SUMERIAN

LESSON 7
A correspondence between the Akkadian preposition ina and the Sumerian
locative1 and ablative was well established.
The construction is also attested with the word dili “single”: dili-ŋu₁₀-ne
“on my own, I alone”, dili-zu-ne “on your own, you alone”, see ex. (131) below,
dili-ne 2 “on his own, he alone”.
(131) Ibbi-Suen B Segment A 37 (ETCSL 2.4.5.2)
dili-zu-ne₂ maḫ-me-en
dili=zu=ne maḫ-ø=ø-me-en
single=2.SG.POSS=L4 august-TL=ABS=COP-2.SG.S
“You alone are august!
Further readings
The word class of adjectives is controversial in Sumerian. A general survey of
the word classes of Sumerian is provided by Black 2002. His arguments for
a separate word class of adjectives in Sumerian are detailed in Black 2000. He,
and also Jagersma (2010: 267–284), assume that Sumerian has a closed word
class of adjectives.
On the function of the possessor of the head of a relative clause, see Peust
2009. On the archaic locative enclitic, called here locative4, see Krecher 1993:
96–98.
Exercises
7.1 Look up the new words used in the examples of this lesson in Foxvog’s (2016b) or
Volk’s (2012) glossary, and learn them.
7.2 Study the examples of this lesson carefully and make yourself familiar with their
grammatical analysis.
7.3 Add morphological segmentation and glossing to the excerpt from a votive
inscription of Lugal-zagesi below. Translate the text with the help of Foxvog’s
(2016b) glossary. Pay special attention to the genitive constructions used in this
text, and find the constructions where the text uses suspended cliticization. Then
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