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THE VERB 127
ily derived by adding the personal pronouns to the verbal root, kasad,
'to conquer', kasdak, 'I conqueror' : here the inflection of the first person
is clearly connected with tbe independent formof the personal prono un
ant1ku, 'I'. The connection between the verbal root and the pronominal
suffix is one of apposition and not of possession. The suffixed con­
jugation would be illustrated best by the phrase 'man - go - he',
'man - going - he " , man - he goes " i. e., 'the man goes '.
Likewise in Sumerian we have a suffixed conjugation ; althoügh in
the evolution oí the language this conjugation appears almost
exclusively in dependent pbrases. yet it must have existed side by side
witb the more important prefixed conjugation from the beginning. zig­
zig-zu, 'tbou ragest'" elearly stand s for the root zig and the inde­
pendent pronoun of the second person singular. Other examples are: ­
a nu-nag-a-Tiw, 'water I drink: not"; enem/ila-ni an-sú an ni, dúb­
ba-ni, 'at his ,vord on higb heaven trembles of itself' 3; za-e {ju-de-a-bi,
, they cry to thee ' '.
§'183. Although traces oí this primitive suffixed conjugation in
independent sentences may be noted at all stages oí the language, yet
tbe construction appears more often in dependent phrases. Without
reflection we would presume that the suffixed dependent conjugation is
identical in its inherent force with the independent conjugation, and that
the reservation of the construction for dependent phrases, is apure
convention '. The distinction is, however, based upon a difference of
relation between the verbal root and the suffix. In the independent
construction the pronoun represents the subject as an appositional idea.
It is suffixed to the verb solely to indicate the close relation between the
subject and the verb. In the dependent construction we have to deal
with the possessive suffix, and the verbal root is treated as a nOUl1pos-
1. Guc1. ey!. A 8, 23.
2. SBP. 320, 5.
3. SBR. 9,87.
4. ASKT. 115, 13.
5. So 1 expressed myself in the introduction to my Syntaxe.
Seconc1ary
suflixec1
conjugation.