Sumerian language
Subordinate clauses

There are various ways to express subordination. Many of them include the nominalization of a finite verb with the suffix -/a/, which is also used to form participles, as shown above. Like the participles, this nominalized clause can either modify a noun, as adjectives do, or refer to the event itself, as nouns do. It usually functions as a relative clause, corresponding to an English clause with "which..." or "who...", as in the following example:

lu

man

e

house

i-n-řu-a

FIN - 3. A -build- NMLZ

lu e i-n-řu-a

man house FIN-3.A-build-NMLZ

"the man who built the house"

Like the participles, the relative clauses can describe any participant involved in the action or state expressed by the verb, and the specific participant is determined by context: e.g. 𒈬𒌦𒈾𒀭𒋧𒈠 {mu-nna-n-šum-a} can be "which he gave to him", "who gave (something) to him", etc. The nominalized clause can also be a complement clause, corresponding to an English clause with "that...", e.g. e in-řu - a (in-zu) "(he knows) that he built the house". Like a noun, it can be followed by case morphemes:

The nominalized clause can directly modify a noun expressing time such as 𒌓 ud "day, time", 𒈬 mu "year" and 𒌗 itid "month", and this in turn can then stand in the locative and ablative in the same meanings as the clauses themselves: ud e in-řu -a- a/ta "when/after he built the house". In this case, the particle -bi sometimes precedes the case morpheme: ud e in-řu -a- b a; the basic meaning is still of "when".

The nominalized clause can also be included in the various "prepositional constructions" mentioned above:

The structure is shown more clearly in the following example:

egir

back

amaru

flood

ba-ur-a-ak-ta

MID -sweep.over- NMLZ - GEN - ABL

egir amaru ba-ur-a-ak-ta

back flood MID-sweep.over-NMLZ-GEN-ABL

"after the Flood had swept over"

Several clauses can be nominalized by a single {-a} enclitic: {kaʾa ba-zaḫ engar-e nu-i-b-dab- a b-i-n-dug} "he said that the fox had escaped and the farmer had not caught it".

Participles can function in a very similar way to the nominalized clauses and be combined with the same kinds of adjuncts. One peculiarity is that, unlike nominalized clauses, they may also express the agent as a possessor, in the genitive case: 𒂍𒆕𒀀𒈗𒆷 e řu -a lugal-la "the house built by the king". However, when the head noun (e) is specified as here, a more common construction uses the ergative: 𒂍𒈗𒂊𒆕𒀀 e lugal-e řu -a.

A special subordinating construction with the temporal meaning of an English when -clause is the so-called pronominal conjugation, which contains a verb nominalized with -/a/ and following possessive pronominal markers referring to the subject (transitive or intransitive). In the 3rd person, the form appears to end in the possessive pronominal marker alone: 𒆭𒊏𒉌 kur -r a - ni "when he entered", lit. "his entering", etc. It has been suggested that these forms actually also contain a final directive marker -e; in this example, the analysis would be {kur-a-ni- e }, " at his entering". Similarly, in Old Babylonian Sumerian, one sometimes finds the locative or ablative markers after the possessive (kur -ra-n a, kur -ra-ni- ta). In contrast, in the 1st and 2nd persons, the 1st and 2nd person pronouns are followed by the syllable 𒉈 -ne: 𒍣𒂵𒈬𒉈 zig -ga-g̃u - ne "as I rose"). The verb itself may be in ḫamṭu, as in the above examples, or in marû followed by the modal/imperfective suffix -/ed/-: 𒍣𒍣𒁕𒈬𒉈 zi-zi- d a - g̃u -ne "when I rise". The same construction is used with the word 𒀸 dili "alone": 𒀸𒈬𒉈 dili-g̃u -ne "I alone", etc.

Subordinating conjunctions such as 𒌓𒁕 ud-da "when, if", 𒋗𒃻𒌉𒇲𒁉 tukum-bi "if" and 𒂗𒈾 en-na "until" also exist.
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