The independent form of the copula is used i when the meaning of the predicate requires the use of a verbal prefix other than the finite-marker prefix this verbal prefix is a modal prefix in S1 in ex. In morphosyntactic environments different to i and ii , the enclitic copula is used. The enclitic copula thus occurs in place of a not subordinate independent copula whose prefix-chain consists exclusively of a finite-marker prefix. As it often happens, the original, i.
The difference in the way the two clauses are negated in ex. Non-verbal predicates may be used to express a range of semantic relations. There are four grammatical environments in which the non-verbal predicate is attested to omit the copula: i copular clauses functioning as proper names names of persons, statues etc.
In proper names consisting of a non-verbal predicate the copula may be omitted if the S of the clause is an overt lexical noun, as in exx. If the S is not an overt lexical noun, then the copula is present, as shown by ex. In the first clause, the copula after the predicate is omitted, while in the second one the predicate complement is followed by a copula.
The presence of the copula in the first clause is thus conditioned by the type of the clause. The structure and function of forms like this is discussed in Lesson 5 above.
My name is Nam-zid-tara. In Sumerian copular biclausal constructions the initial clause is always a copular clause. The verb of the second clause is typically a finite, non-copular verb, but occasionally the second clause too may be copular. The defining characteristic of copular biclausal constructions is that one of the participants of the copular clause and one of the participants of the other clause are coreferential. The shared participant may occur as an overt noun phrase only in the initial copular clause, and is present only in the form of a pronominal affix on the verbal predicate in the second clause.
A typical example is ex. The two component clauses of this construction could be used separately without any modification as simple sentences. In sentences like ex. The copular clause is subordinated, formally marked with the subordination suffix in S15, and consequently the copula uses its independent form.
Subordinate copular relative clauses in which the relativized constituent is the S of the copular clause do not exist in Sumerian; they are substituted by biclausal constructions like ex.
In constructions like ex. In Lesson 5 section 5. Because of this rule, appositional constructions with a pronominal head, e. P I, the shepherd, have built the temple. There exists, however, examples which may be not be construed as consisting of a copular and a non-copular clause.
The order of the predicate complement and the S may, however, sometimes be inverted, as in the second clause of ex.
Such clauses do something fundamentally different; they exhaustively identify the referent of a description by naming it. Copular clauses like the second one in ex. Copular biclausal constructions in which the copular clause is specificational are to be translated and interpreted as cleft clauses.
The constituent next to the copula, see exx. H FIN Exercises 8. Provide only the morphemic segmentation and glossing. Add the missing morphemic glossing to the lines.
Explain the use of the various kinds of copular clauses and of the independent pronouns. Sumerian has a relative tense system: the verbal form called here the present-future denotes actions that are not ante- rior, but simultaneous or posterior, relative to a given reference point.
The verbal form called the preterite denotes actions anterior relative to a given reference point. The opposition between the present-future and the preterite is neutralized in verbal forms denoting permanent states, as verbs used in a stative meaning always use the preterite tense.
The terms present-future and preterite are kept here as convenient labels used for referring to the two tenses of Sumerian. In the A is expressed with a pronominal prefix in S11, while in it is expressed by a pronominal suffix in S Slot 14 may be filled by either of two sets of suffixes, which differ only in their 3rd ps. Note that in 3rd ps.
The 2nd ps. The exact form of the 1st ps. FPP is uncertain, but its existence can be inferred from the form of the preceding prefixes. Sumerian is an ergative language which exhibits split ergativity in its verbal agreement system. The pronominal cross-referencing system of the preterite is ergative: both the S of intransitive verbal forms and the P of transitive verbal forms are cross-referenced by the same set Set B of pronominal suffixes in S14, while the A is cross-referenced by a different set of affixes.
The pronominal cross-referencing system of the present-future is nominative-accusative: A and S are cross-referenced with the same set of suffixes Set A in S14, except for the 3rd ps. In 3rd ps. In other words, both the S of intransitive verbal forms and the P of transitive verbal forms are cross- referenced by the same set of pronominal suffixes in S14 in the preterite.
The agreement pattern of the transitive preterite forms is complex. The singular A is cross-referenced by the singular forms of the final pronominal prefix in S The plural A is cross-referenced by a discontinuous construction involving the use of two affixes: the singular forms of the FPP in S11 and the plural forms of Set B in S The verbal form in ex. It contains a 3rd ps. These two affixes together cross-reference the 3rd ps. One could say that the FPP in S11 agrees in gender and person, while the suffix in S14 agrees in number and person with the Agent.
Note that in these plural transitive verbal forms no affix cross- references the P. In these forms the prefix indicates the person, while the suffix indicates the number and the gender of the subject.
In addition to the discontinuous construction described in the previous paragraph, a 3rd ps. A may also be cross-referenced with the 3rd ps. Note that Set A and B differs only in the 3rd ps. P is cross-referenced with an FPP in S BCE, no more than six times; one of them is ex. For cross- referencing a 3rd ps. In this example the participant functioning as P is not cross-referenced by any prefix, the presence of the 3rd.
The agreement pattern of the present-future forms is summarized in Table 9. The great majority of the verbs belongs to this class. If the stem ends with a consonant, then the consonant is either omitted in the reduplicated form, e. If the monosyllabic stem ends with a vowel, then the whole stem is reduplicated, e. The presence of the stem-final consonant is shown by the orthography only if there is an affix after the stem.
And so by , with the help of the newly acquired knowledge of Old Persian and by keen manipulation of the Achaemenid proper names as handed down in Biblical and classical literature, the German scholar, Grotefend, succeeded in deciphering a large part of the Persian version of the inscriptions.
Additions and corrections were made by numerous scholars in the ensuing years. But the crowning achievement belongs to the Englishman H. A member of the English Intelligence Service, Rawlinson was first stationed in India, where he mastered the Persian language. In he was transferred to Persia, where he learned of the huge trilingual inscription on the rock of Behistun and determined to copy it. The Persian version of the Behistun inscription consists of lines; the second, now known as the Elamite version, consists of lines; while the third, the Accadian designated in earlier Assyriological literature as Assyrian or Babylonian version, consists of lines.
During the years , at the risk of life and limb, Rawlinson succeeded in copying lines of the Persian version. He returned in and completed the copying of the Persian as well as the Elamite version. The Accadian inscription, however, was so situated that it was impossible for him to copy it, and it was not until that he succeeded in making squeezes of the text.
To return to the decipherment of cuneiform Persian, by Rawlinson published his memoir in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , which gave the transliteration and translation of the Persian version of the Behistun inscription together with a copy of the cuneiform original.
Long before the final decipherment of the Persian text, however, great interest had been aroused in western Europe by the third version of the Persepolis inscriptions.
For it was soon recognized that this was the script and language found in numerous inscriptions and bricks, clay tablets, and clay cylinders which were finding their way into Europe from sites that might well be identified with Nineveh and Babylon.
Inscribed monuments were being found in large quantities at all three sites; moreover, Layard was uncovering at Nineveh a large number of inscribed clay tablets. By , therefore, Europe had scores of inscriptions coming largely from Assyrian sites, made in the very same script and language as the third version of the Persepolis and Behistun inscriptions. The decipherment of this language was simplified on the one hand by the fact that it was recognized quite early in the process that it belonged to the Semitic group of languages.
On the other hand, it was complicated by the fact that the orthography, as was soon recognized, was syllabic and ideographic rather than alphabetic. The leading figure in the decipherment of Accadian, or Assyrian as it was then designated, was the Irish scholar Edward Hincks.
But once again a major contribution was made by Rawlinson.
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