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THE PHONETIC ELEMENTS OF SUMERJAN AND SOUND-CHANGES 47
§ 58. sunir = surinnu, 'emblem'.
§ 59. a) Consonants : es-es=isis, 'to weep'.
g{r> kir, 'to hasten'. gil> kil, 'to hew'. Sonants dissimilated
to surds to avoid two sonants in one syllable.
b) Vowels : edu for udu, 'sheep', IV R. 20 obv. 26 [HOMMEL J. elal
for alal, 'water-bucket', [PRINCEJ. su-dü-a, 'to take in tbe hand "
becomes su-di-a, 11 R. 24 a, 6. dú-sugur> dasutJur, 'a fish " Gud. Cyl.
B 12,1 and CT. XV, 26, 15.
§ 60. a-i = a in kara-innib-dü-e = karannib-dü-e POEBEL, no. 57,
22; gara-innib-kú-a=garannib-kúa, no. 4, 15.
§61. The scri pt does not enable one to determine w hether the langllage
possessed syllables beginning with two consonants; it is con sequen tiy
impossible to detect the existence of affricatives as ts, p/, or aspirates as
ph, kh, etc.
§ 62. Characteristic of the language is the dropping of final con­
sonants thus reducing the bi-consonantal stems to a single consonant and
vowel. sig> si, gin >gi, mun> mu. The disappearing consonant
is often replaced by a vowel, thus nad ' bed " appears as ná-a, kur ' to
eat " as kü-a" dug, 'to ransom " as dü-a 2, darig >da-ri-a = $abáru, 'to
seize, take', often in mas-da-ri-a, , property' 3; The root dem = sasú is
constantly written de-a in the compound gü-de-a. di-e =salp2, tabaku,
sapaku, 'to pour out', for dib connected with dub.
A considerable number of syllables have sufféred elision at the be­
ginning4, as gur> ür = tertu; kür> úr = kaparu,. mul> ul =
kakkabu,. gis> is, mus> uso gidim > idim = edimmu, 'ghost'. Also
ág and am, the well-known abstract prefixes may be derived from nag
« nig) and nam.
§ 63. The Semitic grammarians often distinguished the forms
1. POEBEL, no. 4 obv. 15.
2. MEISSNER, SAL 7508.
3. In V R. 50 a, 49 in-dari-a the a serves also to indicate the dependent
construction.
4. SIEVERS, 504.
Metathesis.
Differentiation.
Vowel
contraction.
Affricatives.
Apocopation.
Dialects.