I am going to present the basic technique of Semitic scribes. This time a Sumerian phrase is used to imbue an Akkadian word with the meaning and its phonetic value. Usually scribes use the double switch (a Sumerian and Akkadian word exchange their respective semantic meaning and their phonetic values) but this time the Akkadian word receives both the meaning and the phonetic representation from two Sumerian words at the same time.
Proto-Semitic: *kann-at- 1 ~ *kinatt- 2
Afroasiatic etymology: Afroasiatic etymology
Meaning: 'daughter/sister-in-law' 1, 'menial' 2, (?) 'concubine' 3
Akkadian: kinattu 'menial, person of servile status attached to a household, doing agricultural and other work under supervision; person of equal social status, comrade, colleague' , from OB on (CAD k, 381; AHw, 479); kinītu 'eine Nebenfrau?' (concubine) SB (AHw, 480, not in CAD) (=qinītu 'concubine, second-rating wife' LL (CAD q, 254)
Hebrew: *kǝnāt 'Gefährte' (KB deutsch, 463)
Aramaic: Off. knt 'companion, colleage' (HJ, 520-1)
Biblical Aramaic: *kǝnāt 'Kollege' (KB deutsch, 1725)
Judaic Aramaic: knt 'colleage' (Sokoloff, 264; < Akk)
Syrian Aramaic: kǝnāt- 'collega, socius; socia' (Brock., 334; < Akk.)
Arabic: kann-at- 'belle-fille, femme du fils; belle-soeur, femme du frère' (BK 2, 932)
Tigre: kǝnto 'title for girls with the Mänsa' (LH, 416)
Notes: Considered an Akkadism in Aram.
UNIL [MENIAL] (11x: Old Babylonian) wr. UN.IL2; u2-il2; u3-il2 "a menial" Akk. kinattu
[1]
UN.IL2
[2]
u2-il2
[3]
u3-il2
3 distinct forms attested; click to view forms table.
~ LEX/Old Babylonian/Nippur uĝ3-il2 OB Nippur Lu 573. ELA/Ur III/Girsu [... u2]-il2 dnanše ninaki-ta TUT 157 r iii 4; 1(aš@c) 1(barig) 4(diš) pu2-ta-pa3-da u2!-il2 UDT 059 o i 15.unknown/Ur III/Girsu [u2]-il2 anše kunga2 dba-ba6-me DoCu 501 o iii 7; 2(diš) sila3 u2-il2 MVN 17, 059 o ii 5; 1(barig) še-ba u2-il2 SNAT 010 2.
See: ugula e UNIL; ugula UNIL.
Akk. kinattu "employee, menial".
Clearly Akk. kinattu is represented through rebus representation by Sumerian ninaki-ta
The Akkadian cognate could be a Sumerism. But what matters is the fact that the particle -ta of the Sumerian cognate agrees with the feminine -t- ending of Semitic nouns.
kalam [LAND].
uĝ [PEOPLE].
il [BASKET] (ĝešil2).
il [BIRD] (il2mušen).
il [RAISE] (il2li2).
il [TAX].
il [WORKER].
ilila [LEVER] (ĝešil2).
The Goddess Nina has been described as She who assigned the destinies of lives while swimming as a fish, and it was also said that . . . the sacred sign that spelled Her name [was] the same as the sign of the City of Nineveh. . .
The goddess Nina was initially a male mermaid god. But then the Semitic scribe attaches to the name the ending -ta in order to mark the feminine aspect of the noun.
ab [FISH] (abku6).
ab [SEA].
ab [WINDOW].
abba [FATHER].
gir [UNMNG].
(see full listing)
kud [FISH].
Also: nanše, našše, nazi, nigin6, niĝin6, nina, sirara, siraran.
dnanše ninaki-ta
AB×HA = nanše, našše, nazi = nina
ninaki > niĝin Homophones
niĝin = LAGAB.LAGAB
niĝin2 = LAGAB
niĝin3 = U.UD.KID
niĝin5 = LAL2.LAGAB
niĝin6 = AB×HA
niĝin8 = LAL2.SAR
niĝin...
illyrianka