Akkadian Grammar Study Guide 016

Injunctives

• There are four tenses that together make up the injunctive “tense” (commands and wishes):
  • Imperative
    • 2nd person commands
  • Precative
    • 1st and 3rd person commands/wishes (jussive)
  • Prohibitive
    • negative commands
  • Vetitive
    • negative wishes

G Imperative

• Commands in the second person
• The Imperative is never used with a negative adverb. (Use Prohibitive below.)
• Essential form is the G preterite without the prefix

  • In most words, the theme vowel is inserted between the first two radicals.

    šakānum > iškun > *škun > šukun

    • Some exceptions where instead of the theme vowel, insert i.

• Note that the mascunine and feminine plural are the same (common plural).
• There is a Ventive ending that follows the Ventive pattern (Lesson 15).
• The Weak Verbs are predictable based on the sound patterns.

• Note: I-w adjectival verbs have no Imperatives.
• Also note that I-w verbs can behave strangely. (eg. babālum is I-w where w changes to b (imp == bil))

Precative

• Precative is a wish or command
• Occurs in 1st and 3rd persons
• Never occurs with negative adverb. (See Vetitive and Prohibitive below.)
• Formation:
  • Based on preterite
  • In 3rd person, replace prefix with li-
  • In 1CS, replace prefix with lu-
  • In 1CP, add unattached i
  • Ventive may be added as usual.

Negative Commands and Wishes

Prohibitive

• Negative command

• lā + durative

  lā tašappar do not send

• Note: ul + durative = simple negation

  ul tašappar you do no send

Vetitive

• Negative wish (less forceful than prohibitive)
• ayy- or ē- + Preterite

• Note: ayy- may be represented as a-, a-a, oa a-IA in the text.

  eg. ayy-iškun == a-iš-ku-un, a-a-iš-ku-un, a-ii(IA)-iš-ku-un

Injunctive and Purpose Clauses

• Injunctives are used in a sequence of clauses to indicate purpose.
• Generally connected by -ma
  • rarely connected asyndetically
• Frequently in letters, imperative of šapārum followed by precative: give orders that X may happen.
• When the following clauses are negative (Prohibitive or Vetitive), translate with lest.