SumerianGrammar

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CHAPTER THIRTEEN
POST-NOMINAL AND/OR POST-VERBAL PARTICLES
OTHER THAN CASE PARTICLES (5.4)
This heading is a catch-all for different kinds of particles, both nominal
and nominal/verbal (general), lacking a collective denominator.
We kept them apart from the (nominal) case particles in spite of
Attinger 1993, 260 “les postpositions ‘isolantes’” (Krecher’s term).
The particles described here cannot even be said to follow a common
morpho-syntactical behaviour pattern, because some of them may
be affixed directly to a noun, pronoun, or finite verbal form ([(e)“e],
[∞ ge“en], [nanna]), and some to a nominalized verbal form ([∞ge“en],
[ri]), while [“uba] stands apart in that it follows a noun standing in
a dimensional case (but also may be the head of a copula).
The matter is in need of more thorough treatment.
13.1. THE PARTICLE [(E)“E]
Sumerian has a suffixed quotation particle corresponding to Akkadian
-mi. [(e)“e] is a particle which may be added to both nouns and
verbs (see 4.1). It is first found in the Gudea corpus, spelled é“e(”È);
-“i occurs in Ur III, and OB and later texts (including the lexical
evidence) have -e-“e.
e-“e: mi-i KI.TA (“mi, suffixed”) NBGT I 461 (MSL 4, 147); II
13 (ibid. 149).
lú an-gin 7 ri-ba ki-gin 7 ri-ba-é“e “the person who, as you said, was
as enormous as the skies, enormous as the earth” Gudea Cyl. A v
13 (see ibid. 15).
Note: Instead of é“e, -“è was read until Thomsen 1984, 102, and it was interpreted
as the terminative case particle (“concerning . . .”).
Ur-ni 9 -∞gar-ra Ab-ba-sa 6 -ga-a kù in-da-tuku-“i mu-lugal ... ga-ab-su
bí-in-dug 4 “A declared: ‘name of the king, I will repay it by . . .’,
having said (-“i) that (U. has silver with him =) he owes U. silver”
TCL 2,2557:1–6.
ge“-nú-∞ gu 10 gub-ba-ab-zé-en ga-ba-nú-e-“e “‘set up my bed, I want
to sleep’ I said” Schooldays 15; see ibid. 26, 29, ...41.