near"), ikhtanabbata ("he wasted much"), istanappar ("he sends forth often "), istandakhu, ittanallaca ("he goes repeatedly"). These forms with the inserted nasal may be compared with the fourteenth and fifteenth Arabic conjugations. It is possible that this strengthened form of the secondary conjugations in Assyrian was influenced by the Accadian causative, which inserted tan between the pronoun and the verbal root. It retains the original meaning of reciprocity more persistently than the form with a simple dental. Another conjugation rarely found is an istataphal; e.g. yustetesser or yustetesir from, yuctatatsir, "he marshalled" (Iphtatael). A Pilel and a Palel, also, like Arabic conjugations ix. and xi., are occasionally met with (mostly in concave verbs), as acsuttu ("I acquired," for acsūddu), isaccannu ("they place"), ipparsiddu, "they fled”; yutarru ("they bring"), compared with yutaru Pael present, and yutirru ("he returned") compared with Pael aorist; irtenin, "he made"; iddanan, "he gives." Examples of a Poel and Hithpoel, Arabic conjugations iii. and vi., are ilubusu, "he had put on";" etupusa, "I made." A Tiphel with passive signification seems to occur in the permansive tebusu, "he has been made" (W.A.S., 17, 1, 1). Compare the participle etpisu, "constituted." Illilliq, "he went," is an instance of a form with the second radical doubled.

Concave verbs have a peculiar conjugation, in which the aorist and present agree with the Pael of regular verbs; the permansive, however, takes the form niba ("told"), dicu

1 So in Ethiopic a short tonic vowel may strengthen itself by an inserted nasal, e.g. zyntu for zytu.

2 This cannot be passive of Pael, as the meaning is against it, and we ought to have yulubbisu.

("smitten"), nikha ("rested "), with a passive or neuter meaning. So in Arabic we have kila, perfect passive i. of kulu: hence we may conclude that the Assyrian niba stands for nivuba (like limunu, see below).

As in Arabic, every conjugation, except Niphal and Ittaphal, possesses a passive formed by means of the obscure Vowel u. Kal also has no passive, Niphal being used for it.1 As the signification of Niphal was originally reflexive, not passive, Kal in Assyrian nevertheless wanting a passive, it would seem that the passive was a late addition to the Semitic verb. This is confirmed by its being found only in Arabic and Assyrian. The passives of the other conjugations of the Assyrian verb are as follows:

(3.) Pael makes nussuku ("they climbed up"), surrup ("he is burned"), gubbu ("he is proclaimed "). The Aorist yunummir, "it is

seen."

Thus

(4.) Shaphel makes sukuru ("they were made to be called "), suluku ("they were made to go"). When the permansive had a vowel attached, the vowel of the second syllable could be irregularly changed to a. we find subaruru (" he drives away"), and sukalula by the side of sukulula ("he caused to reach "). The aorist would be yususlim (“he caused to be finished"), as we find yusuti.

(5.) Aphel seems to make yudhbu ("they were made good"). This is rather the aorist than the permansive, which ought to be udhubu.

יבל

(4a.) Istaphal makes sutesuru (“they were kept right”), sutabulu from

I have found no examples of a passive in the remaining conjugations.

In (1a) Iphteal, however, we have latbusa ("they were covered"), with which we may compare the form of the nomen mutati of Kal, as in darummu ("a habitation").

1 In sipru suatu ippusu, "this message has been accomplished," ippusu is not passive, but a late irregular form (as in Babylonian) of ebusu (Kal), one has accomplished."

66

Special details will be found under the head of each conjugation.

Quadriliterals are rare in Assyrian. Unlike the Arabic, they have the same conjugations as triliteral verbs, with the exception of a Pael, viz. (1) Kal, or Palel, e.g. Aorist iskhupar ("he overwhelmed "), present ipalcit ("he comes over"); (1a.) Iphtalel, e.g. yuptaleit; (2) Saphalel, e.g. yuspalcit; (2a.) Istaphalel, e.g. yustapalcit; (3) Niphalel, e.g. ippalcit, present ippalcat; (3a) Ittaphalel, e.g. ittapalcit, present ittapalcat; (4) Iphalalla or Niphalella, e.g. ipparsiddu ("they fled"), and iparsiddu. These four voices are strikingly analogous to the four Arabic conjugations, saphalel taking the place of taphalala and niphalel of iphanlala. An instance of the tertiary conjugation (t-n) in a quadriliteral is ittanaprassidu, "he has fled to" (ittanaphalel). Quadriliterals are mostly found in the Niphalel, and generally the Niphal of triliterals is to be compared with them. With Ittaphalel the Hebrew Nitpael is to be compared, so common in the Rabbinic literature. I have found no instance of the Permansive tense.

The Assyrian verb is rich in tenses. It possesses a Permansive, or Perfect as it is generally called in Semitic grammars, of comparatively rare occurrence in the historic inscriptions, but sufficiently common in the tablets; besides four more other tenses. These have been formed out of the Imperfect or Future of ordinary Semitic grammars. This tense was first divided into two forms, the longer expressing present time, and the shorter having an aoristic sense. Exactly the same phenomenon appears in Æthiopic, and would seem in both languages to have been due to non-Semitic influence.

At all events, Accadian possessed an aorist and a present. The two tenses thus gained by the Assyrians were still further modified by attaching a different shade of meaning to the form which ended with the original short vowel and to the apocopated form. Thus, isallim is a present, isallimu has a future signification. In the case of the aorist this difference of meaning was not so uniformly observed. Generally isdhuru has a perfect or pluperfect signification, while isdhur is aorist; sometimes, however, the longer form cannot be distinguished in sense from the aorist. We thus have the following tenses:—(1) Permansive, e.g. sacin (“he places"); (2) Aorist, iscun ("he made"); (3) Perfect or Pluperfect,

has

had

iscunu ("he made"); (4) Present, isaccin (" he makes"); (5) Future, isaccinu "he will make"). The Kal present is only distinguished from the Pael aorist by the person-prefix which is amalgamated with u in the Pael; thus, isaccin is Kal present, yusaccin is Pael aorist. As in Pael, the double letter of the Kal present is frequently dropped; a fault common to all Semitic writing.1

In the remaining conjugations Niphal, Pael, and Shaphel, the Present is distinguished from the Aorist by containing a instead of i in the last syllable: thus, issacan, issacin; yusaccan, yusaccin; yuca'an, yucin (115); yusascan, yusascin.1 The name Permansive is due to Dr. Hincks, who thus marks it off from what he calls the Mutative tenses.

1 Very rarely, and only in ungrammatical inscriptions, such as the Lawtablet, the present takes the form iraggum, through the influence of an unfrequent form of the Pael aorist.

2 I is a weakened a, and consequently a more fitly marks a continuing period of time upon which the mind dwells.

Besides the termination in u, the Assyrian aorist resembles the Arabic in possessing two other forms at least. Adopting the Arabic division, we have:

(1.) The Apocopated Aorist, expressing urgency and command, and therefore usually employed in the inscriptions. (2.) The Telic Aorist, terminating in u, denoting the continuance of past time.

(3.) The Aorist of Motion, or Conditional Aorist, terminating

in d.

(4.) The Paragogic Aorist, expressing energy, terminating in m or mma.

Besides these, I have detected traces of a termination in i -e.g. yubahi, "it had sought," amdakhitsi as a variant of amdakhits ("I fought"), uracsi ("I reached"), usarrikhi ("I consecrated") in Babylonian. The same termination is pre-supposed by imma, which is found (though rarely) by the side of umma and amma. This termination would seem properly to have been used when the idea expressed in the sentence was subordinate to what went before.

These flexions are identical with those of the noun.1

The Apocopated Aorist, from its aptitude to denote vigour, like the Jussive in Arabic and Hebrew, has become the common form in Assyrian, as in Phoenician, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Ethiopic. Not but that all the forms given above, with the exception of that in -i (which has been altogether lost in Arabic), are frequently found.

The principal form in -u, answering to the nominative of the noun, so conspicuous in Arabic, has acquired in Assyrian

1 As in the noun, i is weakened from both a and u, which would, therefore, be the primary terminations.