FfiBBUAKT, 1875.] SKETCH OF SAM AN GRAMMAR, 33 Nouns. The nouns, to which also the Infinitives of verbs belong, are sometimes simple, and some- times augmented by the addition of certain letters internally or externally to the roots. Nouns of simple formation are extremely numei'ous : hm, 10% rrzn, n , hrix, fv, hrii, rpn ; with the feminine termination nrrn, rns ; with j termination : jto,
- -■"
- , pfr, fifa ;teJ, rrr.
As prefixes to substantives, the letters n, n (Mnu«an dial.), v, and n are used, e.g. T.m, tape nsT-a, men, nro, m?n (Mm. rrfhc), nvfcn, csferi. The two last forms are derived from ^trr and Srcn respectively. For the proper nouns the most frequent prefixes are ** and *, e.g. -d-w, rnrTw, y%n ; conf. Heb. hztm and Phoenician pew ; the forma- i !i ■ is hi ill more often used : arrr or cw, (JFV. No. liv. 1 ; xl. 1), s-ett or rer (Os. vm. 10), en* (Os. vm. I), aw (Os. xxxv. 1), hhv (Os, xxsv. 5), hear (^V. 2?. 1, 1), a formation identical with the Hebrew pny, ajar, nnr. While •, properly speaking, expresses the third person masculine, the prefix n designates the feminine gender ppn (H. 686, 5 ; Os. xxxi. 5) for the masculine rp : thus the name of the town arm in the Khanliin, built at the foot of Mount Yina'm, » is formed. A similar formation occurs in -q-ct, the Semitic name of Palmyra. The prefix : occurs in the divine name (=)m3: (H. 189, 1, <ic.), and is derived from the voice , / B in , like the Hebrew %taj. This formation is very eommon in Assyrian.* The principal letters entering into the body of the root are n, :, 1, and « ; the n is inserted chiefly in nouns and infinitives derived from the h?rz • '".>]■ rro (//. 471, •!•)-, the 3 occurs in (c):n:n (H. 157, 11-12), which is also written nsm (Ibid. 1) ; at present, however, Halevy be- lieves the lection of the last-mentioned word to be falsi;, and that it is always to be read axan- The > occurs in ppro (Os. xvn. 1) ; yod appears in rrarn (Qt. i. 1) and was probably also pro- nounced in nron = **i^ (//. 588) ; the inser- tion of the letters 1 and • after the second radi- cal is interesting, — e.g. rms Sindh (rjj*) tu 1 Himyar(j&*-)i perhaps also 3-10 Mar- x/aba (Ft. No. li*., lvi.) may be added. The existence of a diminutive hi Sabamn is attested by the pronunciation XtSXaj^ae, rta (=V^)» handed down by the author of the ' us. Our texts present the form ana J< (arawajj D. 48, 12), the diminutive of a-o ; but the noons (c)np (0*. xm. 1) and errcx (Os. xi. 1) do not indicate it with certainty, because it is possible that they were pronounced Qaryan, >', according to the analogy of -nan, of which, however, there is little probability. In the adjectives all the external formations . . . S 'u /■ existing in Arabic also occur : (a)-rot, (= a**-*") = /' nra ( z 3 y> ) mro ( ±*y° ), naparta (II. 202, 1) ; as to the words -ua (Os. xxxv. 5), a-? (Os. at. 8), fm (Os. XX. 7-8), it is doubtful whether they were pronounced kebtr, qarib, rahiq, as the Arabic di*', or whether the pronunciation was kobur % qarub,rahuq t a& in Ethiopic- The active participle w: was certainly pronounced tie (i fashion, shdni ( ij ***) - Both pronunciations must have existed simultaneously, since the words adduced above, ma and tot, may be derived only from the forms hw and Vise ; also the proper nouns -1133 and i-wina (?) may be mentioned. The denominative adjectives are formed by the addition of an j, e.g. yiv (H. 257, 3) ,( east- ern" from pro "east." The gentiUtia termi- nate with yod, e.g. (;)«o (Os. xxvn, 3) ' Saba3an,' (j)ttq (Os. xxvn. 1) 'Minrean/ (]>aano (H. 144, G-7), 'he of ciaro,' (j>33 (//. G82, 3), she (/) of 12, (;)ro:rr (H. 682, 1-2), she of -m, the people called Anachitae. In Sabasan, as in Arabic, there are three num- bers. The dual is formed by the addition of the letters tj which represent the abbreviation of the numeral <afi, Phcon. (n).«tj, Heb. (=) m ~n I tt fi20 t 10^»$D :n (//. 353,4), OTvn 'doublegift' (J. 259, 4), (jn)wBm (/7. 535, 1). The ; may also fall away, leaving only the yod, which was pro- bably pronounced e, and in this manner the yod is also to bo read in nop 'heaven,' which, is the root of the divine name >racn, the Baalsamm of the Phoenicians. This abridged form is adopt- ed in all the Semitic languages which possess the dual, e.g. Phcen. (a)sc samem. Hob. (a)<oo (a)»QV 4 two days/ Arabic ^rf* f,. This ap- pearance of the organic and consonantal form in the Salxean dual upsets the opinion broached by some grammarians, according to which the Semitic dual is only the accusative plural of the Arabic declension ; it is now clear that the dual, Oppert, Assyrian Grammar, pp. 100-1 1)1.
