Cuneiform 102 · Chapter 14

A row of proverbs

Chapter 09 read two proverb lines and called them the oldest after-school sentences on earth. Schoolboys in the é-dub-ba-a did not copy proverbs one at a time — they copied them by the row, and from this chapter on, so do you. Four signs first; every one of them will have earned its seat before the row is done.

Batch fifteen

Grammar bite — the last wish-ring

Chapter 09 gave you ga- (“let me”) and ha- (“may it be”). Sumerian has one more ring in that family, and the proverbs lean on it hard: na- — “let him not,” the prohibitive. Where nu- states a fact (“he did not”), na- issues a warning (“he had better not”). Three wish-rings, one shelf: ga- volunteers, ha- blesses, na- wags a finger. The row below ends on one.

One caution before it does: this na- shares its sign with chapter 12’s -na-, “for him” — and the seat decides which is which. Chain-first, before everything, it wags the finger; tucked inside, after an opener (nu-mu-na-…), it is still the dativethe grammatical case meaning "to, for (someone)" — Sumerian marks it with -ra. The row below carries one of each, so you can watch the seats at work.

Grammar bite — the -a that makes a description

One more ring, and it is a promise being kept: chapter 08 read in-gu₇-a, “the place where the lion ate,” and left its trailing -a for later. Later is now. Hung after a verb, -a folds the whole clause into a description — “ate” becomes “who ate,” “built” becomes “built by” — a sentence collapsed into a label you can hang on a noun (the grammars file it as the nominalizera small word-part that folds a whole clause into a description or a thing — Sumerian's is -a: "ate" becomes "who ate"). And it is a different worker from the locativethe grammatical case meaning "in, on, at" — Sumerian marks it with -a -a of chapter 01: that one rides nouns and says “in”; this one rides verbs and says “who, which, where.” Two of the row’s sayings below run on it — the glutton and the honest house.

The row

A schoolboy’s exercise tablet strings unrelated sayings one after another — that is what “a row” is. Here is one such row, five sayings from four different proverb collections, each taken on its own terms. (Proverbs compress; glosses follow the corpus’s own and stay approximate where a saying is cryptic.)

The glutton. Two lines, one proverb — gluttony, then consequence:

• lu₂ gu₇-a — “the man who ate”: this chapter’s describer -a on its first outing, folding “the man ate” into a label — and leaving him hanging there, waiting for line two.
• diŋir an-dab₅-be₂ — the god, then the seizing: dab₅, this chapter’s new stem, inside a chain whose small an- opener and -be₂ ending (𒁉BI · [bi] · its/that; [bi] in a veteran’s new reading) are agreement pieces the full grammars carry. The sense needs no help: seizes.

The dog at large. From another collection entirely:

• ur — the dog, bare: no doer’s -e, because nothing is acted on — wandering just happens. Hold that thought for the next saying.
• i-im-di — the opener in its im- shape (chapter 04 taught you to spot 𒅎IM · [im] · clay; rain, storm in a chain), on di in its going-sense, per the corpus’s own gloss.

The stingy dog. A different collection’s dog, and this one acts:

• ur-e — the dog again — but wearing the doer’s -e from chapter 01 this time, because this dog does something. Two sayings, one animal: bare when he wanders, tagged when he acts — the ergativethe case marking the doer of an action verb — Sumerian tags it with -e, treating doers and be-ers differently habit, demonstrated by dogs.
• nu-mu-na-an-šum₂ — one whole chain: nu- “not” (ch. 08), mu- the homeward opener and -na- “to him” (ch. 12), a small -an- agreement piece the full grammars carry, and šum₂, chapter 11’s giving verb as the stem. Dog — to-him — gave — not: he gave him none.

The honest house.

• e₂ — the house, first: what the rest of the line describes.
• lu₂ zid-da — “an honest man”: chapter 10’s zid, “true,” with its spelling glue -da — the very pattern of that chapter’s a₂-zi-da.
• du₃-a — chapter 12’s build-stem plus the describer -a again: “a house which an honest man built” — and, the proverb implies, one that stands.

Modesty, ordered. The row’s finish, and the new ring live:

• kug-zu — “wise”: literally pure-knowing, chapter 07’s kug beside the knowing 𒍪ZU · [zu] · to know; the -zu of "your".
• nam-kug-zu — “wisdom”: chapter 03’s maker on the same word.
• na-an-ak-e — the warning: na-, this chapter’s finger-wag, the same little -an-, and ak, “to do” (ch. 02), with a final -e the grammars file with the not-yet-done. The wise — their wisdom — let them not perform it.

Five sayings, and look what they exercise between them: chapter 08’s chain rings, chapter 11’s giving verb, chapter 12’s builder, this chapter’s seize and wander and describer, and a brand-new ring — all inside jokes and warnings short enough to copy before lunch. This is why the proverbs were the school’s curriculum: every one is a grammar drill wearing a punchline.

The blessing that answers

Gi₄ means “return” — and doubled under a wish-ring, it becomes one of the warmest sentences Sumerian knows how to say:

Every ring in it is one you own, and they stack exactly in the order the course taught them: wish, dativethe grammatical case meaning "to, for (someone)" — Sumerian marks it with -ra, doubled stem. When Sumerians comforted each other, this is the sentence they reached for — “may your heart go home.”

And one horn of plenty

Si earns its seat outside the proverbs, in the register chapter 10 taught you to hear — a temple hymn praying for the flood to be generous:

Drill before you go on

1. Write 𒋛SI · [si] · horn; to fill, 𒄄GI₄ · [gi] · to return, restore; to answer, 𒁲DI · [di] · lawsuit, judgment; to speak, 𒆪KU · [ku] · to seize; to sit, dwell from memory; say si, gi₄, di, dab₅.
2. Read the row straight through, covering the glosses. Then pick your favorite and explain its grammar to an imaginary schoolmate.
3. Name the three wish-rings and give each one’s job in two words.
4. Parse ha-ma-gi₄-gi₄ ring by ring.
5. Compose, in transliterationthe sign-by-sign rendering of ancient writing in modern letters, so every sign stays accountable, a na- warning of your own against over-eating. The proverbs would approve.
6. The glutton and the honest house both carry the nominalizing -a. Point to it in each, and say in one sentence how you know neither is the locativethe grammatical case meaning "in, on, at" — Sumerian marks it with -a.

Next: the king who was born a hero — Šulgi’s own hymn, at last, with his own name in your hands.