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162 SUMERJAN GRAMMAR
enter into it', its beauty consumes me". For a dependent clause oí
purpose see CT. XIII 36, 19, dingir-ri-e-ne ki-dúr sag-dug-ga dé-in­
dúr-l'u-ne-es-a-ma nam-lú-gal-lu ba-dü, 'That the gods might abide in
a dwel1ing which rejoices the heart, he created mankind'. uku bir­
bir-ra a-ba-ab-dú-dú 1 gul-li-es ki-in-gi uri-(ki)-ge dÍ7n-me-ir gün-gün­
e-ne i-dé mu-un-si-in-bar-ám, 'That I might gather the scattered people
gladly the great gods oí Sumer and Akkad looked upon me' 2.
Subjunctive. § 221. The subjunctive is indicated by the addition of the oblique
case ending a shewing that the phrase thus treated as a noun is dependent.
Sumerian distinguishes clearly between a dependent phrase
which merely describes a noun and a dependent phrase which defines
time or which describes an intel1ectual conception not yet realized or
whose reality depends upon a preceding act or thought. For the pure
descriptive adjectival phrase Sumerian employs the suffixed conjuga­
tion '. The subjunctive phrase partakes rather oí the nature of an ad­
verbo The intel1ectual process described in the subjunctive phrase
either conditions the action of the principal verb, or depends upon the
action of the principal verbo \Ve have, therefore, two principal ideas
Iying at the basis of the Sumerian subjunctive: tbe conditionallying in
(he region of pure mental abstraction 4 ; the subjuncti ve which describes
a state rcsulting from a preceding act, or which develops the idea of a
preceding thought (the subjunctive of indirect discourse). Funda­
mentally difierent is the temporal subjunctive when it defines time in
which facts have been realised. This mood is employed here as a
purelyadverbial notion. ud ... gú-e-na-gar-ra-a, 'When he had con­
quered". ud é-ninnü é kenag-ga-ni mu-na-dü-a {¡ar-mu-tug, 'When
1. dú for dul = pa!JJira.
2. V R. 62 a,39-41.
3. Yet adjectival phrases occur in the subjunctive as, 'It is the statue of Gudea,
gala e-ninnü ... in-da-a, who built Eninnu', Gud. E 8, 3·5. 'Gudea, gala nigc1ú-B
s[g-ne-e-a, who caused to arise in splendour what is fitting', Gud. F 1, 8.
4. No! to be confused with the conditional thought of as already realised, see
the following paragraph.
5. OEl. 871I 2.
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