L1.5: Nominal Inflection
Contents
L1.5: Nominal Inflection#
Nouns and adjectves are congruence i.e. the match up in case, gender and number:
Note
The adjective is normally placed after the substantive.
Grammatical Case: nominative, genitive, accusative and locative and terminative.
Grammatical Gender: masculine and feminine.
Grammatical number: singular, dual and plural.
Note
There was a dual form, but already in Old Babylonian is not productuve anymore.
Grammatical Case#
In Akkadian there are three grammatical cases:
The nominative indicates the subject in verbal and nominal sentences. It has the following endings:
Number
Ending
Example
Translation
sg.
-um
šarr-um
king
du.
-ān
in-ān
(both) eyes
m.pl.
-ū
il-ū
gods
f.pl.
-um
šarrāt-um
queens
-um
ṭabūt-um
good
The genitive indicates possession. It is used after a prepostition and accompanies the status constructus. It has the following endings:
Number
Ending
Example
sg.
-im
šarr-im
du.
-īn
in-īn
n.pl.
-ī
il-ī
-im
šarrāt-im
-im
ṭabūt-im
The accusative: indicates the direct object of the verbs. It is also used in several adverbial expressions. It has the endings:
Number
Ending
Example
sg.
-am
šarr-im
du.
-īn
in-īn
n.pl.
-ī
il-ī
-im
šarrāt-im
-im
ṭabūt-im
Warning
The genitive and accusative in dual and plural have the same endings. It is also called casus obliquus or gen.-acc.
Note
There are two more cases that already in Old Babylonian are not productive anymore:
The locative has the ending -um. It is replaced by the preposition ina + genitiv. It is used mainly in frozen adverial phrases. It can be used with pronominal suffixes.
The terminative has the ending -iš. It is replaced by the preposition ana + genitive.
Case |
Noun |
Femenine |
|---|---|---|
loc.-adv. |
qatum |
into the hand |
loc.-adv. |
rittūšša (<ritt-um-ša) |
into her hand |
ter.-adv. |
ašar-iš |
to the place |
For more information 👉 GoA 28.2 and 28.3.
Grammatical Gender#
There are two grammatical genders: masculine and feminine.
Masculine
sg. no special ending.
pl. no special ending.
Feminine
sg./du. -t- or -at-
pl. -āt-
Good-to-Know
The form of the feminine is actually -at- but the short vowel a is elided:
šubtu < *šub-at-u
In the status constructus the a reappears. 👉L1.3: Status constructus - Part 1
Gender |
Number |
Case |
Substantive |
|---|---|---|---|
m. |
sg. |
nom. |
šarr-um |
m. |
pl. |
nom. |
šarr-ū |
f. |
sg. |
nom. |
šarr-at-um |
f. |
pl. |
nom. |
šarr-āt-um |
Note
Some formally masculine nouns are gramatically femenine :
Feminine |
Translation |
|---|---|
arhum |
cow |
šēpum |
foot |
ummum |
mother |
enzum |
she-goat |
nārum |
river |
For more exception to this rule 👉GoA 2.1(e).
Grammatical Number#
There are thre numbers:
Singular: no special ending.
dual: no special ending.
Note
Already in Old Babylonian the dual is not being used anymore. Its use is restricted to parts of the body that are pairs, numbers and some other nouns.
plural:
adj.m. -ūt-
n.f. -āt.
adj.f. -āt.
Gender
Number
Case
Substantive
m.
sg.
nom.
dann-ūt-um
f.
pl.
nom.
šarr-āt-um
m.
sg.
nom.
dann-āt-um
Paradigm of the Masculine Noun and Adjective#
Number |
Case |
Substantive |
Adjective |
|---|---|---|---|
sg. |
nom. |
šarr-um |
dann-um |
gen. |
šarr-im |
dann-im |
|
acc. |
šarr-am |
dann-am |
|
dual |
nom. |
šarr-ān |
dann-ūt-um |
gen./acc. |
šarr-īn |
dann-ūt-im |
|
pl. |
nom. |
šarr-ū |
dann-ūt-um |
gen./acc. |
šarr-ī |
dann-ūt-im |
Paradigm of the Feminine Noun and Adjective#
Number |
Case |
Substantive |
Adjective |
|---|---|---|---|
sg. |
nom. |
šarr-at-um |
dann-at-um |
gen. |
šarr-at-im |
dann-at-im |
|
acc. |
šarr-at-am |
dann-at-am |
|
dual |
nom. |
šarr-at-ān |
dann-āt-um |
gen./acc. |
šarr-at-īn |
dann-āt-im |
|
pl. |
nom. |
šarr-āt-um |
dann-āt-um |
gen./acc. |
šarr-āt-im |
dann-āt-im |
Mimmation vs. Nunnation 🧑🏫
The endings for the singular in the status rectus contains the element -m and is called mimation. It begins to desappear already in the old Babylonian period, later on completely. For more details see ABG §46; GoA 24.4.There is also the ending -n for the dual called nunation.