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



The regular suffix of the second person is -zu, with usually ob- 

 lique -sa, as in the case of -me, -ma (see just above). But here 

 also -zu is found as both rectus and oblique, although -sa seems to 

 have been the original oblique form. Cf . ma-e eri-sa, ' I am thy 

 servant ' {-za for -zu, L., § 158) ; ga-zu-ta, ' at thy command ' (prob- 

 ably should be ga-za-ta, etc.). It is not possible to predicate a regu- 

 lar usage for -zu; -za. 



E-ne, 'he, she, it'; according to Delitzsch, § 30 = demonstrative 

 ^-[-demonstrative ne = ne, 'this.' This is clearly the same ne, 

 seen in the plural of nouns and verbs. Langdon (p. 107) thinks 

 that e-ne = 3. reduplicated ni with apocope of the first n; i. e., a sort 

 of plural form. This idea has little foundation, as the demonstra- 

 tive ^-element is well established in other forms (as, for ex., m,d-e, 

 za-e, lugal-e, the king, etc.) Poebel gives no separate form for e-ne, 

 the probability being that e-ne itself served as such. There is no 

 distinct oblique form of e-ne which is declined like a noun : gen. 

 e-ne-ge (kit) ; dat. e-ne-ra, e-ne-ir ; loc. e-ne-a, ' upon him ' (Poebel) . 



The suffix of the third person has a twofold aspect; viz., i) 

 -(a)-ni and -ni, the former being rarer in occurrence than the latter; 

 the oblique of this form is -na; and 2) -(a)-bi and -bi, the former 

 being rarer than the latter ; the oblique form of this is -ba (Delitzsch^ 

 §37). The same confusion of usage is seen here as that between 

 -mu, -ma and -zu, -za, fully pointed out by Delitzsch, § 38 ; ki-ba, ' in 

 its place ' ; hi-na, ' into his hand,' regularly oblique, but a-na^=^abusu, 

 'his father' (for a-7ii) and dam sa-ga-a-ni, 'the man of his heart,' 

 instead of -a-na, etc. As to the meaning of the -n- and -b- suffixes, 

 Langdon (p. 105) believed that -ni, -na as both noun suffixes and 

 verbal elements, originally denoted animate beings, while -bi, -ba in- 

 dicated inanimates, but the logical continuance of this theory is not 

 borne out by the facts. We may note that in one of Langdon's own 

 examples bi-e-nad-di-en, ' he slumbers,' bi-, here as verbal prefix, 

 represents an animate subject (cf . my review, AJSL. XXVIIL p. 73) • 

 Note also HT., p. 76, i and 9: su-mu-ug-ga-ni and su-mu-ug-ga-bi, 

 ' his suffering,' in both cases animate. Delitzsch, § 40, also gives 

 many examples. The suffix -ni is used for the first person in Br., 

 5334: i-de tum-a-ni ^ ublim pdniya; ud tur-ra-ni-ta = ultu um 

 cixriku, 'from the days of my youth'; lal-a-ni=candaku, *I am 



