SumerianGrammar

CHAPTER EIGHT
RESUMING THE SEQUENCE OF PARTICLES FOR
POSSESSION, NUMBER AND CASE
In Sumerian ses-∞gu 10 -(e)ne-r(a) “to my brothers” exhibits a sequence
possessive—number—case whose particles cannot switch in rank one
with another.
Note: Demonstrative particles (see 7) are not included here. They most probably
share the rank with possession.
For the sake of comparison, examples are given for Turkish, Mongolian,
Hungarian, and Finnish:
Turkish: karde{-ler-im-e “to my brothers” (brother—pl.—poss.—case).
Mongolian: (minu) aqa-nar-dur “to (my) brothers” (brother—pl.—case).
Hungarian: barát-a-im-nak “to my brothers” (brother—pl.—poss.—
case).
Finnish: talo-i-ssa-ni “in my houses” (house—pl.—case—poss.).
These few examples may show that there is no “universal” rule, in
agglutinative languages, for the hierarchy of the suffixed morphemes
used to express possession, number, and case.