SumerianGrammar

24 CHAPTER FOUR
conjunctions, (8) interrogations. All these occur as “words” (see our
definition above) and may be found as entries in lexical texts. (1) to
(4) may be combined with bound particles (prefixes, suffixes): nominal,
verbal, and common. (5) to (8) do not combine with particles.
(1) to (3) may be opposed to (4) as nonverbal to verbal categories.
Parts of speech can be identified exclusively on context. There is
no way to tell by the form of the base alone whether we are faced
with a noun (dur, tur), a verb (gur), or some other part of speech.
A further subdivision of (1) nouns into (1a) substantives and (1b)
adjectives is not unproblematic. On the one hand, sikil “pure” cannot
form a plural *sikil-e-ne “the pure ones” whereas it may be followed
by the plural of the copula: sikil-me-e“ “they are pure”. For
“the pure ones” a nominal head would be needed: lú-sikil-e-ne “the
pure persons”. On the other hand, sikil following a nominal head,
e.g., ki-sikil “(pure place =) girl, young woman” behaves exactly like
an apposition and, as such, may take on all nominal particles.
For practical reasons, we will make the distinction between substantives
and adjectives. As a guide-line of high antiquity we may
again take the fact that certain Sumerian nouns are entered in lexical
lists as Akkadian substantives while others are rendered by
Akkadian adjectives. In Akkadian itself, the differentiation of substantives
and adjectives is unproblematic on both morphological and
syntactical grounds.
(1a) The substantive has the following grammatical categories: class
(person, non-person), number (singular, non-singular, plural, collective,
detailed, etc.), case (absolutive, ergative, genitive, dative, locative,
ablative, comitative, terminative, directive, equative), possession
singular: 1 st , 2 nd , 3 rd person: person and non-person class; plural: 1 st ,
nd
2 , 3 rd person: person class only.
These grammatical categories—apart from class—are realized by
the suffixation of particles.
The substantive may form part of quite intricate appositional and
genitive constructions. It may be followed by adjectives. Some substantives
may be repeated (“reduplicated”, e.g., énsi-énsi “all of the
city rulers”), but we cannot as yet establish whether reduplication
was open to any substantive or subject to restrictions.
Substantives and adjectives may take the prefixed particle nam-,
serving to express an abstract concept: nar “musician”, nam-nar
“music”, mah “very big”, nam-mah “greatness”.