Sumerian Addenda · Signs

in-

Name	IN
Reads	[in]
Means	[in]; the verbal prefix in-
Taught in	08 · The chain grows rings

Where it comes from

The syllable in — above all as the verbal prefix in-, the plain “he/she/it did” opener of thousands of administrative and literary lines alike. No picture to lean on; its whole story is the front seat of the verb.

How to remember it

In- gets the verb going the way a key turns a lock: the sentence’s doing starts the moment you read it. Where the chain opens with these wedges, someone has already acted.

In the wild

𒆠 𒌨 𒈤 𒂊 𒇽 𒅔 𒅥 𒀀ki ur-mah-e lu₂ in-gu₇-a"the place where the lion ate a man"

Proverbs: collection 5, composite text. urn:nabu:etcsl:6.1.05:D.5.67.31 · license: ETCSL · non-commercial.

Piece by piece:

ki — the place
ur-mah-e — the lion (literally “great dog”), marked as doer
lu₂ — a man
in-gu₇-a — ate: this sign opening the verb, -a wrapping the clause into “where”

A proverb’s scene of the crime, and the verb starts on in-. The line is read in 102’s chapter 08.