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Passivc
of eompound
verbs.
152 SUMERIAN GRAMMAR
the new moon revealed to me his favorable sign' '. The dODble infix ni­
in for the interior and exterior objects is clear; if ma be taken for the
subject the oblique form may be explained as the middle reflexive.
In case a verb of this class has a double exterior object then the
prefixes should correctly indicate three objects as in ama tar ·bi su-ma­
mi-ni-ib-gur-ri, 'mother and son it rends asunder' '.
é-sa-gab-a-bi ... kalam-ma igi-mi-ni-ib-gál, 'The temple Sagab
beheld the country'3. The double infix ni·ib does not agree with the
exterior object kalam-ma, which may be due to vowel harmony (for
kalam-e) '.
§ 206. A verb of the first class , if construed in the passive, should
retain the oblique exterior object and the interior object should be­
come the subject. The idea would be 'an object acted upon for or
against another'. No cases of the passive of a verb of this class have
been found, and in fact it is unlikely that the passive of such verbs ever
existed, since it was impossible in these cases to represent the exterior
object as acted upon and wholly needless to represent the interior object
in that relation.
In passives of compounds of the second class the external object be­
comes the subject and the force of the interior object is unrepresented in
the conjugation. en kiba-dúr, 'The high priest \Vas installed', (passim
in dates). kalar¡~'e (¡en-gál-la su-l/e '-a-da-pes-e, 'May the land be
1. SAK. 212 e) 1 25·II 2.
2. SBP. 20, 39.
3. Cyl. A 27, 3·4.
4. A few double infixes of the objeet are diffieult lo explain where neither a
double objeet nor a eompound verb of the soeond class is involved. Sueh cases
are ba-ni·ib-lal-a, 'whoso diminishes (the deerees)', Gud. B 1,16. sim-zid-dirn
sag-,r¡á mi-ni-ib-cle, , pure unguents he poured out on its head', Cyl.';A,,27, 24
k'úr-f'a-sar mi-ni-ib·sus 'it overwhelms the totality of the lands " Cyl. B 1, 9.
THUREAU·DANGIN,ZA. XX 389 would see in these cases an attempt to emphasize
the objeet. Most of the examples cited by him are explained by the two principIes
exposed above. The examples whieh do not fal! under these heads are due to
false analogy.
5. Pronounced perhaps ga indieated by the eomplement a.