Abstract
IN this interesting pamphlet the author has attempted to throw some light upon an obscure point of Assyrian grammar, which for some years past has engaged the attention of Semitic scholars, although no completely satisfactory explanation has hitherto been given of it. The point to be explained, and to which attention was first called by Dr. Flemming, is the occasional occurrence of Assyrian and Babylonian words in which the case-endings have been dropped, although the words in question are not in the construct state. The explanation which is now generally accepted, and which was first put forward by Prof. Jensen, assumes that the dropping of the case-endings was a result of the degeneration of the language, a process which finds a parallel in modern Arabic. Mr. Thompson, however, suggests that we may see in the omission of the case-endings traces of an absolute state in Assyrian, similar to that in use in Aramaic; and, assuming this to be the case, it follows that the noun with the case-endings possesses the force of the emphatic state in Aramaic, although it appears to have no equivalent for the post-positive article. Mr. Thompson has arranged his examples to illustrate the rules which hold good for the absolute in Syriac; but he does not run his theory to death, and is fully conscious that the occurrence of variants with the gase-endings shows that “the noun need not of necessity adhere to any fixed law.”
On Traces of an Indefinite Article in Assyrian.
By R. Campbell Thompson Pp. 31. (London: David Nutt, 1902.) Price 2s. 6d.
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On Traces of an Indefinite Article in Assyrian . Nature 65, 412 (1902). https://doi.org/10.1038/065412c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/065412c0