SumerianGrammar

106 CHAPTER TWELVE
12.8.2.41–43: No examples available.
Note: Ablative is generally incompatible with 1 st and 2 nd persons as well as with
rd
3 person person-class; see, however, discussion on possible [nta] in 12.8.1.12.
12.8.2.44 [mta], [mmara]:
a) [mta]: lú E-ninnû-ta im-ta-ab-è-è-a “he who would remove (the
statues) here from the Eninnû” Gudea Stat. B viii 7.
Note: The parallel version of Stat. C iv 6 has the non-ventive form íb-ta-ab-èè-a.
This is hardly a free variant, but has to do with the fact that in Statue C
the temple is Inana’s Eana and not Nin∞girsu’s own Eninnû. So, imta- refers to
her own, ibta- to another, environment.
b) im-ma-ra-an-dú-ud [i-mmara-n-dud] “she gave birth from (her)
own (vulva)” Enki-Ninh. 253, etc.
Note: We follow Attinger’s translation proposal (b), see ZA 74 (1984) 46; his
alternative (a) was “(X) est né(e) pour toi” where -ra- would be taken as the
directive indicator [era] (1).
“à-bi-ta nu-ù-ma-ra(-n)-è-a [nu-mmara-n-e-a] “(he swore) he had not
removed (anything) from (the storehouse)” NG no. 205:53.
Note: An alternative interpretation would be [mma + ra], i.e., locative + ablative.
12.8.2.45–46: No examples available (see note on 12.8.2.41–43).
12.8.2.47: No example available.
NG no. 51:15 mu-ne-ra-è “(two witnesses) came forth (against two
other persons)” only seemingly contains [(e)nera] “from (among)
them”. [(e)ne] is in fact virtually a dative, replaced by the directive
(cf. 12.8.2.5, 25, and 61). This becomes clear from NG no. 127:16
mu-na-ra-ni-è-e“ “they came forth (as witnesses) against him (-na-)”;
see also no. 129:13. In cases without dative (or directive) of the person,
è(-d) “to come forth” is construed with im-ta- or íb-ta- (see NG
III 105) s.v. è(-d) 3. The ablative is used here either to refer to the
group of persons from which the witnesses rose or it has become
“frozen” to denote the special meaning of è(-d), “to come forth”.
See Falkenstein, NG I 68 f. fn. 4.
Note: [ra] probably never has a preceding pronominal element. See below 12.8.3
for the question whether other dimensional indicators could occur only with general
reference to the verb’s semantic meaning and with no (even suppressed)
pronominal element.
12.8.2.48 [mu“i]: mu-“i-in-“e “he favoured me”.