The Assyrian Root raṣānu, Hebrew ‫‬רזן‫‬

Author(s): S. Langdon
Source: The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures, Vol. 28, No. 2 (Jan.,
1912), pp. 144-145
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/528122
Accessed: 13-01-2024 08:41 +00:00

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 xontributeb Noteo

THE ASSYRIAN ROOT r a s a nu, HEBREW t"

In Assyrian we have to do with two roots r aas&nu (I) to murmur,
rumble, and (II) to be dignified, important. Root I occurs to my knowledge
.only in Cuneiform Tablets of the British Museum, XXV, 16, 26, where
Adad has the epithet murtasnu synonym of rdgimu and mur-ta-i-
mu.1 mur-ta-as-nu, 12 Part. of r as snu is probably connected with the
Syriac and Arabic root It to murmur. The Assyrian replaces the em-
phatic dental .t by the alveolar emphatic s. The same phenomenon is
-exhibited by the word k as &ru to bind, identical with Hebrew "tp. The
change has probably been brought about by the forward and backward

assimilating power of the liquid r. Note the change of s > s and Jd> t
brought about by the r-sound in Arabic dialects, cited in Brockelmann's
Vergleichende Grammatik, p. 155.
Root II occurs only in the adjective r u s u nu, important, dignified,
which Professor Prince connected with Hebrew IT" "honorable, noble."
'This explanation of Prince has not received the recognition which it deserves
either among Assyriologists or Hebraists. The difficulty has been that the
Assyrian grammarians apparently connected ru ssunu with a group of
words for "important," etc., as well as with a group for "bright, clean," etc.,
and consequently the lexicons give no definite information concerning the
word. In fact the Assyrian grammarians do not really connect the word
with a group meaning " bright," and the only legitimate meaning to be
assigned to the word is "dignified, important," as Prince maintained. For
r us s unu the grammarians give the following information. Sumerian
AL2 = russunu syn. of maldi, full, Syl. C 1, 41. [ru]ssunu= iianu
[variant russunu = kabtu], "mighty, dignified." CT, XVIII, 27, 19. A
different form of the word is ur-zu-nu = k.arradu, "mighty, heroic,"
ibid., 7, 30. ru-us-su-nu = ba-nu-u, mu-us-su-u, in a list of words
for "mighty" elum, si-it-[pu-]su, "valiant," ibid., 18, K. 4587 obv.
5 f.3 It has been erroneously supposed that ban A and mussft are words
for "clean, washed," but this is not at all probable in this instance. muss i
is here the same word as mass-6, "chief, leader," a loan-word from MAS

112 Part. of tV to thunder, ultimately connected with rag i mu, due to the
change of gutturals > .
2 Variant of GAL = rab ft.

a K. 206, a list for b e 1 u, belt urm, probably belongs to this tablet.

144

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 CONTRIBUTED NOTES 145

"goat" and su(G) "to lead," literally "leadi

literature cited in the note see also PSBA
mas-si-e mati, "T. the noble of the earth." The change massd
> mussi is due to the labial m. Note that in II R. 47ab 15 ma'-'u=
a aridu = amelu MAS-St~(G)-TUK.5
In regard to b a n, "honorable," etc., our evidence is based only
passage quoted. If we are not to assume an unknown root for
(= r u s s u n u) the most probable explanation would be to identif
bane, Prs. Part. of bani6, to create. Note mar ba-ni-i, "nobl
b nAit e, "nobles," Delitzsch, HWB, 178b, and Klauber, Assyrisch
tentum, p. 59, n. 3.
S. LANGDON
OXFORD

4 See Babyloniaca, II, 113, and III, 78; also Scheil, Txt. El.-Sem., VI, 34, 27.
5 Line 14 has another (?) word ma - ?u = kak ku "weapon, baton," for which the
Sumerian is partly broken away, but contains MAS-ST-ILA, "which the chief carries."
ma 9 u = kak k u, here, is probably the same word as ma ?- 9i in the cartouche before
the face of gamag, V R. 60. We should, then, following Jastrow and Scheil (see Muss-
Arnolt, Lexicon, 597) translate "crown of gamag, baton and ring of f', i.e., gamav."
Naturally we have to do with the same word in is.u GI-MA?(?)-Sft(D)-8t(D) - m a - u,
pole, stake, Syn. ga gi u, ZA, IX, 220, 17. It is probable that II R. 47a, 14, and ZA,

ibid., restore each other mutually and that the true reading is . 4 . ,#
AkUM in II R. for which ZA, 220 has probably if Fo&4 For
mu?u = breast, Sm. 1981, 24, see now Babyloniaca, IV, 191. Also K. 11185, 3 AGAN =

[mu9-1 u Syn. t ulal and irtu, and CT, XII, 19a, 5. For its connection with
"udder," OLZ (1910), sp. 491. mu 9 9 u, ring-worm (?), in C T, XXVIII, 29, 20, possibly
a loan-word from MU?, serpent. A word ma Ufi a ameli-- in CT, XII, 17a, 16,
may be, perhaps, identical with mu u, breast.

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