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168 SUMERIAN GRAMMAR
returned money' 1. sib udu-slg-ka-ge-ne ba-gar-é!';, 'The shepherds of
the wool-bearingsheephavebroughtback' (NIK.155rev. 11). Although
this usage based upon distinction of tenses is evidently claE'sical, yet the
origin of the inflection e.P is obscure. In fact it indicates the plural of
the object in several passages 3. Most interesting are the two parallel
pasE'ages Gudea, Cy!. A 14,4, 'The Anunnaki, ... mu-da-an-su-su-gies"
he has established together', and Cy 1. B 5, 22, d'a-nun '" en
d·ningirsu-da ki-bi mu-da-Si'n(!) '-ni-es-ám, 'The Anunnaki '" by the
high priest of Ningirsu have been made glorious llnto their place'. mu­
un-ne-si-in-ág-gi-es, 'he has sent them' 6. In two of these examples es
denotes the plural of a personal object ; it ordinarily denotes the plural
of a personal subject. In the following examples es refers to things;
as-me-ás-ás-a 7 ••• ni-lag-gi-es-a nazagin-na guskin-a azag-me-a-bi-da­
ta su-a ma/¡·bi ib-ta-an-dú-us-a, '(When he had introduced) sun disks
... which he made brilliant and which he finished magnificently with
lapis lazuli, with gold and sil ver ' 8. The god Sin, pad-d.innina muun-gi-es-á(
m l, 'who establishes offerings' ".
Negative nu. § 226. The negative of the indicative is nu (em ployed also incor-
rectly with the subjunctiveofindirectdiscourse); temporal, conditional and
adjectival clauses when conveying an attitude of certainty on the part
of the writer 01' speaker are negated by nn. As in the case of other
prefixed modal particles U, l¡en, /le, the subject may be omitted after the
negative. di-kud-a-na ¿u-nu-baZ-e, 'one does not change his decision' 10.
1. SAK. 46 h) III 18-IV 1.
2. Variants us (mu-na-dü·us) and as (im·da-zi-ga-as, SBP. 314,30).
3. First noted by TH.-DANGIN,
ZA. XVII 192.
4. 1have transcribed m everywhere by es, originally Sú. lt may well be that
the original value was current in the classical periodo
5. .t-f el'in (?).
6. CT. XVI 20 a 67.
7. Sic! a alter the direct object.
8. Date 01 Samsu·ditana, VAT. 1200.
9. IV R. 9 a 32.
10. Gud. B 8, 38.