Sumerian Addenda · Signs

𒈾NA · [na] · [na]; stone in some words

stone

Where it comes from

A workhorse syllabograma sign spelling one syllable rather than a whole word — ba, du, an; the workhorse of Akkadian spelling whose pictorial past is not transparent — no story to teach. As a word it can be na₄-family “stone” in some writings; as a syllable it is everywhere, above all inside verb chains, where -na- says “for him, for her” — the dativethe grammatical case meaning "to, for (someone)" — Sumerian marks it with -ra ring of the votivegiven to a god in fulfillment of a vow — votive objects carry dedication inscriptions formula mu-na-ru, “dedicated it FOR him.”

How to remember it

A stone is what you find everywhere and build with anywhere — this sign is the script’s fieldstone, mortared into names, nouns, and verb chains alike. Small, hard, indispensable.

In the wild

Piece by piece:

• ma- — for me
• du₃ — build
• -na — this sign closing the form; its exact grammatical shade here is the grammars’ business, honestly deferred

A god asks twice for his temple, and the stone-syllable carries the asking. The dream is read in 102’s chapter 12.