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\\.\IV
Jnfto&uefton.
Suffixes.
§ 68. Bi is tin.- well-known suffix of the 3 p., passim. Sec II, i; 50.
§ 69. - Mab is a postpositive i 1 p., IV, 10, i b : i-dib{LXJ) mu-un-na-ab-bi nin-nam
na-an-mu-ul-tuk-ma-ab = qube aqabi manman nl ilimanni
'1 speak a plaint, but no one
hath heard me.' Mab= 3 p., HT 115, rev. 3: Id-ne-du lu-te-ma-ab= liqi unneni 'my prayer
receive thou it' - - m^ .
i> 70. — Mermen is simply the verb 'to be, which maj be used with all three per-
sons. See Haiti s remarks, SFG. 30, n. 2, 31. I have already pointed out in The Belit-
Inscription, K. 257, JAOS, 1903, 116, that Eme-Sal DU in K. 257 [passim) is probably to
hi- read men.
§71. — For >«a the determinative suffix of the 1 p., see II, § 3.
§ 72. — ] find sib postpositively denoting the 1 and 3 person-. ., ., I IT 115, rev. 3:
i-de-si-bar-mu-un-li-ib = kenii naplisinni-ma 'look upon me with favoring strength.' Here
b
inuii is the 2 p. subject, and lid probably the 1 p. object. In IV, 10, : 5 nigin-na-an-si-ib—
attanasxur 'I look to him, lib evidently denotes the 3 p. object.
§ 73. For .-ii, the determinative suffix of the 2 p., see II, § 7.
So far as I am aware, there is no other language which uses an indefinite number
of personally indeterminate elements. Sumerian must, I think, stand alone in this respect,
which, however, does not in any way militate against its true linguistic character, any more
than the isolated phenomenon of polysynthesis can be cited as a reasonable argument
against the existence of the American idioms and the Basque as actual languages. It still
remains for Sumerologists to discover the phonetic reasons why certain Sumerian stems
preferred certain prefixes.
It is quite possible that the great multiplicity of these indeterminate verbal prefixes
arose more or less artificially, when the language was used in later times as the written
and ritualistic vehicle of priestly expression.