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I am going to present the basic technique of Semitic scribes. This time a Sumerian phrase isused to imbue an Akkadian word with the meaning and its phonetic value. Usually scribes usethe double switch (a Sumerian and Akkadian word exchange their respective semanticmeaning and their phonetic values) but this time the Akkadian word receives both the

meaning and the phonetic representation from two Sumerian words at the same time.

Proto-Semitic: *kann-at- 1 ~ *kinatt- 2Afroasiatic etymology:Afroasiatic etymology

Meaning: 'daughter/sister-in-law' 1, 'menial' 2, (?) 'concubine' 3Akkadian: kinattu 'menial, person of servile status attached to a household, doingagricultural and other work under supervision; person of equal social status,comrade, colleague' , from OB on (CAD k, 381; AHw, 479); kinitu 'eine

Nebenfrau?' (concubine) SB (AHw, 480, not in CAD) (=qintu 'concubine, second-rating wife' LL (CAD q, 254)Hebrew: *k nt 'Gefhrte' (KB deutsch, 463)Aramaic: Off. knt 'companion, colleage' (HJ, 520-1)Biblical Aramaic: *k nt 'Kollege' (KB deutsch, 1725)Judaic Aramaic: knt 'colleage' (Sokoloff, 264; < Akk)Syrian Aramaic: k nt- 'collega, socius; socia' (Brock., 334; < Akk.)Arabic: kann-at- 'belle-fille, femme du fils; belle-soeur, femme du frere' (BK 2,932)

Tigre: k nto 'title for girls with the Mnsa' (LH, 416)

Notes: Considered an Akkadism in Aram.

UNIL [MENIAL] (11x: Old Babylonian) wr. UN.IL2; u2-il2; u3-il2 "a menial" Akk. kinattu

[1] UN.IL2

[2] u2-il2[3] u3-il2

3 distinct forms attested; click to view forms table.

1. a menial(11x/100%)

~LEX/Old Babylonian/Nippuru3-il2 OB Nippur Lu 573. ELA/Ur III/Girsu [... u2]-il2dnaneninaki-ta TUT 157 r iii 4; 1(a@c) 1(barig) 4(di) pu2-ta-pa3-da u2!-il2 UDT 059 o i

15.unknown/Ur III/Girsu [u2]-il2 ane kunga2dba-ba6-me DoCu 501 o iii 7; 2(di) sila3 u2-il2 MVN 17, 059 o ii 5; 1(barig) e-ba u2-il2 SNAT 010 2.

7/27/2019 102 Nina Mermaid Daughter in Law

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gir14

gir [UNMNG].ha

(see full listing)ku6

kud [FISH].

ABHA

Also: nane, nae, nazi, nigin6, niin6, nina, sirara, siraran.

dnane ninaki-taABHA = nane, nae, nazi = nina

ninaki > niin Homophones

niin= LAGAB.LAGABniin2= LAGABniin3= U.UD.KID

niin5= LAL2.LAGABniin6= ABHAniin8= LAL2.SARniin9= LAL.SARniinx= BULUG

What matters is not the origin of the name of Akk. kinattu or Sumerian ninaki-ta. What reallycreates another case of a wide spread pattern of Sumerian (Semitic) scribes is their techniqueof switching phonetic values of a Semitic word to Sumerian or vice versa by means of relationof that word to another.

Sumerian [... u2]-il2dnane ninaki-ta = Akkadian "employee, menial".Sumerian [... u2]-il2 gives Akkadian kinattu the meaning [people - worker] while Sumerianninaki-ta gives the Akkadian word its phonetic representation.