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i£6c QJocafiufarg ani> (phonetic Qpettm of |$um«rmn. IX
Thus, some scholars have asked very pertinently: how could any real language give the
same sign or sound-value to a great variety of meanings? Besides all this, there are, as
indicated above, many passages containing Sumerian words which strikingly resemble the
Semitic equivalents and which seem to be mere arbitrary perversions of Semitic originals.
These, however, are all due to the great fundamental principle followed by the
Semitic scribes and priests who played with and on the Sumerian idiom, and in the course
of centuries turned it into what almost justified HALEVY and his school in calling it a
cryptography, i. c. the principle of PARI )N( IMASIA which I define as a form of popular
etymology 1 based on mere sound-resemblances associated together, in many instances arbi-
trarily, and again for purposes of mnemonic aid. This has been mentioned again and again
in the following Lexicon. A few examples will suffice here to introduce the student to this
highly confusing, but interesting phenomenon. The word a = A = pasaxu 'rest,' is obtained
from a = mailu 'couch,' itself an association with a = 'seed,' a = rakabu 'ride, have sexual
connection.' This «-word consequently in the sense of 'cover' indicates lubsu which sounds
like lubiu 'garment,' but really means 'offspring.' But a also = axulap 'how long,' probably
itself a derivative from xalapu 'cover.' The word ak = AK = rasit 'grant,' with which was
associated for purely paronomastic reasons arsasit 'spittle.' Dib = LU = in tu 'dead,' a
meaning which does not properly belong to the sign LU, whose value dib has probably
been associated metathetically with bad = BE, BAD. An amusing pun is flf=RAM = raw»
'love' (proper meaning) associated with ramamu 'roar' for false phonetic reasons only. The
combination a-ma-tu = abubu 'deluge' properly, but in Hrozxy, 14, obv. c/10: = sabubu
'flame,' also a pure senseless pun. Further examples will be found in great quantity in the
Lexicon, but cf. especially s v. adama, aiiuia, agla, /w = BUR and the corner-wedge, etc., etc.
See below I § VI, on deliberate inversions. Professor DELITZSCH has pointed out in his System
how the signs were in themselves idea-pictures, but we have a number of sign-combinations
which are also word-pictures, such as a-gi (Ml)-rr 'black water,' hence 'flood' = Sem. agii
by a pun; a-ma-tu = abubu 'deluge,' lit. 'water [a] enter (tu) ship (ma),' and many others.
Another interesting point which should be noticed in this connection is the prin-
ciple of special, probably artificial, application of meanings seen, for example, in such
equations as de = DE 'begin flight,' probably from main idea 'begin'; du = TUK 'lift up
the voice,' from the general idea 'raise' (see Lex. s. v. du); a surra, lit. 'flowing water,' applied
specially to 'urine,' etc.
All these facts taken by themselves would be sufficient to convince most philol-
ogists that we have to deal here with an arbitrarily arranged cryptography rather than with
a language. I repeat "if taken by themselves," but the main point is that these phenomena
cannot be taken by themselves. They are mere superficial evidences of deliberate later
interference with the growth of the language, introduced by a priesthood who spoke a
radically different idiom (Semitic Babylonian) but who had for religious reasons adopted
the Sumerian as their formal written vehicle. It is evident, however, that Sumerian was
read aloud, probably as a ritual language until a very late period, because we have a number
of pure Sumerian words reproduced in Greek transliteration, all of which are given by
Leander (op. cit.). These are: AeXstpar = Dilbat 'the Venus-star' (see Prince, Dan. 226);
(1) Paronomasia plays a part in the formation of many modern Oriental languages. Take, for example,
from Pers. bende -f- Turk, -niz = 2p. pi.
the polite Turk, word for T' = bendeniz, which is simply 'your servant 1
Bendeniz was undoubtedly chosen because of its accidental resemblance to the real Turkish ben = 'I,' with which
bendeniz is not connected etymologically.