Cuneiform 103 · Chapter 09

The stems named

Twice now this course has met a verb, called it “thickened,” and asked you to wait — chapter 05 for ubbir and uktīn, chapter 08 for ukinnū. The waiting ends here. Akkadian builds every verb from a consonant skeleton — the consonantal rootthe consonant skeleton at the heart of a Semitic word — n-d-n "give" stays fixed while vowel patterns flex around it: nadānum, iddin, inaddin chapter 00 introduced — and each way of building has a name.

Batch ten

Four ways to build a root

Take the giving-verb you have known since chapter 00: inaddin, “he shall give.” Strip away the “he” prefix and the tense-vowels, and a skeleton of three consonants remains: n-d-n, “give.” That skeleton is the consonantal rootthe consonant skeleton at the heart of a Semitic word — n-d-n "give" stays fixed while vowel patterns flex around it: nadānum, iddin, inaddin, and every Akkadian verb has one. A verbal stem is a fixed way of building flesh back onto the skeleton — and Old Babylonian uses four. The grammars name them with single letters;¹ each letter stands for something you can see on the clay and hear in your mouth.

Now watch two roots go through all four builds, side by side. The grammars demonstrate on p-r-s, “to divide — to decide a case,” and drill on m-ḫ-ṣ, “to strike” — both verbs at home in a law collection — and so will we. This is pure transcription — no signs yet, nothing to spell, just the sounds: keep your eye on the three consonants of each root, which never move, while the identical build lands on both. All the forms say “he …-ed”:

Four names, and each name says why. G is “ground” because every other build stands on it: the verb doing its plain dictionary deed, nothing added. The D doubling means thoroughness — the same deed done piece by piece, made formal; and see how it lands on whatever consonant sits in the middle: -rr- in one root, -ḫḫ- in the other. The Š form does not do the deed at all: it makes someone else do it. If that idea feels slippery, English has it too — it just needs a different word each time: the tree falls, the woodsman fells it (makes it fall); the child eats, the nurse feeds her (makes her eat). Akkadian does all of that with the one š-. And in the N build the subject is done-to — and the n- refuses to stand before the root’s first consonant, melting into it: -pp- in one root, -mm- in the other. A doubled FIRST consonant, no n in sight, is the passivea verb build that flips who suffers the action — "he kills" versus "he IS killed"; Akkadian builds it with n- in front (iddâk)’s footprint.

Say each column aloud: iprus, uparris, ušapris, ipparis — then imḫaṣ, umaḫḫiṣ, ušamḫiṣ, immaḫiṣ. Two skeletons, the same four garments.

Now the verbs you own

Hold the grid and place the real verbs from your readings onto it — each root spelled first, then the build it wears:

• n-d-n, “give,” and a-l-k, “go” — bare skeleton, “he” prefix, nothing else: inaddin “he shall give” and illak “he goes” sit in the iprus slot and its durativethe Akkadian verb shape for what happens or shall happen — inaddin, "he shall pay": the laws pronounce every sentence in it — everything chapter 05 taught. (iddi “he charged” lives there too, on n-d-i — a root whose weak tail trims the form.)
• a-b-r, “accuse” — its middle consonant is b, and the D build says it twice: ubbir, the uparris slot, and the clay writes the doubling out in full: u-ub-bi-ir — -bb- where uparris has -rr-. Not casual blame; a formal accusation. Chapter 08’s ukinnū, “established,” is the same slot on k-w-n, “be firm”: that root’s middle consonant is a weak w that slips away, so the doubling lands on the last consonant instead — the -nn- is right there in the spelling.
• w-b-l, “carry” — š- put in front: šūbilam, “send it here!,” the ušapris slot. The root’s first consonant is a weak w that the vowels close over, so ušapris’s shape surfaces as šūbil-; but the š- in front is still the entire story: make-carry. And making someone carry a thing to you is, in one word, sending for it. (The plain G of the same root, itabbal “he carries off,” walks through the exhibits just below.)
• d-w-k, “kill” — n- put in front, melting in: iddâk, “he shall be killed,” the ipparis slot. The root’s middle w is weak (it survives only as the long â), and the melted n- survives as the doubled -dd-, exactly as -pp- and -mm- in the grid: the verb flipped from doing to being-done-to, and law 1’s verdict stands in it. And here the whole system rests on one doubling: the plain G is idâk, “he kills” — say them side by side, idâk, iddâk — one held d is all that stands between killing and being killed.

And each build still tells time the way chapter 05 taught — a preteritethe Akkadian verb shape for a done deed — iddi, "he charged": simple past, one word, subject included for the done deed, a durativethe Akkadian verb shape for what happens or shall happen — inaddin, "he shall pay": the laws pronounce every sentence in it for what shall happen. Ubbir is the D preteritethe Akkadian verb shape for a done deed — iddi, "he charged": simple past, one word, subject included; iddâk the N durativethe Akkadian verb shape for what happens or shall happen — inaddin, "he shall pay": the laws pronounce every sentence in it. And uktīn? A D stem with a -t- slipped inside — the grammars build a whole wing for those infixes; this course names them where met and moves on.

Two verbs, walking

The next chapter reads a law that travels — a man walks to the river and the river decides. Its two verbs of motion are yours today, and both end on the hoe:

And the Š stem’s specimen is a whole sentence from a real letter — every sign taught, and worth the wait:

Item by item:

• šumma — “if,” straight off the stele — the law-word doing daily work, from chapter 06.
• tarammanni — “you love me”: the loving-verb in the G durativethe Akkadian verb shape for what happens or shall happen — inaddin, "he shall pay": the laws pronounce every sentence in it, ta- “you” in front, -anni “me” on the tail — the suffix family of chapter 01’s -šu, now in the first person.
• šūbilam — “send (it) here!”: the carrying-verb again — the same root as itabbal above — but built in the Š stem: cause it to be carried. An order, aimed at the reader, with the “hither” -am on the end.

One root, walking in the G and shipped in the Š, in a law and in a letter — that is the whole stem system in one afternoon. The letter itself, frame, greeting and all, is three chapters away.

Law 1, re-read with full names

You read this in chapter 06 with two verbs politely unexplained. Read it again — nothing is unexplained now:

Drill before you go on

1. Write 𒅋IL · [il] · the il- of illak, "he goes", 𒀠AL · [al] · the hoe, 𒋰TAB · [tab/tap] · two wedges side by side — a pair; to double from memory; say il, al, tab.
2. G, D, Š, or N: iddâk? ubbir? illak? šūbilam? Spell each root, then say what the letter is doing to it.
3. One root carries both itabbal and šūbilam. What changed between them, and what stayed?
4. Spell i-il-la-ak in signs, from memory.

Next: a man walks to the River, and the River answers — law 2, whole.