a-a is probably for ad-da, ad meaning “protector”. Exactly how a-a comes to be used in the place of ad-da may not be determined with certainty. The explanation may lie in the relation between “water”, “seed” and “father”. a-a also seems to be a softened form of ad-da. a means “seed” or more primarily “water”. The sign is an ideographic picture of dripping water.
dimmer Mu-ul-lil (explained in [line 2]).
ù-mu-un-e divides into the word ù-mu-un and the prolongation vowel e, possibly demonstrative in sense (see e farther on).
ù-mu-un is not elsewhere in this hymn lengthened to ù-mu-un-e, but ù-mu-un occurs nine times.
kur-kur-ra is the plural form of noun, kur, plus postposition ra.
kur-kur: in Sumerian the general way of denoting the plural in nouns is by doubling the root (see ASK. p. 140), whereas the doubled root in a verb means an intensified or causative stem. There are five other cases of doubling the root in the hymn: di-di, [line 7], ma-ma, [line 8], ir-ir, [line 13], má-má, [line 20]; and da-da, [line 23].
kur: the sign KÛRU in the old linear form represented pictorially “mountain tops”. The value kur has three very common Assyrian equivalents, šadû, “mountain”, irṣitu, “earth” and mâtu, “land”, all closely related to each other.
ra is a common postposition signifying “unto”. Perhaps ra sometimes serves merely as a vowel of prolongation, the r at the same time making a double of the final consonant of the preceding word. In such a case ra is called a phonetic complement, while it also helps to determine the value of the sign immediately preceding. To illustrate, the sign KÙRU being followed by RARÛ cannot be read gin nor mad. ra can also be the sign of the genitive (Br. 6367).
[4.] a-a dimmer Mu-ul-lil à-mu-un dug-ga zi-da
O father Bêl, lord of righteous command!