SumerianGrammar

72 CHAPTER TWELVE
sg.
pl.
¢.
m.
For details on the categories ¢am†u and marû see 12.2.
The surrounding (i.e., prefixed and suffixed) verbal particles present
an enormous variety, and they may be classified, in diminishing
distance, or rank, from the base:
a) the particle [ed], suffixed, compatible only with the marû base.
b) ergative and absolutive markers, both prefixed and suffixed.
c) prefixed markers of dimensional reference, ranked in the sequence
(from right to left) locative 2, directive, terminative, ablative(-instrumental),
comitative, dative, locative. These partly have person or
non-person reference. The first-to-the-left of these, moreover, may
imply motion or absence of motion.
d) prefixed markers of connection, negation, and of diverse positive
or negative modalities.
e) and f ) nominalizer [a] and copula [am], both suffixed.
Whereas the variation of the string of suffixed particles is limited, the
“prefix string” offers an astounding number of variants, since up to
5 particles may appear in a row, e.g., enim hu-mu-na-ni-ib-ge 4 -ge 4
[hu-mu-na-ni-b-gege] “the word—verily—ventive—dative (to him/
her)—directive/causative—absolutive (it)—make return (marû base)—
(ergative: he/she)” = “he/she verily answers him/her thereupon”.
Heimpel, in his 1974 count of OB “prefix chain” variants, added
up to 1264; this figure may now easily be raised to about 1300–1400.
For the pre-Ur III period Heimpel offered 122, for the Gudea corpus
154 “prefix chains”.
Note: For the sake of comparison, compare the “prefix chains” in modern Basque
(Guipuzcoan), a language structurally comparable to Sumerian: 537 Variants are
listed in J. L. Mendizabal, La lengua vasca, 2 1959 [Buenos Aires] 353–69.
Let it be borne in mind, however, that in modern French, if we
arrange all possible combinations of bound elements je with me, te,
le, la, nous, vous, les, lui, leur, en, y, each in the positive and negative,
e.g., je te le dis etc., we arrive at about 80 forms. In fact, jene-lui-en-ai-rien-dit
“I did not tell him/her anything about it” is as
complex a verbal form as many in Sumerian.