Basic principles with the Sumerian Grammar 4

koot van wyk (DLitt et Phil; ThD)

Kyungpook National University

Sangju Campus

South Korea

Conjoint lecturer of Avondale College

Australia

4 August 2010

This is the 4th treatment of this subject. The Sumerian grammar is important for us because it was the language of the post-deluvian world. Of course at one stage the language died but, it is valuable for the study of the book of Genesis since all the old texts of Sumerian form the cultural world of nearly all the chapters of Genesis. Yes, Moses wrote Genesis in Midian while he was hiding away from the pharaoh due to the murder in 1490 BCE. But, he was using books that his mother must have given him when he went to greet her to leave for Midian. Moses mentioned the book of Adam and also the book of Noah. One can suggest that there is also a book of Abraham, Izaak and Jacob.

Pronouns

Independent pronouns

I, me           ĝá-e (older ĝe₂₆)

You                      za-e (older zé)

he, she, it             e-ne (older a-ne)

we, us         me-en-dè-en

you                      me-en-zé-en

they, the               me-ne-ne (older a-ne-ne)

Possessive Pronouns

Absolute (-Ø)

My                       -ĝu₁₀

your                    -zu

his/her                 -(a)ni

its                       -bi

our                      -me

your                    -zu-ne-ne

their                    -(a)ne-ne

Ergative (-e)

by my         -ĝu₁₀

by your                -zu

by his/her             -(a)né

by its                   -bé

by our                  -me

by your                -zu-ne-ne

by their                -(a)ne-ne

Locative (-a)

in my                   -ĝá

in your                 -za

in his/her              -(a)na

in its                    -ba

in our                   -me-a

in your                 -zu-ne-ne-a

in their                 -(a)ne-ne-a

Demonstrative elements

that, this               -bi

this                      -ne

that one there        -ri

this, the                -e

that nearby           -še

this (one)              ur₅

Interrogative Pronouns

who?                    a-ba

what?                   a-na

where?                 me-a

it is who?              a-ba-àm

(it is) for what        a-na-aš/šé(-àm)

it is what?             a-na-àm

(it is) like what?     a-na-gin₇(-nam)

in where?             me-a

towards where?     me-še

from where? me-ta

Reflexive Expressions

Ní                     self

ní-te(n)                to cool oneself, relax

ní-zu                  yourself

possessive suffix combined with dimensional case preposition

ní-bain               itself

ní-bi-taby            itself

ní-bi-šefor itself

form: é ní+ĝu10+ak+aé ní-ĝá-ka

house self my of in

Order: 5 1 4 3 2

in my own house

Indefinitive Adjective

na-me is an indefinitive adjective and it can be negative or positive depending on the verb. It modifies either:

lú - person lú-na-me              some(one), no-one

nì - thing             nì-na-me              something, nothing

ki - place             ki-na-me              somewhere, nowhere

u₄ - day. time       u4-na-me             sometime, never

Relative Pronoun

the person (who)             lú

the thing (which)             nì

the place (where)            ki

(the one) (who)               a-ba

(that) which          a-na

Principle:

An ergative or locative-terminative postposition -e may be hidden in a preceding possessive pronoun. One has to watch carefully (Foxvog 2010: 37).

Equative case (like, as)

They indicate a relationship between nouns or pronouns. They are written as GIM or -gim or even gin₇. Like the genitive they are also marked only by a nominal postposition. In subordinate relative clauses, this case can have a temporal adverbial meaning, just as, as soon as, at the same time as.

ur₅-gin₇                                                  like this, thus

húl-la-gin₇                             happily

a-na-gin₇                                               like what, how

Scholars do not know how to read -gim because the signs has two ways of reading one sign.

-gi-gi

-gi-in

-ge-en

-gi/ge                  (single sign with two possible readings)

-ki/ke                  (single sign with two possible readings)

-gé/ke₄                        (single sign with two possible readings)

ama-ni-gin₇                           like her mother

dumu-saĝ lugal-la-gin₇   like the first-born son of the king

a-  ba za-e-gin₇                  who is like you?

The Copula

There are two verbs for to be in Sumerian. There is a verbal root ĝál = to be present, to exist.

The second form is a syntactic element /m/ or /me/ which functions between two nouns and which marks predicative in a non-verbal form like the nominal sentence (Foxvog 2010: 46).

Tense is not important in this case and it can be translated as was, is, will be (Foxvog 2010: 46).

king mighty + m

the king is mighty

Two allomorphs /m/ and /me/ which occur in different contexts.

Daniel Foxvog has the theory that the main meaning in Sumerian is carried by the consonantal systems of the Sumerian grammatical affixes.

Rule:

An epenthetic vowel or helping vowel is placed between the consonantal elements so that they are easier to pronounce:

-(e)n, -(e)n, -Ø, -(e)nden, -(e)nzen, -(e)š.

Rule:

When a word or grammatical suffix preceding the copula is ending in a consonant, the separation between the two consonants is by an epenthetic vowel /a/.

lugal-àmhe is king

Rule:

In words in which the preceding word before the copula is a genitive -ak, then the /k/ element jumps backward to connect with -am, thus, ak+m = -a-kam.

é lugal-la-kam it is the house of the king

house king of it is

Order: 4 1 3 2

Rule

When a vowel precedes the copula, there is no need to insert a vowel -a.

dumu-zu-um

son your is

Order: 3 2 1

He is your son.

Convention

In later times scribes forgot the rules and considered the 3rd person singular copula as -àm in all cases (Foxvog 2010: 47).

ĝá-e-me-en lugal-me-en

I   I   am  king  I  am

Order: 4 1 3 7 6 5

I am I, I am the king

It is indeed I who am the king

(Foxvog 2010: 47)

This is a very interesting example. It was common to use these forms in the Ur III period 2114-2004 BCE. When Moses was met by Yahweh in Exodus 3:15, and Moses asked God who He is and how he should inform the people as to who is sending him, he was informed by God the following way:

"I am what I am send me to you". This is a very ancient grammatical form that one can already see in Sumerian in the days of Abraham, touching also the Ur III period. Moses faithfully rendered the form as Abraham knew God or Yahweh in his days by Sumerian grammatical conventions. It is possible that Moses was using an Abraham book or source for his historical explanations. There is a certain authentication here when we see a continuation between Sumerian grammar and Yahweh introducing Himself to the people reminding them of their ancestor Abraham, by Moses in 1450 BCE. It is nearly 750 years later but it is more than a remarkable coincidence.

udu ab-ba-ĝá 180-àm ù gáb-ús-bi

sheep father my of 180 they are and herdman their

Order: 1 4 3 2 6 5 7 9 8

The sheep of my father, they being 180, and their herdsmen.

-àm = simulative marker [compare the Akkadian ki-ma = like (Proto-Aa 8:2, MSL 14, 89 from W. Heimpel in Studia Pohl Series Minor 2 [1968]: 33-36). This particular text from the Ur III period comes from NSGU 138: 8 op. cit. Foxvog 2010: 49.

Precative use of Copula

hé-em or hé-àm            may he/she/it be

nu-um or nu-àm            he/she/it is not

although, even though

Sometimes the copula functions in this way to express even though:

ùĝ-bi šika ku₅-da nu-me-a bar-ba ba-e-si

people its potsherd broken plural not were they outskirts its filled

Its people, though they were not broken potsherds, filled its outskirts

[Text: Lamentation over Ur 211 Old Babylonian Period 1980 BCE; Ur was destroyed in 2004 BCE by the Elamites]

This is very significant that broken potsherds are used in a lamentation over a destroyed capital to compare the situation of its people. The broken potsherd image is also used in the prophet Isaiah in the Hebrew tradition.

Source:

Daniel A. Foxvog, Introduction to Sumerian Grammar (Revised edition, June 2010). This work is a revised edition of his 1990 Sumerian Grammar (Foxvog 2010: 3). It is online at www.etana.org.