anlāīke

anlaaiike

anlāīke

Sentence ten of the Babel text:

ē ñamma jāo ā λi ārōn ī ñamma sāim makkepōlien rā anmārwi āñ pēxa ī sū jamāonre ñamma jalāīke jahūwīke;

Most of this is familiar from previous posts. ē ñamma jāo ā λi ārōn is a straightforward “And the Lord did this” and ñamma sāim makkepōlien rā anmārwi āñ pēxa is “they became scattered throughout the world” and sū jamāonre ñamma jalāīke jahūwīke is “at the city…” jalāīke jahūwīke.

jalāīke is an inanimate singular form of the stative noun anlāīke, which means “being made or built, the process of making or building”. Generally stative nouns modify other nouns and take on the same inflection of the noun they modify (because they are referring to the same entity as the noun they modify, so they have the same inflection.) Here, however, there is no other noun readily in evidence. So jalāīke can either refer to the something (inanimate and singular) made or built or to the making or building of something inanimate and singular. Considering this is a story about the building of a city (and the Tower of Babel), that is what jalāīke must be referring to.

As for jahūwīke, we will discuss that one tomorrow.