5.6 Compound nouns — frozen two-word names
5 · Nouns — naming things, and making them plural · a plain-language guide to Assyrian (Sureth) grammar
A few nouns are permanently welded pairs — a leftover "X of Y" phrase that hardened into one word with its own meaning. You learn them as single vocabulary items. The most common front pieces are old words for son of, daughter of, and house of:
| compound | literally | means |
|---|---|---|
| bar-nasha | son of man | a person, a human (pl. bar-nashe) |
| bra-ida | daughter of hand | a glove |
| bra-kala | daughter of voice | an echo |
| pi-palga | house of half | the middle |
| rish-shita | head of year | New Year |
| bet-yalda | house of birth | birthday |
Two things worth knowing. First, when you pluralize a compound, the plural ending goes on the second word only: bet-kuyra "grave" → bet-kuyravate "graves." Second, this is exactly how the days of the week are built — e.g. tlo-shiba "Tuesday," literally "three-in-the-week" (see Ch. 7, numerals).
More compounds, in use. A few worked cases show the two rules in action — possessive suffix on the end, plural on the second word:
- bra-ida "glove" → bra-idi "my glove" (the -i "my" lands on the very end; "hand" here is generic, never a specific hand)
- bar-nasha "person" → bar-nashe "people" (plural on the second element)
- bet-kuyra "grave" → bet-kuyravate "graves" (again, plural on the second element)
- bra-kala "echo" (literally "daughter of voice"), pi-palga "the middle" (literally "house of half"), rish-shita "New Year" (literally "head of year")
Once you spot the frozen front piece — bar- "son of," bra- "daughter of," bet-/pi- "house of" — a whole family of vocabulary stops looking random.
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