grammatical studies in 556-500 bc

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GRAMMATICAL STUDIES
IN
THE AKKADIAN DIALECTS
OF BABYLON AND URUK
556-500 B.C.
Gwyneth Hueter
Wolfson College
Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy in the Faculty of Oriental Studies
University of Oxford
1996
Grammatical studies in the Akkadian dialects of Babylon and Uruk 556-
500 B.C.
Gwyneth Hueter
Wolfson College
Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy in the Faculty of Oriental Studies,University of Oxford
Michaelmas 1996
Abstract
Neo-Babylonian (NB) was the last surviving dialect of the Semitic language
known as Akkadian and it was still being used for the compilation of records
at the beginning of our era.
Many thousands of NB economic and legal documents and letters exist,
particularly from the sixth century B.C., yet the language is still to be studied,
as the various ways in which a word could be spelled suggested it was no
longer coherent as a language and therefore that it was not worth studying.
Aramaic was presumed to have taken over.
I have attempted to find out if this is the case by making a synchronic
grammatical study of the NB dialects of Babylon and Uruk from 556 to 500
B.C. These cities have been chosen because they have produced considerable
amounts of material. The period also spans the Persian conquest of 539 B.C.
Part one deals with syntax and morphology. Consistency of syntactical
patterns indicates that NB was a living and evolving language and that the
influence of Aramaic and Old Persian was minimal.
Part two deals with orthography and suggestions on pronunciation and
stress. The main difficulty in establishing how much NB has changed from
earlier phases of Akkadian (including earlier NB) lies in understanding how
the loss of short final vowels has changed word shape. The extent to which
words could end in consonant clusters is not clear as cuneiform is unable to
represent consonant clusters in word final position.
I conclude that the lack of difference between the NB dialects of Babylon and
Uruk suggests that efforts were being made to preserve the language and that
the scribal teaching methods must have been similar in the two cities.
Acknowledgm ents
Those who indulge in study for a doctoral thesis are on a road to personal discovery.
I would not have been able to keep to the road without the help of Jeremy Black, my
supervisor, whose knowledge of grammar, Akkadian, Sumerian and English has
guided me throughout. His work in correcting the finished piece has also been
invaluable.
In choosing a topic for the thesis I have had to change tack twice, and much has
been gained in small talk with other Assyriologists. Mark Geller in London told me
that the Kuyunjik letters had already been the subject of a thesis after I had spent
several months' work on them. Stephanie Dalley in Oxford encouraged me to
narrow the focus on the period of NB to draw from for study, at a time when I did
not yet realise how vast the amounts of available NB material were. She has also
been a great help to me in more general matters Assyriological. Heather Baker's
(Oxford) interest in the Egibi family has resulted in valuable additions to the
Babylon corpus. Eleanor Robson (Oxford) has helped me sort out computer
problems and I thank Christopher Walker of the British Museum for the use of his
cuneiform font.
After my British Academy award expired, body and soul have been kept together
by my work in the Audiology department in the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford. Many
times my colleagues have rescued me from the doldrums. They have been as
family to me.
Finally, I will be forever grateful to Jill Butler and Colin Kirk who let me use their
hotel in Ticheville, Normandy in the closed season at the end of 1993, to carry out
my undistracted analysis of the texts.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction Page 1
Part 1: Syntax and Morphology 16
chapter I: Main clauses
§ 1 Verbless clauses
a) Subject-predicate juxtaposition
b) Prepositional phrases as predicates
c) Dative pronouns as predicates
d) The pronouns su, issu etc., as predicate or copula:
i* )\ sVu..
*• \ • vv_
11) ISSU
e) ianu
§2 Predicative verbal adjectives (the "stative" or "permansive")
a) Nominal predicative forms
b) Non-active forms, describing a state or attribute
c) The pans equivalent of active transitive verbs
Note regarding isu
§3 10, the asseverative particle
i) 10 mada
ii) 10 with finite forms
§4 Commands
a) Imperatives
b) The precative lu/lu-
i) The precative of the verbless clause 10: "may it
be..."
ii) The precative with finite verbs:
c) Precative forms without a precative particle
i) The cohortative
ii) Other forms without a precative
particle
d) Ibina(mma); binanimma "give me"
e) Replacement of the imperative by the present-future
§5 Negation
a) Negation in nominal phrases and single words
b) Negation in verbal phrases
c) Prohibitions
d) la in subordinate clauses
e) Negation in questions
f) minima emphasising negation
§6 Speech and questions
a) Direct speech1
b) Questions and indirect questions
i) with question words
ii) without question words
Chapter II: Conjunctions, prepositions, adverbs and interjections; 50
expressions of time
§ 1 Conjunctions
a) Uses of coordinating u and ma:
i)"and"
ii) "but" (adversative)
iii) Purpose clauses
iv) Hendiadys
b) Disjunctive conjunctions
ii) 10, u 10
iii) 10.. .10
iv) Old
v) kl...kl, lcf...0lcf
vi) la... la and anomalies: ki sa
vii) Repetition or non-repetition (asyndetic
parataxis) of conjunctions between strings of
nouns or verbal clauses
§2 Prepositions
a) adi "until, up to (and including), by (usually with time or
a date), for (a time period)"
b) akf, occasionally ki, lama "equivalent to, according to,
(functioning) as"
c) alia "apart from, other than"; alia + etequ/ataru "to
exceed, be more than"
d) ana "for, to, as etc."
1 For indirect speech see HI §4 a, below.
U
e) arid "after"
f) asar French "chez", "belongs to"
g) assu "concerning, because of
h) bint "between, within"
i) eber "across"
j)elat "in addition to"
k) eli "on the subject of, over, against"
1) elis and saplis "above" and "below"
m) ina "on, in, by, with, from, as a result of
n) ittahu "by the side of
o) itti "(together) with"
p) itu "adjacent to"
q) kldan "outside"
r) kum "in compensation for, in exchange for, (acting) as"
s) kutalla in ina kutalla "behind"
t) libbu in ina Hbbi "in; among"
u) libbu "on the basis of, because of
v) Compounds involving mahar "facing, opposite, in the
presence of, before"
w) mala and ana mala "as much as; (quantitatively)
appropriate to; according to; any"
x) mihrat"opposite"
y) Compounds involving muhhu "up to, regarding, against,
from"
z) inapanat "before" (in a chronological sense)
aa) pa/^and compounds "before, at the time of; to have,
to belong to"; lapani "away from, against, by"
bb) qerbu "in"
cc) sa "of: the periphrastic genitive and its use instead of
the construct
dd) sa la and other words for "without, without the
permission of: salami and bal(u)
ee) tah/teh "adjoining"
ff) ultu "from, since"
§3 Adverbs and interjections
a) ahames on its own, "mutually, each other, one another"
b) ahames in combination with a preposition
c) alcanna "here"
d) akannak "there"
e) ana muhhi (Uruk) and ina muhhi (Babylon) "regarding
ui
(this)"; "therefore"
f) anin "now" (?)2
g) arid, aricu "afterwards"
h) elat, ana elat "in addition; else"
i) enna (usually as interjection) "now (then)"; adimuhhi
enna "up to now"
j) ianO"if not, otherwise"
k) ina libbi "therein, therefrom, inside"
1) inanna, eninni "now"
m) its "in addition"
n) kapdu(kabdtf) "quickly"
o) kum "in exchange"
p) malmalis "equally"
q) panat "before"
r) saddagad "last year"
§4 Expressions of time
a) um a
b) Ways of saying "daily; monthly" etc.
c) Expressing a certain date in the past or future
d) References to a certain part of the day
e) "per month; per year"
f) References to the long term future
g) "x time ago"
h) adi tuppi, adi tuppi ana tuppi, ana tuppi ana tuppi
Chapter III: Subordinate clauses 99
§ 1 Relative clauses
a) using sa as a relative particle
b) using mala
c) Some observations
d) Relative clauses without a relative particle
§2 Subordinating conjunctions
a) adi "until
b) adi la (layi?} "before", literally, "until not"
c) aricu "after"
d) asar "where, wherever; whoever"
2 See the examples and discussion in §6 b i, above (ekani, questions), suggesting that anfn
may actually mean "where?"
IV
e) assa, assa "as soon as"
f)*f "that; when"
g) libbu, in ina libbi sa
h)libbu in libbu sa
i) Compounds involving muhhu
j) panat in ina panat sa "before"
k) sa "that"
1) Om and compounds thereof, "when, as soon as"
§3 Conditional sentences
§4 The reporting of speech and oaths, using subordinating
conjunctions
a) Indirect speech3
b) Assertory oaths
c) Promissory oaths
Chapter IV: The finite verb 124
§ 1 The verbal system in the texts under analysis
a) iprus: the preterite
b) iparras :the present-future
c) iptaras
d) Verbs with the -t(a)n- infix (iptanarras)
§2 The derived forms of the verb
a) Dform
b) S form
c) Nform
§3 Irregular and rare verbs
a) usuzzu
b) Other irregular and rare verb forms:
c) Quadriliteral verbs
§4 The ventive
§5 The subjunctive
Chapter V: Nominal forms4 142
§ 1 Nouns and adjectives
a) The singular and plural of nominal forms
b) The construct
c) Participles and adjectives denoting an activity
For direct speech see I §6 a, above.
For the construct see sa in n §2, above.
d) Infinitives5
e) Abstract nouns
f) Collectives
g) Adjectives
h) kilalle
i) gabbi and kal
§2 Numbers
a) Cardinal numbers
b) Ordinal numbers
c) Fractions
d) Approximative numbers
e) The distributive adverbials AM and istena; "each
one, one each"
§3 Pronouns
a) Independent (subject case)
b) Predicative suffixes
c) Suffixed (possessive)
d) Resumptive and proleptic suffixes
e) Object (accusative) suffixes
f) Indirect object (dative) pronouns and suffixes
g) mimma, ayyu: the indefinite pronouns "whatever,
whichever"
h) ram(a)nis, ram(a)nisunetc., "oneself, themselves" etc.
i) mam(ma) "anyone)', with negative "no one"
j) Demonstratives: "Dort-Deixis"
k) "Hier-Deixis"
1) a (usually a demonstrative adjective)
Chapter VI: Other topics 177
§ 1 Comparative and intensive forms of nouns and verbs
a) Nominal forms
b) Verbal forms
§2 Impersonal subject, i.e. third-person active verbs for a
circumlocution of the passive
§ 3 a) ana and the indirect or non-direct object
b) ana as a nota accusativi
For ana + infinitive see ana in n §2, above.
VI
181
Part 2: Orthography and phonology
§ 1 Orthography: Patterns of spelling in the corpora
§2 Excursus: scribal training and its effect on the spelling. Lexical
lists and the Nabu-sa-hare exercises
§3 The spelling of finite verbs, predicative adjectives ("statives")
and imperatives
a) No final vowel
b) Short final vowel
c) Plurals of verbs with a strong final consonant
d) Plurals of final weak (indicative or subjunctive) and
singular final weak subjunctives
e) Observations on the use of > (4*-)
§4 Phonology and sound changes
§5 Comments on the pronunciation and stress of the NB of this
thesis
a) CVCV/CVCV > CVC (CVC?)
b) (C)VCCV preterites in verbs with a final weak
consonant (not plural, subjunctive or vemtive plural)
c) (C)VCCV > (C)VCVC
d) (C)VCCVCV > (C)VCCVC
e) (VC)VCCVC > (VC)VCCVC and other more complex
patterns
f) Nouns and verbs with suffixes
g) Words with suffixes of more than one syllable
Appendix to part 2: spelling patterns of finite predicative and imperative forms 205
217
Part 3: Conclusions:
§1 A summary of the main characteristics of the NB in this thesis
§2 Evidence for influence from other languages
§3 Differences between the NB of Uruk and Babylon
§4 Final remarks and the extent to which NB was still a living
language in the latter half of the sixth century B.C.
Vll