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Suffixed
conjugation.
126 SUMERIAN GRAMMAR
lazuli the lord, the hero Ningirzu, stood like the sun ' '. N otice here the
possessive prono un locative na placed after the elements which modify
the noun ginar.
gll-za gú-en-na gub-ba-bi é-azag an-na ul-la tu-ra-na-ám, 'the
throne placed in Guenna is like the pure temple of heaven dwelling in
splendour ' 2.
é-KA-gar-S gesten Jsa gal-gal lugal-bi-ra túm-ma3 mu-na-da,
, he has built for him the wine-house supplying wine in great cups for
the king'4. gu-de-a unu-mag-a tud-da d.ga-tum-dufl-fla-kam ~cl.nidaba­
ge é-flis-tufl-pi-ge ig-mu-na-tag, , to Gudea bom of Gatumdug in the great
chamber Nidaba revealed wisdom ".
§ 182. The psychological problem of greatest moment in the ex­
pression of thought is the relation of the subject to the abstraet verbal
notion with whieh the subjeet is eoneemed. The methods employed by
difierent peoples to indicate the psyehologieal relation between the
subject and the verb, the so-called 'conjugations' 7 of the languages, are
usually the most important feature of the grammar of a language. The
most simple method whieh oeeurred to primitive man and one which we
find employed in linguistic morphology throughout the world to indieate
the connection between the subjeet and verbal root eonsists in treating
the infinitive as a noun with a pronominal suffix referring to the subject.
Thus the entire postfixed active conjugation of Indogermanic languages
arose, as ~1jp.[, '1 speak ',from 9'1] and the primary ending of the first
person singular, directly connected wi th strong stem of the word for ' 1 "
*me. Likewise the postfixed conjugation in the Semitic group is primar-
1. Gud. Cyl. B 16, 15 f.
2. lbid., 1. 17 f.
3. We expect the status rectus here, tum-mu, to agree with é-KA.gal'-S. The
construction is not clear to me.
4. SAK. 56 i) col. V 2-4.
5. Notice the indirect genitive depending upan the status obliquus gudea ...
tudda.
6. Gud. Cyl. A 17, 12-15.
7. The method of 'binding' subject and verb.