Babyloniaca, études de philologie assyro-babylonienne.

BABYLONIAN BOOKS OF PRIVATE DEVOTION

27

Philological Note.
The question which has interested scholars in regard to this series
has been purely philological. Evidently E NU-R U is Sumerian, since
it is used in at least three pure Sumerian texts. The tempting pronunciation nu-ru which is the Semitic word for light has been accepted
until BREMMER with the counsels of SCHEIL objected to a Semitic
phonetic rendering of a pure Sumerian word. BRTMMER however read
nu-sub " the not incanted I,, but it is improbable that such a name
would be given to a place where a service was held. We must seek, of
course, for a ritualistic act here. SCHEIL and HOMMEL have pointed out
that beside a bit NU-RU there exists also a MA NU-RI called the," boat of Sin,, K 4378 V 36. We know, too, that the Suinerians often
used the names of sacred boats, carts and other objects in names of
persons, thus ginar-ta-paddan " named by the sacred cart n,, ur-sugallam "( slave of the chapel,, etc., and so in a tablet published by SCHEIL
in OLZ 1905 Sp. 351 a Semite (?) is called amel-elip-nu-ur-ru. We may
be sure then that this ", man of the nurru boat,,, contains the name of
the sacred ship of Sin in K 4378, there given nu-ri. nu-ri, nu-ur-ru
and nu-ru are therefore all the same Sumerian word. Moreover
we have seen that the symbolic act in the bit nuri ritual was probably
fire, so that this would be additional evidence for regarding all these
words as the Semitic nuiru.
The problem seems at first perplexing but becomes more clear if
we begin at the proper point. The Sumerian word for light was sir,
sir, sir, se-ir1. It is further known that the sign NU is a variant
of air in the name of the temple gig-sir-gdl; we have seen also that
NU is a variant of zir in one of the amulets and, for further proof,
see MEISSNER'S Seltene Assyrische Ideogramme n~ 1147 where
NU-mag goes over into Semitic as zirma.^tu. So then in one of these
incantations we find NU = sir actually used in the sense of light and
the further inference is that NU-RU is to be read sir-ru = nu-ru in
Semitic. Now we know also that ge-ir is a variant of nir in the words
1. BRtNNOW, Classified List 1650, 7530, 7467 and for zir 1664 see above p. 11.