109 DU build and the eagle.doc

The verb create and the eagles have in common the same trick

Sumerian language was very rich in nouns but had a huge problem with the creation of verbs and adjectives. It was certainly an artificial language and creating new nouns was rather easy. The trouble started with verbs. How to create verbs in an artificial agglutinative tongue? That was a huge obstacle for a scribe.

Semitic scribes made sure that Sumerian had very few words borrowed from other languages. They tried to keep the secret of Sumerian under wraps. Then how could a scribe produce new stuff out of nowhere? Semitic scribes came up with a great idea.

du [BUILD] (7061x: ED IIIa, ED IIIb, Old Akkadian, Lagash II, Ur III, Early Old Babylonian, Old Babylonian, uncertain) wr. du3 "to build, make; to do, perform" Akk. banû; epēšu

See al du[hoe], ennuĝ du[guard], gabal du[hostile], gu du[neglect], ĝeš du[copulate], ĝeštug du[listen], kiri du[pay homage to], saĝ du[beget], šu du[bind].

328 distinct forms attested; click to view forms table.

1. to build, make (7061x/100%)

~ LEX/Old Babylonian/Nippur ĝišgu-za šu-SAR-e du3-a OB Nippur Ura 1 176. ELA/ED IIIb/Girsu e2 KI-LAM-ka du3-a-ta VS 14, 003 r ii 3; e2 e2-bar dbil3-aga3-mes-še3 du3-aVS 14, 018 o ii 1; 1(bur3@c) GAN2 nigin8 ti-ra-aš2 du3-a VS 14, 072 o iii 6. ELA/ED IIIb/Nippur in-du3-a TMH 5, 076 13; giš-a du3-de3 TMH 5, 181 6. ELA/ED IIIb/Ummagag-bi kib-kib du3 RGK 20050520l r ii 4. ELA/ED IIIb/unknown kin-bi 1(aš@c) eš2 7(diš)gi la2 kuš3 1(diš) kin du3-a Nik 1, 008 r ii 2; kin i7 du3-a še-da-lum-ma GAN2 ubur2-ragal2-la-am6 Nik 1, 008 r ii 3; e-ma-du3 1(AŠ×DIŠ@t) Nik 1, 008 r iii 4. ELA/Old Akkadian/Girsu [mu e2] dnin-sun2 [uri5ki]-ma ba-du3-a RTC 265 r iii 7'; mu bad3 uri5kiba-du3-a RTC 269 4; mu e2 hur-sag ba-du3 RTC 284 6. ELA/Old Akkadian/Nippur im-ma-du3 OSP 2, 048 r i 10. ELA/Old Akkadian/Umma udu zi-ga kuš za3-šu4 kuš nu-šu4 du3-a-bi ib2-ta-zi MAD 4, 056 4. ELA/Old Akkadian/unknown u4 GAN2-ga lu2 u3-ma-a-du3-a MAD 4, 151 10. ELA/Lagash II/Girsu [mu] e2 dnin-x ba-du3 ITT 5, 06860 6. ELA/Lagash II/Nippurmu e2 muhaldim dnin-šubur ba-du3-a AOAT 025, p. 82, 11 5. ELA/Ur III/Adab mu e2PU3.ŠA-da-gan ba-du3-a MVN 03, 165 1; mu...