Learn to Read Ancient Sumerian: An Introduction for Complete Beginners.

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The verbal stem itself can also express grammatical distinctions. The plurality of the absolutive participant [76] can be expressed by complete reduplication of the stem or by a suppletive stem. Reduplication can also express "plurality of the action itself", [76] intensity or iterativity. [45] Archaic Sumerian is the earliest stage of inscriptions with linguistic content, beginning with the Early Dynastic period from about 2900 BC to 2600 BC. It succeeds the proto-literate period, which spans roughly 3300 BC to 2900 BC. Eléments de linguistique sumérienne (by Pascal Attinger, 1993; in French), at the digital library RERO DOC: Parts 1–4, Part 5. In 1838 Henry Rawlinson, building on the 1802 work of Georg Friedrich Grotefend, was able to decipher the Old Persian section of the Behistun inscriptions, using his knowledge of modern Persian. When he recovered the rest of the text in 1843, he and others were gradually able to translate the Elamite and Akkadian sections of it, starting with the 37 signs he had deciphered for the Old Persian. Meanwhile, many more cuneiform texts were coming to light from archaeological excavations, mostly in the Semitic Akkadian language, which were duly deciphered.

Bobula, Ida (1951). Sumerian affiliations. A Plea for Reconsideration. Washington D.C. {{ cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher ( link) (Mimeographed ms.) Subscript is used by modern scholars to indicate differences between sounds that may once have been distinct, but had later become almost identical. (Cf., in the Roman age, ancient Greek had several signs to describe the i, even though e, ê, ei and i had once indicated distinct sounds.) In Babylonian and Assyrian, there are several u-like sounds, indicated like u, u 2, u 3, u 4 (or, often, like u, ú, ù, u 4). Although these signs indicate almost identical vowels, they are employed in specific contexts. Only u and ù can be used to describe our word "and"; ú is only used to lengthen verbs; u 4 is the only sign to spell ud, "day". Diakonoff, I. M. (1976). "Ancient Writing and Ancient Written Language: Pitfalls and Peculiarities in the Study of Sumerian" (PDF). Assyriological Studies. 20 (Sumerological Studies in Honor of Thorkild Jakobsen): 99–121. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2019-08-03 . Retrieved 2018-09-23.Volk, Konrad (1997). A Sumerian Reader. Rome: Pontificio Istituto Biblico. ISBN 88-7653-610-8. (collection of Sumerian texts, some transcribed, none translated) Left: Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform syllabary, used by early Akkadian rulers. [34] Right: Seal of Akkadian Empire ruler Naram-Sin (reversed for readability), c. 2250BC. The name of Naram-Sin ( Akkadian: 𒀭𒈾𒊏𒄠𒀭𒂗𒍪: DNa-ra-am D Sîn, Sîn being written 𒂗𒍪 EN.ZU), appears vertically in the right column. [35] British Museum.

Very often, a word-final consonant was not expressed in writing—and was possibly omitted in pronunciation—so it surfaced only when followed by a vowel: for example the /k/ of the genitive case ending -ak does not appear in e 2 lugal-la "the king's house", but it becomes obvious in e 2 lugal-la-kam "(it) is the king's house" (compare liaison in French). CDLI: Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative a large corpus of Sumerian texts in transliteration, largely from the Early Dynastic and Ur III periods, accessible with images. Prince, J. Dyneley, "The Vocabulary of Sumerian", Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 25, pp. 49–67, 1904

Examples for TA and pronominal agreement: ( ḫamṭu is rendered with past tense, marû with present): /i-gub-en/ ("I stood" or "I stand"), /i-n-gub-en/ ("he placed me" or "I place him"); /i-sug-enden/ ("we stood/stand"); /i-n-dim-enden/ ("he created us" or "we create him"); /mu-e?-dim-enden/ ("we created [someone or something]"); i 3-gub-be 2 = /i-gub-ed/ ("he will/must stand"); ib 2-gub-be 2 = /i-b-gub-e/ ("he places it"); /i-b-dim-ene/ ("they create it"), /i-n-dim-eš/ ("they created [someone or something]" or "he created them"), /i-sug-eš/ ("they stood" or "they stand"). Rubio, Gonzalo (2007), "Sumerian Morphology". In Morphologies of Asia and Africa, vol. 2, pp.1327–1379. Edited by Alan S. Kaye. Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake, IN, ISBN 1-57506-109-0. Not all epigraphists are equally reliable, and before publication of an important treatment of a text, scholars will often arrange to collate the published transcription against the actual tablet, to see if any signs, especially broken or damaged signs, should be represented differently. a b Zólyomi (2000). "Structural interference from Akkadian in Old Babylonian Sumerian" (PDF). Acta Sumerologica. 22. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-02-28 . Retrieved 2008-07-20.

When I heard that Gina Konstantopoulos, Postdoctoral Researcher in the Faculty of Theology at the University of Helsinki and former ISAW Visiting Assistant Professor, was teaching a directed reading on Sumerian this semester, my interest was piqued. How would someone curious about the language get started, and what do we have on hand at the library to help them? I sat down recently with Konstantopoulos, who earned her doctorate in Ancient Near Eastern Studies from the University of Michigan, to discuss learning Sumerian. Here are her recommendations, from grammars to lexica, from texts to translations, and where you can find them while at ISAW. This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( May 2022) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Bomhard, Allan R. & PJ Hopper (1984). Toward Proto-Nostratic: a new approach to the comparison of Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Afroasiatic. {{ cite book}}: |work= ignored ( help) Learn to Read Ancient Sumerian: An Introduction for Complete Beginners is written specifically for people with no training in ancient languages, letting the reader learn Sumerian without having to learn grammatical jargon first. Any grammatical terms that are used are explained in clear language, and a handy index provides definitions just in case you need a reminder!In Keilschrift, Transcription und Übersetzung: nebst ausführlichem Commentar und zahlreichen Excursen: eine assyriologische Studie (Leipzig: J.C. Hinrichs, 1879) So, it is not really easy - yet, it is not entirely without system either, and you can make sense of it without too much knowledge of the Babylonian or Assyrian languages. Summary of critical conventions The imperative mood construction is produced with a singular ḫamṭu stem, but using the marû agreement pattern, by turning all prefixes into suffixes: mu-na-an-sum "he gave (something) to him", mu-na-e-sum-mu-un-ze 2-en "you (plur.) gave (something) to him" – sum-mu-na-ab "give it to him!", sum-mu-na-ab-ze 2-en "give (plur.) it to him!" Compare the French vous le lui donnez, but donnez-le-lui! [76] Syntax [ edit ]

Zólyomi, Gábor (2014). Grzegorek, Katarzyna; Borowska, Anna; Kirk, Allison (eds.). Copular Clauses and Focus Marking in Sumerian. De Gruyter. p.8. ISBN 978-3-11-040169-1 . Retrieved 21 July 2016. Note also that more than one pairing of a pronominal prefix and a dimensional prefix may occur within the verb chain.

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The A.K. Grayson, Penguin Encyclopedia of Ancient Civilizations, ed. Arthur Cotterell, Penguin Books Ltd. 1980. p. 92 There is relatively little consensus, even among reasonable Sumerologists, in comparison to the state of most modern or classical languages. Verbal morphology, in particular, is hotly disputed. In addition to the general grammars, there are many monographs and articles about particular areas of Sumerian grammar, without which a survey of the field could not be considered complete.