On the Sumerian Ventive and Ientive

Abstract

In this paper, the writer aims at elucidation of the Sumerian verbal prefixes im-ma-/ im-mi- and ba-/ bí- in terms of Akkadian Ventive / nonventive and riatum/sushurtum in the Old and Neo-Babylonian grammatical texts. On analysis, it can be shown that the Sumerian verbal prefixes translated by Akkadian ventive have a relevant common feature -/m/- or /im/-, while those translated by non-ventive have a common feature /b/-. This result coincides with the usage of e-me-(>im-ma-)/ì-mi-(>im-mi-) and ba-/bi- in the Pre-Sargonic administrative texts. Thus we may safely assume that im-ma- and im-mi- have the ventive meaning “direction to the speaker”, in contradistinction to ba- and bi- which have the ientive meaning “direction away from the speaker”. And it is very probable that the infix ^*-a- which denotes ‘reflexive’ in its primary significance and the infix ^*-i- of ‘locative-terminative-directive’ gave, synchronically and diachronically, different shades of meaning to the ventive and ientive.