28 PRINCE— PRONOUNS AND VERBS OF SUMERIAN. [April 23, 



new vocabularies published in Arno Poebel's " Grammatical Texts, "^ 

 with the main conclusions of which the present writer is forced to 

 disagree, as the material offered by Delitzsch, Langdon and Prince 

 seems to disprove Poebel's chief thesis of the hidden vowel of the 

 first person. 



I. 



Separable Pronouns. 



Ma-e, 'I,' according to Delitzsch, § 28 = ^-^itt + demonstrative -e. 

 Langdon, p. 102, thinks that ina-e was pronounced nio, as he regards 

 a-e as a diphthong, indicating an Umlaut. This is possible, espe- 

 cially as the writing me-a=ianaku, 'I,' also occurs. The pronun- 

 ciation was more likely mo than mo. The form ma-e was invari- 

 ably used for the status rectus; note that in such cases as IV. R. 17, 

 40-41; ma-e mii-nn-si-in-gi-en^=iasi ispuranni, 'he has sent me,' 

 the ma-e is really a status rectus in prolepsis and not an accusative, 

 which would be regularly represented by the oblique ma (see just 

 below). It is interesting to notice that Delitzsch gives me-e in- 

 stead of ma-e as the usual form, which is again an indication that 

 ma-e was not pronounced in two syllables, but really indicated an 

 Umlaut. Delitzsch is, therefore, probably right in supposing that 

 the writing ma-e really indicated original ma, the element of the 

 first person, -\- the indicative e. All authorities are agreed that a-e 

 may represent e or o (cf. Delitzsch, § i8b). 



The oblique form of ma-e is generally ma, as Poebel : gen. ma-a- 

 (k) ; cf. ma-a-kam, 'it is mine,' Poebel, p. 43; ma-a-ge-es ge-ti^= 

 assum^ia liblut, ' for my sake may he live.' The Dative is regular : 

 ma-a-ra, ma-ra, ma-a-ar (passim). In the locative, Poebel finds 



1 The following abbreviations have been used : AJSL : " American Jour- 

 nal of Semitic Languages "; ASKT. =^ Paul Haupt, " Akkadische iind Sumer- 

 ische Keilschrifttexte " ; Br. = R. Brunnowr, " Classified List of Cuneiform 

 Ideograms," Leyden, 1887; Del. = Delitzsch : Friedrich Delitzsch, " Sumer- 

 ische Gramniatik," Leipzig, 1914; EK. = £OT(?-/eM dialect; 'ES.^ Eme-sal dia- 

 lect ; HT.= ASKT. ; JRAS. XVII. = " Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society," 

 quoted Poebel, pp. 63 ff ; Langdon = Stephen Henry Langdon, " Sumerian 

 Grammar," Paris, 1911; MSL. = J. D. Prince, "Materials for a Sumerian 

 Lexicon," Leipzig, 1908; P. ^ Poebel : Arno Poebel, "Grammatical Texts," 

 Philadelphia, 1914; P. AO. 5403: quoted, Poebel, pp. 62-63; P. 142: quoted, 

 Poebel, pp. 57 ff ; PSBA. = " Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeol- 

 ogy"; Sfg. := Paul Havipt, " Sumerische Familiengesetze." 



