Johnson 2004 - CDLI - UCLA

(26) The Instructions of Shuruppak [5.6.1], ll. 29-31 (Alster 1974, 36-37, 83;
nam
[ Topic ni2.zu] [ Focus tun3.am3 [Presupposition bi2.ib.bar.≠re±.e]] As for fearsomeness, it is not AN AXE that you should hold on to, (but rather A
TRUE EYE (igi zi(d) [cf. igi zi √bar]),
29. e 2 na.a.an.ni.buru 3.e.en You should not break into a house, you
mi.si.IÍ.ra al nam.me should not wish for the money chest,
30. ni 2.zu ≠piriœ na.nam± ul.dab 5 saœ As for your fearsomeness, it is that of a lion,
na.nam but once caught, it is that of a slave,
31. dumu.œu 10 sa gaz nam.mu.u 3.ak.e My son, you should not commit robbery—as
nam
ni2.zu tun3.am3 bi 2.ib.bar.≠re±.e hold,
289
for fearsomeness, it is not an axe that
Line 31 in the ETCSL version, which I adopt as conventional, is equivalent to lines 35-36
in Alster’s edition (1974, 36-37). In his commentary (1974, 83), Alster takes ni 2.zu as a
phonetic writing of ni 2.zu˙ “thief,” but translates it in his edition as ‘yourself’. I also take
nam
the NAM in line 31 as a gloss on tun3.am3 so as to clarify that it is /tun-nam/ rather
than /tun-am/: the orthography is interesting in that if the author had wanted to indicate a
simple copula, the expected orthography would have been tun 3.na.am 3. Note, therefore,
that, apparently, one of the reasons for the highly conventionalized orthography of NAM
for *na-/*nu-am might be that, if the underlying form is *na-am, a syllabic orthography
would have been systematically confused with the third person animate possessive
pronoun followed by the copula *XP-ni-am > XP-na.am 3—the occurrence of NAM