Sumerian Addenda · Signs
rope
| Name | EŠ2 |
|---|---|
| Reads | [še] |
| Means | rope; the terminative -še3 |
| Taught in | 01 · The sentence in the clay |
Where it comes from
The sign lists give the picture as a rope (stated, not certain). Its grammar job is what the courses lean on: -še3, the terminative tag — “to, toward, for the purpose of.” It closes countless dedications: nam-ti-la-ni-še3, “for his life.”
How to remember it
A rope ties one thing TO another — which is exactly what the tag does: it ropes a phrase to its goal. Four wedges, a short lasso thrown toward a purpose.
In the wild
urn:nabu:cdli:p216741 · license:
attribution.
Piece by piece:
- nam-ti — life, the abstraction of living
- -la-ni — his, with a spelling-glue syllable
- -še3 — for: the rope tying the whole gift to its purpose
Why build a temple? For his life — and the rope-sign makes the purpose stick. The formula is read in 102’s chapter 11.