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Akkado-Assyrian grammar, vocabulary & syntax
Posted: 11 August 2009 01:51 PM   [ Ignore ]
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Akkado-Assyrian grammar, vocabulary & syntax might all be well represented here by none so widely proclaimed as right honorable virtuoso of comparative Indo-European philology himself, Oswald Szemerényi Scripta Minora: Selected Essays in Indo-European, Greek and Latin vol.1-4 with no.1-3 publ. by the University of Innsbruck, Austria 1987 who, yet able to produce three middle to neo-Assyrian examples c. 1350-600 BC in “Semitic influence on the Iranian lexicon I” Indo-European Languages Other than Latin and Greek vol.4 (ISBN 3‑85124–611‑X) Innsbruck 1991 on pp.2094-2110 with only limited disclosure, cites imperious alphanumeric letter a first on p.2105 with n.64 quoting as follows:

     kāšid . . . gimir malkū šadī u huršāni . . . gunnu Ahlamī . . . u mātātēšunu

So then for concomitant metaphrase, deferential Szemerényi has only to embrace willy-nilly The Assyrian Dictionary University of Chicago Oriental Institute, Chicago IL USA vol.5/21 1956 G sub voce “gunnu A” p.134 supplying as follows:

     “who was victorious over all the kings of the mountain regions, over the elite troops of the (nomadic) Ahlameans . . . and their countries”

Now pray indulge me here to undertake such a humble responsibility as textual elucidation myself:

1.  kāšid = “victorious” active participle of standardized Akkadian verb kašādu(m) “to conquer” status absolutus used here to import such a predicative sense as final resolution with devastating consequence.

. . . .

     “victorious . . . (sc. ‘over’) all (‘that was’) princes of steppes and mountains . . . Ahlamean elite . . . and their countries”

p.s. very special thanks & primary consideration are now then due above & beyond all else to the indispensable Akkadian Dictionary online © Association Assyrophile de France n.d.

[v. my complete post further down infra]

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1.  הכל הבל׃ hakkōl hâvel Qohelet 1:2 “all (is) vanity” KJV loc. cit.
2.  [οἱ] ἔσχατοι πρῶτοι [Textus Receptus] Mark 10:31 novissimi primi Vulg. “last (shall be) first” ibid.
3.  ’Tis the path you take in life that’s more important!  Sufi wisdom

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Posted: 16 August 2009 08:43 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 1 ]
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Stumbled on to this again.

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.........please draw me a sheep…......

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Posted: 16 August 2009 04:24 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 2 ]
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Akkado-Assyrian grammar, vocabulary & syntax might all be well represented here by none so widely proclaimed as right honorable virtuoso of comparative Indo-European philology himself, Oswald Szemerényi Scripta Minora: Selected Essays in Indo-European, Greek and Latin vol.1-4 with no.1-3 publ. by the University of Innsbruck, Austria 1987 who, yet able to produce three middle to neo-Assyrian examples c. 1350-600 BC in “Semitic influence on the Iranian lexicon I” Indo-European Languages Other than Latin and Greek vol.4 (ISBN 3‑85124–611‑X) Innsbruck 1991 on pp.2094-2110 with only limited disclosure, cites imperious alphanumeric letter a first on p.2105 with n.64 quoting as follows:

     kāšid . . . gimir malkū šadī u huršāni . . . gunnu Ahlamī . . . u mātātēšunu

So then for concomitant metaphrase, deferential Szemerényi has only to embrace willy-nilly The Assyrian Dictionary University of Chicago Oriental Institute, Chicago IL USA vol.5/21 1956 G sub voce “gunnu A” p.134 supplying as follows:

     “who was victorious over all the kings of the mountain regions, over the elite troops of the (nomadic) Ahlameans . . . and their countries”

Now pray indulge me here to undertake such a humble responsibility as textual elucidation myself:

1.  kāšid = “victorious” active participle of standardized Akkadian verb kašādu(m) “to conquer” status absolutus used here to import such a predicative sense as final resolution with devastating consequence.

2.  gimir = “all” status constructus used here with asyndetic relative clause to follow—malkū . . . u mātātēšunu “(n.b. relative asyndeton: sc. ‘that was’) princes . . . and their countries”—instead of a more common genitive case noun.

3.  malkū = “princes” nominative masculine plural of singular noun malku “king, prince” with status rectus used here instead of arguably tenable constructus just before the subsequent pair of genitive object nouns šadī “steppes” and huršāni “mountains” in order to prevent any grammatical confusion between quantitative difference—such as perhaps better illustrated through this pedagogic example: mal(i)k šadī u ḫuršāni “prince or princes of steppes and mountains” and resulting zero copula not likely then to verify plural, singular or dual number.

4.  šadī u huršāni = “steppes and mountains” just two consecutive gen. plural of nom. masc. sing. nouns šadû “mountain, steppe(land)” and ḫuršānu “mountain” respectively—but also quite possibly rhetorical hendiadys for a single, homogeneous concept “mountain regions” as provided by the exhaustive Chicago Assyrian Dictionary 1956 v. supra and so concurrent Szemerényi later in triumphal 1991.

5.  gunnu Ahlamī = “Ahlamean elite” perhaps once some loyal Asiatic cadre of renegade NW Semitic or, just to use even more ethnospecific language, Canaanite mercenaries sworn to comprise this elite tactical bodyguard.

6.  mātātēšunu = “their countries” nom. feminine plural mātāte of congruent sing. noun mātu “country” seen here in sufformative combination with 3rd person masc. pl. genitive or possessive enclitic pronoun šunu “their” probably just those very ancestral domains once belonging to foresaid Asiatic corps of mercurial retainers:

     “victorious . . . (sc. ‘over’) all (‘that was’) princes of steppes and mountains . . . Ahlamean elite . . . and their countries”

p.s. very special thanks & primary consideration are now then due above & beyond all else to the indispensable Akkadian Dictionary online © Association Assyrophile de France n.d.

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1.  הכל הבל׃ hakkōl hâvel Qohelet 1:2 “all (is) vanity” KJV loc. cit.
2.  [οἱ] ἔσχατοι πρῶτοι [Textus Receptus] Mark 10:31 novissimi primi Vulg. “last (shall be) first” ibid.
3.  ’Tis the path you take in life that’s more important!  Sufi wisdom

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