SumerianGrammar

98 CHAPTER TWELVE
12.8.1.17 [n“i]: in-“i(-n)-sa 10 “(purchaser) bought (object) from (seller)”
Falkenstein, NG III 153 b. The action of buying is made “in the
direction” of the seller.
12.8.1.18 [b“i]: igi-zi ba-“i-bar [ba-b“i-n-bar] “he looked friendlily at
it”.
igi na-“i-bar-re [na-b“i-bar-e] “let him not look at it” Gudea Stat.
B ix 18.
12.8.1.19: No example available to me.
12.8.1.20 [(e)ne“i]: in-ne-“i-sa 10 [i-(e)ne“i-n-sa] “(purchaser) bought
(object) from (sellers)” UET 3, 27:6; cf. 41:6.
Note: in- of in-ne- has been taken over mechanically from the much more frequent
sg. in-“i- (see 17).
12.8.1.21–26.
The complex of directive and locative 2, closest to the absolu-
tive/ergative elements or directly before the base, is the most difficult
in the system of directional indicators. It has been exhaustively dealt
with by Wilcke 1988, 1–49, Attinger 1993, 234–47 and, most recently,
by Zólyomi 1999 (as well as B. Jagersma apud Zólyomi), 215–53.
We owe to Wilcke the decisive breakthrough.
Both person and non-person class 3 rd sg. [ni] (22) and [bi] (23) as
well as locative 2 [ni] (26) have variants [n] and [b] which might
easily be confused with the absolutive or ergative elements [n] and [b].
These variants occur only in a position immediately before the base:
bi - X - base -ni - X - base
Vb - Ø - base -Vn - Ø - base
Moreover, comparable to [ba] (3) with its secondary function of a
passive indicator, 3 rd sg. person class [ni] (22) and non-person class
[bi] (23) also developed a secondary function: they may denote a
causative where [ni] or [bi] are turned—at least in our view—into
a secondary ‘subject’. Here, the parallel with [”] in the causative
formation of the Akkadian verb leaps to the eye: u“àkil“u “he (subj.
1) saw to it that he (subj. 2) ate (it)” = “he made him eat (it)”. If
we acknowledge the existence of a Sumero-Akkadian linguistic area
(see 17) we cannot help seeing a correlation between Sumerian [ni],
[bi] and the Akkadian causative markers [“u], [“a], [“].