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Neo-Babylonian ba-ga-ni(-'). I

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Extract

In an article by W. Eilers, entitled “Eine mittelpersische Wortform aus frühachämenidischer Zeit ?” (ZDMG., 90, 160 ff.), it is contended that already by the end of the sixth century B.C. the nominal inflexions of Old Persian had completely disappeared from the Persian spoken language, in contradistinction to the literary language of the Achsemenid inscriptions. The author's arguments are based entirely upon his own novel interpretation of two short passages contained in Neo-Babylonian private letters of the time of Darius I, which are to all intents and purposes identical the one with the other, and which may be provisionally transliterated:—

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1937

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References

page 342 note 1 We occasionally meet with verb-forms in final i-' that might at first sight seem to contradict the statement that the termination-' is never found after the short final i of verbs tertiae infirmae. In Ebeling, op. cit., 317,Google Scholar 10, we have, for example, a 2nd masc. sing. preterite written tad-ki-', whereas in ibid., 25, 6, it is written ta-ad-ki. Since these two forms are masculine the i must be etymologically short; so the -' in tad-ki-' might seem to violate our principle. This is only apparent. For whereas ta-ad-ki is according to its context indicative, tad-ki-' is in a context that obviously requires the subjunctive (ša-pi-ri-u-tu ša tad-ki-'). Therefore tad-ki-' must be understood as a secondary formation to the older contracted tad-ku-u (ibid., 48, 25), which is due to analogy with the indicative; that is to say, tad-ki-' ═ tadki + '(u), the subjunctive afformative u being sufficiently indicated by-'; just as it is in forms like il-lak-' ═ illaku (see above). Similarly, in ibid., 58, 28, we have a 3rd masc. plur. permansive written mi-si-', in contradistinction to the singular mi-si (ibid., 17, 17), which is a secondary formation to the older contracted mi-su-u (passim); that is to say, mi-si-' ═ misi + '(u), like the common e-tir-' ═ etiru. Such secondary uncontracted forms are also found spelt somewhat differently, e.g. for iqabbū we find i-qab-bi-'-u and i-qab-bi-a; for iqabbā,i-qab-bi-'-a and i-qab-bi-a (cf. Ylvisaker, § 30). The existence of such secondary uncontracted forms need not surprise us; for exactly parallel phenomena are found in other Semitic dialects (see Brockelmann, op. cit., i, § 271). A full discussion of such forms will be published elsewhere.