quality:correction
Number

The plural marker proper is (𒂊)𒉈 /-(e)ne/. It is used only with nouns of the animate gender and its use is optional. It is often omitted when other parts of the clause indicate the plurality of the referent. Thus, it is not used if the noun is modified by a numeral (𒇽 𒁹𒁹𒁹 lu eš "three men"). It has also been observed that until the Ur III period, the marker generally isn't used in a noun phrase in the absolutive case, unless this is necessary for disambiguation. Instead, the plurality of the absolutive participant is commonly expressed only by the form of the verb in the clause: e.g. 𒇽𒁀𒀄𒀄𒌍 lu ba- zaḫ -zaḫ -eš "the men ran away", 𒇽𒅇𒆪𒁉𒌍 lu mu-u -dab -be - eš "I caught the men". The plural marker is not used when referring to a group of people, because a group of people is treated as inanimate; e.g. 𒀳 engar "farmer" with no plural marker may refer to "(the group of) farmers".

As the following example shows, the marker is appended to the end of the phrase, even after a relative clause:

lu

man

e-a

house-in

ba-dab-a-(e)ne

MID -catch- NMLZ - PL. AN

lu e-a ba-dab-a-(e)ne

man house-in MID-catch-NMLZ-PL.AN

"the men who were caught in the house"

Likewise, the plural marker is usually (albeit not always) added only once when a whole series of coordinated nouns have plural reference:

engar

farmer

sipad

shepherd

šukuř-ene

fisherman- PL. AN

engar sipad šukuř-ene

farmer shepherd fisherman-PL.AN

"farmers, shepherds and fishermen"

Another way in which a kind of plurality is expressed is by means of reduplication of the noun: 𒀭𒀭 dig̃ir-dig̃ir "gods", 𒌈𒌈 ib -ib "hips". However, this construction is usually considered to have a more specialized meaning, variously interpreted as totality ("all the gods", "both of my hips") or distribution/separateness ("each of the gods taken separately"). An especially frequently occurring reduplicated word, 𒆳𒆳 kur-kur "foreign lands", may have simply plural meaning, and in very late usage, the meaning of the reduplication in general might be simple plurality.

At least a few adjectives (notably 𒃲 gal "great" and 𒌉 tur "small") are also reduplicated when the noun they modify has plural reference: 𒀀𒃲𒃲 a gal-gal "the great waters". In that case, the noun itself is not reduplicated. This is sometimes interpreted as an expression of simple plurality, while a minority view is that the meaning of these forms is not purely plural, but rather the same as that of noun reduplication.

Two other ways of expressing plurality are characteristic only of very late Sumerian usage and have made their way into Sumerograms used in writing Akkadian and other languages. One is used with inanimate nouns and consists of the modification of the noun with the adjective 𒄭𒀀 ḫi-a "various" (lit. "mixed"), e.g. 𒇻𒄭𒀀 udu ḫi-a "sheep". The other is adding the 3rd person plural form of the enclitic copula 𒈨𒌍 -me-eš to a noun (𒈗𒈨𒌍 lugal-me-eš "kings", originally "they (who) are kings").