Lectures upon the Assyrian Language and Syllabary - Delivered to Students of the Archaic Classes (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1877 Excerpt: ...always the conditional aorist. However it is very frequently employed in the first case, when it is followed by an accusative of the object to which the action of the verb moves forward; but the third sense, that of the cohortative, to which this form of the imperfect is restricted in Hebrew, is never found in Assyrian in the indicative mood. Examples of its use occur in almost every inscription; thus we have yutsalla'a beluti-ya "he submitted to my lordship," icnusa ana neri-ya "he submitted to my yoke," sa epusa "which I made" (not "had made"), aslula "I carried off," where though no accusative follows, the idea of motion contained in the verb required this form in-a. This accusatival form in-a is not confined to the aorist but is also found in the imperative and precative (of which more further on). Here of course it has the cohortative sense which it bears in Hebrew in the case of the indicative. As has been said, the form of the tense most frequently met with in the inscriptions is the-apocopated or construct aorist; or, as it may be called from its frequency in historical narration, the aorist simply. Perhaps one reason for its obtaining the preponderance over other forms lies in its brevity, and consequent aptitude to denote vigour or reality, like the jussive in Arabic and Hebrew. At all events it tended more and more to banish the longer and more original forms and to become the type of the verb. I'need not say much of the paragogic or energetic aorist which retained the mimmation and adapted it to the expression of. energy and decision. Of course the mimmation might follow either one of the case-vowels, as abnum "I built," uselam "I caused to ascend," usarrikhim "I consecra...