Active Users:236 Time:20/05/2024 12:34:12 PM
If it were just about Jordan I could ignore this last ridiculous comment. Tom Send a noteboard - 09/12/2009 03:56:47 PM
You wrote:

"Another possibility is association not with 'night' but with 'wind,' thus identifying the Akkadian Lil-itu as a loan from the Sumerian lil, 'air',[2] — specifically from NIN.LIL 'lady air,' goddess of the South wind (and wife of Enlil) —and itud, 'moon.'"

I knew this came from Wikipedia, but I had to check anyway. The "itud" portion is naked conjecture with no proper citation, and the part about the name coming from layla (Root L-Y-L) is from a source in the NINETEENTH CENTURY that has been out of date for over 70 years and thoroughly disproven. Furthermore, the author of the Wikipedia article doesn't know much about Sumerian. Sumerian HAD a word for Lilith. Let me quote from the Lexicon directly:

LIL(2) n. wind, breeze; breath; infection; haunting spirit (of a place); phantom, ghost; back or open country v. to infect adj. haunted

LIL(2)-LA(2) (plural -e-ne) wind or storm demon(s) Akk. lilu, lilium, lilitu(m).

Thus, we have incontrovertible proof that lilitu (an Akkadian female variant of lilu, by the way) comes from Sumerian lilla (the plural form would be pronounced lillane). The Sumerian lilla became Akkadian lilu. There are translations of Sumerian classics into Akkadian (of a religious nature) where this happens.

To clarify, the (2) indicates which symbol it is in the set of cuneiform symbols that can represent that particular sound.

You then said:

At the first link in the above search one John Alan Halloran has "iti6[UD.dNANNA]: moonlight" seemingly invoking both the moon and Inanna. Annoying fellow; he also maintains a "Sumerian Lexicon" here you might care to correct: http://www.scribd.com/doc/502645/Sumerian-Lexicon

Of course, there is no link whatsoever between lilitu and itud. You might as well have looked up LIL (3,5) "fool, moron" and combined it with ID, "river".

However, you looked up itud and then you saw a word near it - ITI (6) (with the determinative [UD.dNANNA]). Guess what? That's not about Inanna at all. It's about Nanna, the moon-god of ancient Sumer, who became the moon-god Sin in Akkadian. Inanna's name is a single cuneiform symbol that has nothing to do with Nanna. John Hayes, foremost Sumerian scholar in the US, says this about Inanna:

The reading of her name is much disputed; it is variously translated as Inana, Inanna, Innin and Ninni. It is usually interpreted as nin.an.a(k), "Lady of the sky/heaven". This is how the Akkadian scribes understood her name. Jacobsen thinks that Inanna was originally the "numen of the communal storehouse of dates". He says that the an-component of her name meant "date-clusters"...The sign for her name may represent a bundle of reeds.
Political correctness is the pettiest form of casuistry.

ἡ δὲ κἀκ τριῶν τρυπημάτων ἐργαζομένη ἐνεκάλει τῇ φύσει, δυσφορουμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ καὶ τοὺς τιτθοὺς αὐτῇ εὐρύτερον ἢ νῦν εἰσι τρυπώη, ὅπως καὶ ἄλλην ἐνταῦθα μίξιν ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι δυνατὴ εἴη. – Procopius

Ummaka qinnassa nīk!

*MySmiley*
Reply to message
The Wheel of Time's Great Themes, Edited to Include Those I See. - 06/12/2009 05:58:08 AM 827 Views
So, What Are They? - 06/12/2009 09:36:56 AM 559 Views
Putting names into a blender isn't the same as weaving together great themes. - 06/12/2009 03:17:05 PM 489 Views
No, Indeed It Is Not. - 06/12/2009 04:37:23 PM 384 Views
Oh my God...trying to use agape in context of this series is overkill to the nth degree. - 07/12/2009 04:12:56 AM 395 Views
It may not provide intrinsic value to you. But for me, yes. - 07/12/2009 06:06:40 AM 435 Views
Jordan May Not Always Execute It Well, But I Believe It's There (Now We Face Details in TGS.) - 07/12/2009 04:28:05 PM 551 Views
Read what Larry's Short History of Fantasy says about Jordan. - 07/12/2009 05:56:03 PM 466 Views
Oh some book says it, so it must be true! - 08/12/2009 05:57:14 AM 349 Views
I Have to Agree With Fionwe's View the Characters Are Deeper. - 08/12/2009 04:19:07 PM 456 Views
I'm done with this thread. - 08/12/2009 06:21:41 PM 369 Views
Goodbye then! *NM* - 08/12/2009 06:45:25 PM 132 Views
Fair Enough. - 08/12/2009 07:02:04 PM 742 Views
If it were just about Jordan I could ignore this last ridiculous comment. - 09/12/2009 03:56:47 PM 467 Views
Louis La'mour said about himself he wasn't an author so much as a storyteller... - 06/12/2009 03:41:09 PM 403 Views
It's a Popular, If Perhaps Suspicious, Claim. - 06/12/2009 04:55:25 PM 452 Views
Ha. Funny, I feel the same way, and come to the opposite conclusion. - 08/12/2009 08:42:41 AM 387 Views
Amen to that. Lord of the Rings rules! - 08/12/2009 09:03:33 AM 352 Views
I've never been able to finish the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Too boring, with fairy tale characters - 09/12/2009 12:28:26 PM 347 Views
That Is a Great Shame. - 09/12/2009 01:27:44 PM 346 Views
I enjoyed the Silmarrilion though...the part about the Valar and their comparative strengths... - 09/12/2009 01:39:47 PM 340 Views
Tulkas Was All Brute Force. - 09/12/2009 02:48:46 PM 493 Views
That's.. too bad, I guess? - 09/12/2009 08:40:49 PM 338 Views
Arya Stark, yes... - 10/12/2009 08:48:32 AM 344 Views
Re: Arya Stark, yes... - 10/12/2009 04:56:07 PM 374 Views
Seems to me you've inverted it. - 08/12/2009 08:48:07 AM 336 Views
One Way or the Other Their WoT Origin Must Be the Stories We Know (Slight Spoiler Alert.) - 08/12/2009 03:18:30 PM 422 Views
I have no idea what you are trying to say, sorry. - 08/12/2009 08:12:35 PM 345 Views
I'll Try to Rephrase Then (Including the Spoiler. ) - 09/12/2009 12:49:55 PM 337 Views
I don't really see any "great" themes per se, just an enjoyable story, like the pulp serials. - 07/12/2009 03:32:43 PM 367 Views
*Agrees 100%* - 07/12/2009 06:04:31 PM 341 Views
I Think He Set Out to Write Epic Fantasy, Yes. - 08/12/2009 04:25:36 PM 323 Views
Re: I Think He Set Out to Write Epic Fantasy, Yes. - 08/12/2009 07:26:30 PM 336 Views
True, and That Can Be Very Hard to Separate. - 09/12/2009 01:14:57 PM 426 Views

Reply to Message