Cuneiform 103 · Chapter 15

It has happened

Chapter 05 gave you two tenses — 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 — and chapter 09 slipped past a -t- with a promise: named where met. You have met it five times since. The waiting ends here too.

Batch sixteen

The third tense

Akkadian has one more tense, and it does not say merely “it happened.” It says “it has happened — and here we stand”: the deed done, and still on the table. The grammars call it the perfectthe Akkadian verb shape for what HAS happened — a -ta- slipped in after the first root consonant: iptaras "he has decided", uḫtappid "he has blinded"; the laws use it for the newest deed in a chain,¹ and its signature is a -ta- slipped in right after the root’s first consonant. Watch it join the two tenses you own, on the model roots — pure transcription first, as ever:

Say the new row aloud: iptaras, imtaḫaṣ. Same skeleton, same “he” prefix — only the little -ta- of the record, pressed in behind the first consonant.

The melody you have been reading all along

Why a third tense? Listen to how a law talks. In the if-clause, the deeds pile up in the preteritethe Akkadian verb shape for a done deed — iddi, "he charged": simple past, one word, subject included; the LAST deed — the one that seals the case — takes the perfectthe Akkadian verb shape for what HAS happened — a -ta- slipped in after the first root consonant: iptaras "he has decided", uḫtappid "he has blinded"; the laws use it for the newest deed in a chain; then the verdict speaks in the durativethe Akkadian verb shape for what happens or shall happen — inaddin, "he shall pay": the laws pronounce every sentence in it. You have been reading that melody since law 1:

• ubbir — “he accused”: preteritethe Akkadian verb shape for a done deed — iddi, "he charged": simple past, one word, subject included, the deed;
• lā uktīnšu — “he has NOT convicted him”: perfectthe Akkadian verb shape for what HAS happened — a -ta- slipped in after the first root consonant: iptaras "he has decided", uḫtappid "he has blinded"; the laws use it for the newest deed in a chain, the proof that seals it;
• iddâk — “he shall be killed”: durativethe Akkadian verb shape for what happens or shall happen — inaddin, "he shall pay": the laws pronounce every sentence in it, the sentence.

Deed, proof, sentence. And now uktīn itself, the word chapter 05 called “thickened” and chapter 09 left half-named, opens like a puzzle-box: it is the establishing-verb in the D stem — doubling hidden in the weak root, as chapter 09 warned — AND in the perfectthe Akkadian verb shape for what HAS happened — a -ta- slipped in after the first root consonant: iptaras "he has decided", uḫtappid "he has blinded"; the laws use it for the newest deed in a chain, the -ta- squeezed thin: u-k-t-īn. Every piece of it something you now own. The same is true across your readings: uḫtappid “he has blinded” (chapter 11) is a D perfectthe Akkadian verb shape for what HAS happened — a -ta- slipped in after the first root consonant: iptaras "he has decided", uḫtappid "he has blinded"; the laws use it for the newest deed in a chain with its -ta- in plain sight; iktašassu “it has overwhelmed him” and ištalmam “he has come out safe” (chapter 10) are G perfectsthe Akkadian verb shape for what HAS happened — a -ta- slipped in after the first root consonant: iptaras "he has decided", uḫtappid "he has blinded"; the laws use it for the newest deed in a chain, the -ta- colored by each root’s vowel.

Sixty for a slap

One law carries the whole lesson — and the striking-root of your drill grid steps off the page into the corpus. A man strikes the cheek of his better; the assembly answers:

Item by item:

• lēt awīlim — “the cheek of a man”: lētum, the cheek, stripped to its construct to bind with the next noun — chapter 03’s build, on a body part.
• ša elīšu rabû — “who is above him”: the hinge-word ša opening a description, and eli — “over” — doing comparison’s work: over-him great = greater than he. Rank, in three words.
• imtaḫaṣ — “he has struck”: the perfectthe Akkadian verb shape for what HAS happened — a -ta- slipped in after the first root consonant: iptaras "he has decided", uḫtappid "he has blinded"; the laws use it for the newest deed in a chain of the striking-root, -ta- visible between the m and the ḫ, and the new bear-sign closing it. The deed of record.
• ina puḫrim — “in the assembly”: puḫrum is where the city’s elders sit; the sentence is carried out before every eye.
• 1 šūši immaḫḫaṣ — “sixty he shall be struck”: šūši is sixty, the scribes’ round number — the same sixty that still divides your hour — and the verb is the SAME root flipped passivea verb build that flips who suffers the action — "he kills" versus "he IS killed"; Akkadian builds it with n- in front (iddâk) in the durativethe Akkadian verb shape for what happens or shall happen — inaddin, "he shall pay": the laws pronounce every sentence in it: n- melted in, middle doubled. Chapter 09 built immaḫiṣ as an exercise; the stele pays it out in real strokes.

One root, full circle: imtaḫaṣ the deed, immaḫḫaṣ the sentence — G perfectthe Akkadian verb shape for what HAS happened — a -ta- slipped in after the first root consonant: iptaras "he has decided", uḫtappid "he has blinded"; the laws use it for the newest deed in a chain at the top of the law, N durativethe Akkadian verb shape for what happens or shall happen — inaddin, "he shall pay": the laws pronounce every sentence in it at the bottom, sixty lashes apart.

The bone law’s verbs, in signs

Chapter 11 gave you law 197 in sound alone, and its verbs can now stand in signs — every sign taught:

The bone-word between them is one chapter away. When it arrives, the law will owe you nothing.

Drill before you go on

1. Write 𒊍AZ · [as/az] · the bear in the lists; one sign for three tails — as, az, and the pressed aṣ from memory; say as, az, and the pressed aṣ.
2. The three tenses of m-ḫ-ṣ, from memory: imḫaṣ, imaḫḫaṣ, imtaḫaṣ — say what each build did.
3. uktīn — stem, tense, and why its doubling hides.
4. Spell im-ta-ḫa-aṣ in signs, from memory.
5. Law 1’s chain — ubbir, uktīn, iddâk: name each verb’s tense and hear the melody. Deed, proof, sentence.

Next: the eye, the tooth, and the bone — the famous laws priced by rank, and a promise paid in signs.