I9I5.] PRINCE— PRONOUNS AND VERBS OF SUMERIAN. 29 



ma-a, 'on me' (not in Delitzsch). The regular accusative is also 

 ma-a. 



Poebel (p. 42) gives mu-me-en as the full separate form of 

 7na-e, which clearly contains the first personal element m{ti) + ^w^- 

 en of the verb ' to be ' = ' it is I who am ' (cf . s.v. me-ne, ' we ') . 



The regular suffix of the first person is -mil, not to be confused 

 with the third personal -mu referred to below. It is now practically 

 established that the first and second persons suffered a change of 

 vowel in the oblique relation, and that the -rnu in such cases became 

 -ma; as e-ina, ' in my temple ' ; uru-ma, ' in my city ' ; lu gal-ma, ' for 

 my king,' etc. The difficulty in establishing any definite rule in this 

 connection lies in the fact that both mtt and ma appear indiscrim- 

 inately for both status rectus and oblique (see both Langdon and 

 Delitzsch for numerous examples). The probability is that the 

 original usage of the earlier language was mu for rectus and ma for 

 oblique, but, even in the early documents, we find the confusion of 

 forms so evident, as to make it impossible to come to a definite con- 

 clusion. The former theory that -ma was the ES. form for EK. 

 WM is undoubtedly incorrect. On -ni= i p. suffix, cf. below, s.v. e-ne, 

 ' he, she, it.' 



Za-e, 'thou,' according to Delitzsch, § 29 = ^^a -(- demonstrative 

 e, as in the case of ma-e, ' L' Similarly Langdon, p. 102, thinks that 

 sa-e represented so, but this, like ma-e^=mh, was probably pro- 

 nounced zb. (u = a-e). Za-e, like ma-e, was the invariable form of 

 the status rectus. In such phrases as kdtu amatka ^ za-e e-nim -zu, 

 ' thy word,' kdtu is really the separable pronoun in nominative ap- 

 position. Cf. the remarks above on ma-e=^iasi. Note that the 

 second personal pronoun is also given as ze, in ze-me, ' thou art ' 

 (passim) and occasionally zi-me, Br., 3387. 



The oblique of za-e is generally za; note Poebel: gen. za-a(k), 

 za-a-a{k) ; za-a-ge; dat. za-ra, za-ar; za-a-su (ku), 'unto thee' 

 and pure locative za-a, 'on thee' (Poebel), a case not in Delitzsch. 

 The oblique za is always used with the postposition as za-da, ' with 

 thee, from thee,' etc. 



Poebel gives also the separable ze-me-en, corresponding to mu- 

 me-en, 'I' (see, however, s.v. za-e-me-en, s.v. the second person 

 plural). 



