Re: Possessive Suffixes

>
>  >In Middle Babylonian (and later on), the
>>possessive pronouns were replaced by /attu/ + a
>>possessive suffix.
>
>It seems that this same element /attu/ is found in the feminine possessive
>pronouns.  Or is this just coincidence?
-t- itself was commonly used in Akkadian as a feminine suffix, e.g.
/rabium/ big, great (m.)
/rabi:tum/ big, great (f.)
/damqum/ good (m.)
/damiqtum/ good (f.)
-t- is affixed to noun roots ending in a single consonant or ending
in a vowel, which is then lengthened. It is formed as -at-, if the
root is ending on a geminal consonant or if its a primary noun root
ending in two different consonants. There are some more rules for
that, but it is enough to explain the female suffixes for the
independent possessive pronouns, like /jattum/ (f.) for /ju:m/ (m.),
meaning "my". The morphology becomes even clearer by citing Old
Assyrian with /ja:?um/ as the masculine form; the feminine form was
again /jattum/.

Now, for the attu- + possessive pronoun replacing the independent
possessive pronoun, I should have posted the nominative case of the
personal pronoun. I have used the genitive-accusative forms because
they resemble the possessive suffixes. The nominative forms were
ana:ku (I, m.+f.), /atta:/ (thou, m.), /atti:/ (thou, f.). The forms
for the third person were derived from a different source, an
anaphoric pronoun. I guess that the source of /attu-/ is the
nominative pronoun. Compare /attu:ka/ "thy"  with /atta:/, "thou".
However, this could be completely rubbish as well ;-)

>
>>In the course of time, the pronominal suffixes
>>and the pronouns diverged. Just two examples for
>>development on those suffixes:
>>In New Babylonian (10 - 7 cent. BC)/-i:/has
>>developed into /-a:/; /-Su/ often becomes /-S/.
>>Personal pronouns changed as well, but
>>differently.
>
>With the former, was /i:/ > /a:/ a common change with New Babylonian?
>
This was no common change but a form by analogy. Originally, the
suffix for the 1st person sg. could be /-ja/ after a vowel and /-i:/
after a consonant. After a /-u:/-ending, /-ja/ became -/?a/. In
analogy to /-ja/ and /-?a/, /-i:/ was changed.

Christian.