SumerianGrammar

78 CHAPTER TWELVE
sg. pl.
¢. a c
m. b c
12.4.7.
DU
tu“ durun de 6 lah 5 (DU.DU) lah 4 ( DU
)
DU
dúr durun tùmu lah 5 (DU.DU) lah 4 ( DU
)
“sit”
“carry away”
Here, the grid is divided both “horizontally” and “vertically”. The
sg. has different bases for ¢am†u and marû, and there is a base for
the plural of both ¢am†u and marû (formally related to m. sg.).
Steinkeller 1979, 55 f. fn. 6, noted that OS TU”.TU” stands for
durun x (not *durun-durun, as was supposed by Yoshikawa 1981, 115).
Note also Krecher 1995: TU”.TU” = durun x . Cf. above 12.4.2 for
Ur III TI.TI = marû [ti∞g-e].
ki-dam-A-NE-a-ti-ka ì-dú-ru-né-“a-àm [i-durun-e“-am] “they reside
with A.’s wife” NG no. 214:41.
For lah 5 and lah 4 see Steinkeller 1979, 54–67, esp. 57–60.
Whereas tu“ etc. is intransitive, de 6 etc. is transitive. With de 6 , therefore,
the absolutive to which the plurality refers is the ‘object’.
However, apart from being transitive, [lah] may occur as a passive:
ba-lah 5 “were carried away” (Steinkeller 1979, 59 f.).
Note: Steinkeller 1979, 65 compared Caucasian (Georgian, Svan, etc.) and North
American Indian languages (Athapascan, etc.) for pl. verbs implying a pl. object.
sg. pl.
¢. a c
m. b d
12.4.8.
∞gen [ere]
du su 8 (-b)
“go”
The verb “to go” presents pecularities and irregularities in so many
languages that there is no need to quote examples. It is no surprise
that “to go” holds the record in Sumerian for base variants and
that, what is more, all four are heteronymic.
The decisive study of these variants is Krecher 1967, 1–11 “Die
pluralischen Verben für ‘gehen’ und ‘stehen’ im Sumerischen”.
Pl. ¢am†u DU.DU and DU
DU
represent the same evolution of spelling
as with the pl. of gub “to stand” (see 12.4.7).