No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Three Assyrian Roots
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
Extract
In the Annals of Ashurbanipal (Rassam Cylinder, col. iv, 1. 85) for attaddi ana nakamāti Streck adopts the variant at-ta-ad-di a-na ka-ma-a-ti, which he translates “ich warf sie auf den Maueranger”. He apparently follows Delitzsch (Ass. Handw.,p. 334, col. ii) and Muss-Arnolt (Lexicon, p. 399) in taking kamâtu as the plural of a noun kamātu, outer gate (Jensen, K.B. vi, 496), derived from kamû, to bind, to surround. Now there is here a variant reading na-ka-ma-a-ti, heaps, which gives the preferable sense “I cast them forth in heaps”. It has therefore occurred to the writer that kamâti in our text is the plural not of kamâtu but of a word kâmtum. This I take to be derived from a root kâmu, to cover over, to heap up, which is found in some of the cognate languages (Arabic 
I, covered; II, heaped up; 
heap; Syriac 
concealed). Thus kâmâtu in this passage would be an alternative, with the same meaning, for nakamâti, which may originally have been a gloss or scribal conjecture for the rare kâmtum.
- Type
- Articles
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1921
References
page 389 note 1 For the spelling kam-tum (for ka-am-twm = kâmtum) compare martum (for mârtum), K. 257, obv. 21, qiš-tum (for qîštum), V R. 33, col. vii, 1. 4, etc. For the plural ka-ma-a-ti, from a hollow root, na-ra-a-ti (from nâru), IV R. 22, 10/11, may be adduced as a parallel form.
page 389 note 2 Professor Langdon thinks that kâmu may have been the original word for “to heap up”, and that the verb nakâmu, of which the root does not occur in the cognate languages, is a denominative formed from the noun nakamtu, treasure, heap, which is properly a derivative from kâmu. The spelling nakamtu for nakâmtu would be parallel to na-bar-tum for nabârtum (see Muss-Arnolt, , 639a).Google Scholar
page 390 note 1 The meaning of kartum is unknown; but can it not be taken from a root kâru, 
, signifying “roundness”, from which I would derive the Hebrew 
basket-saddle, 
smelting-pot, the Arabic 
stove; wasps' or bees' nest, 
bundle (from the verb 
wound round), and the Syriac 
oven and 
beehive? The Assyrian kârtum, which would therefore mean “round lump”, is to be regarded as an explanatory synonym of kâmtum, and the passage should then be rendered: “a lump, a round thing [on the liver signifies] trouble.”
page 390 note 2 The word kapâṣu is unknown and no cognate root has been traced. If kap-ṣat could be regarded as an error for qap-ṣat, its root might be found in the Arabic 
grasped; contracted, shrivelled. Then the sense of the passage would be: “a lump [which] is torn or shrivelled [signifies] …” The substitution of k for q is very common in Assyrian texts.
page 390 note 3 It is interesting to notice that Cicero, (de Div. ii, 14, § 34)Google Scholar records that a cleft or fissure in the liver was regarded as a sign for which the augurs looked.
page 392 note 1 A different sense is given to the word by Jastrow, , Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens, vol. ii, p. 312, n. 9.Google Scholar
page 392 note 2 Compare Ass. namâru, to shine, with Arab. 
shone, and Heb. 
(unused).
page 392 note 3 Words from this root are common enough: e.g. Arab. 
hour, 
moment; Syriac 
moment, hour; Eth. sā' and sā'at, hour, which is used, for example, in Psalm xc, 4, to translate “a watch in the night”.