SumerianGrammar

SUBSTANTIVES
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often in pre-Sargonic and Ur III debt documents (for the verbal
prefix a(l)- see 12.10).
An d Inana-da húl-a-e “An, rejoicing over Inana” Inana and Ebih 61.
Note: For var. see Jaques n.d. II 216.
bala-nam-lugal-la-∞gá 3 “e:gur-ta ...kù-babbar 1 gín-e hé-eb-da
(-n)-sa 10 “during my royal office one shekel of silver (bought with
it =) could buy three kor of barley each” Sin-kà“id 13:11–19, and
see nos. 8, 10, etc. (RIME 4, 460).
There are two special functions of the comitative:
(a) Our idea of “without” is expressed by X-da nu-me-a “not being
with X”, e.g., ∞gá-da nu-me-a “not being with me” = “without
me” in the sense of “without my permission”; cf. the PN Ninda-nu-me-a
“Without the Lady”, being a hypothetical question,
to be continued by something like “is there anything possible”
(e.g., Struve 1984, 138).
Note: In early OS, the PN Di∞gir-da-nu-me-a is noted as Di∞gir-nu-me, e.g., WF
p. 26* n.v. “ d Nu-me”.
Note: A similar idea underlies English “with-out”, Russian vne “in not”, or
German children’s “mit ohne” for “ohne”.
(b) áb amar-bi-da “the cow with its calf ” expresses an idea closely
related to, or even identical with, “the cow and (the) calf ” (note
the interchangeability of “chicken with/and rice”). Sumerian lacks
a word for “and” and, at the latest in NS, borrowed Akkadian ù.
Note: For the X Y-bi-da construction cf. Turkish Leyla ile Mecnun “with L.,
M.” = “Mecnun and Leyla”. For the borrowing of “and” see above 4.2 (7).
The combination -bi-da has a variant -bi which also occurs in lexical
lists (cf. bi = ù MSL 4, 195:159; bi = ù, qa-[du] MSL 4, 175:215
(NBGT); bi, bi-da = ù MSL 4, 137:203 f. (NBGT).
OS Ent. 28–29 i 5–6 d Nin-∞gír-su d ”ara-bi(-r) “to Nin∞girsu and
”ara”.
Poebel 1923, 147 f.
5.4.2.7. Ablative-instrumental
The ablative-instrumental case particle is expressed by [ta] which,
at least in our Latin transliteration, is phonologically clearly differentiated
from comitative [da]. It only occurs with non-person class
nouns and, therefore, cannot occur with pl. [(e)ne].
Its functions are to indicate the starting point from which someone
or something comes from or by means of which (instrumentally)