Sumerian language

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Sumerian
????
eme-g~ir, eme-gi
Native to Sumer and Akkad
Region Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq)
Era Attested from c. 3000 BC. Effectively extinct from about 20001800 BC; used
as classical language until about 100 AD.
Language family
Language isolate[1][2]
Writing system
Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform
Language codes
ISO 639-2 sux
ISO 639-3 sux
Glottolog sume1241[3]
Sumerian 26th c Adab.jpg
26th century BC Sumerian document
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Sumerian (Sumerian ???? EME.G~IR15 native tongue) is the language of ancient Sumer
and a language isolate that was spoken in southern Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq).
During the 3rd millennium BC, an intimate cultural symbiosis developed between the
Sumerians and the Akkadians, which included widespread bilingualism.[4] The
influence of Sumerian and the East Semitic language Akkadian on each other is
evident in all areas, from lexical borrowing on a substantial scale, to syntactic,
morphological, and phonological convergence.[4] This has prompted scholars to refer
to Sumerian and Akkadian in the third millennium BC as a Sprachbund.[4]

Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as a spoken language around 2000 BC (the exact
dating being subject to debate),[5] but Sumerian continued to be used as a sacred,
ceremonial, literary and scientific language in Mesopotamia until the 1st century
AD.[6][7] Thereafter it was likely forgotten until the 19th century, when
Assyriologists began deciphering the cuneiform inscriptions and excavated tablets
left by these speakers.

Contents [hide]
1 Stages
2 Dialects
3 Grammatical overview
4 Classification
5 Writing system
5.1 Development
5.2 Transcription
6 Historiography
7 Phonology and grammar
7.1 Phonemic inventory
7.1.1 Consonants
7.1.2 Vowels
7.2 Grammar
7.2.1 Nominal morphology
7.2.2 Verbal morphology
7.2.2.1 General
7.2.2.2 Modal prefixes
7.2.2.3 Conjugation prefixes
7.2.2.4 Pronominal and dimensional prefixes
7.2.2.5 Pronominal suffixes and conjugation
7.2.2.6 Stem
7.2.2.7 Other issues
7.2.3 Syntax
8 Sample text
9 See also
10 References
11 Bibliography
12 Further reading
13 External links
Stages[edit]
The history of written Sumerian can be divided into several periods

Archaic Sumerian 31st26th century BC

Old or Classical Sumerian 26th23rd century BC
Neo-Sumerian 23rd21st century BC
Late Sumerian 20th18th century BC
Post-Sumerian after 1700 BC

This proto-literate tablet (ca. 3100 2900 BC) records the transfer of a piece of
land (Walters Art Museum, Baltimore)
Archaic Sumerian is the earliest stage of inscriptions with linguistic content,
beginning with the Jemdet Nasr (Uruk III) period from about the 31st to 30th
centuries BC. It succeeds the proto-literate period, which spans roughly the 35th
to 30th centuries.

Some versions of the chronology may omit the Late Sumerian phase and regard all
texts written after 2000 BC as Post-Sumerian.[8] The term Post-Sumerian is meant to
refer to the time when the language was already extinct and preserved by
Babylonians and Assyrians only as a liturgical and classical language for
religious, artistic and scholarly purposes. The extinction has traditionally been
dated approximately to the end of the Third Dynasty of Ur, the last predominantly
Sumerian state in Mesopotamia, about 2000 BC. However, that date is very
approximate, as many scholars have contended that Sumerian was already dead or
dying as early as around 2100 BC, by the beginning of the Ur III period,[5][9] and
others believe that Sumerian persisted, as a spoken language, in a small part of
Southern Mesopotamia (Nippur and its surroundings) until as late as 1700 BC.[5]
Whatever the status of spoken Sumerian between 2000 and 1700 BC, it is from then
that a particularly large quantity of literary texts and bilingual Sumerian-
Akkadian lexical lists survive, especially from the scribal school of Nippur. They
and the particularly-intensive official and literary use of the language in
Akkadian-speaking states during the same time call for a distinction between the
Late Sumerian and the Post-Sumerian periods.

Dialects[edit]
The standard variety of Sumerian was eme-gir. A notable variety or sociolect was
eme-sal (???? EME.SAL), possibly to be interpreted as fine tongue or high-pitched
voice (Rubio (2007) p. 1369). Other terms for dialects or registers were eme-galam
high tongue, eme-si-sa straight tongue, eme-te-na oblique[] tongue, etc.[10]

Eme-sal is used exclusively by female characters in some literary texts (that may
be compared to the female languages or language varieties that exist or have
existed in some cultures, such as among the Chukchis and the Island Caribs). In
addition, it is dominant in certain genres of cult songs. The special features of
eme-sal are mostly phonological (for example, m is often used instead of g (i.e.
[?]) as in me as opposed to the ge26, I), but words different from the standard
language are also used (ga-a-an rather than standard nin, lady).[11]

Grammatical overview[edit]
Sumerian is an agglutinative, split ergative, and subject-object-verb language. It
behaves as a nominativeaccusative language in the 1st and 2nd persons of the
incomplete tense-aspect, but as ergativeabsolutive in most other forms of the
indicative mood.

Sumerian nouns distinguish two classes of animacy animate and inanimate. Animate
nouns include humans, gods, and in some instances the word for statue. It does not
display gender. Suffixes mark a noun's case absolutive(-), ergative(-e),
dativeallative(-r(a) animate, -e inanimate, to, for), genitive(-(a)k of),
locative(-a, only inanimate, in, at), comitative(-da with), equative(-gin as,
like), directiveadverbial(-(e) toward), ablative(-ta, only inanimate, from). The
naming and number of cases vary according to differing analyses of Sumerian
linguistics. Noun phrases are right branching with adjectives and modifiers
following nouns.

Sumerian verbs have a tense-aspect complex, contrasting complete and incomplete

actionsstates. The two have different conjugations and many have different roots.
Verbs also mark mood, voice, polarity, iterativity, and intensity; and agree with
subjects and objects in number, person, animacy, and case. Sumerian moods are
indicative, imperative, cohortative, precativeaffirmative, prospective
aspectcohortative mood, affirmativenegative-volitive, unrealised-volitive,
negative, affirmative, polarative, and are marked by a verbal prefix. The prefixes
appear to conflate mood, aspect, and polarity; and their meanings are also affected
by the tense-aspect complex. Sumerian voices are active, and middle or passive.
Verbs are marked for three persons 1st, 2nd, 3rd; in two numbers singular and
plural. Finite verbs have three classes of prefixes modal prefixes, conjugational
prefixes, and pronominaldimensional prefixes. Modal prefixes confer the above moods
on the verb. Conjugational prefixes are thought to confer perhaps venitiveandative,
beingaction, focus, valency, or voice distinctions on the verb.
Pronominaldimensional prefixes correspond to noun phrases and their cases. Non-
finite verbs include participles and relative clause verbs, both formed through
nominalisation. Finite verbs take prefixes and suffixes, non-finite verbs only take
suffixes. Verbal roots are mostly monosyllabic, though verbal root duplication and
suppletion can also occur to indicate plurality. Root duplication can also indicate
iterativity or intensity of the verb.

Classification[edit]
Sumerian is a language isolate.[2][12][13][14] Ever since decipherment, it has been
the subject of much effort to relate it to a wide variety of languages. Because it
has a peculiar prestige as the most ancient written language, proposals for
linguistic affinity sometimes have a nationalistic background. Such proposals enjoy
virtually no support amongst linguists because of their unverifiability.[15]
Sumerian was at one time widely held to be an Indo-European language, but that view
later came to be almost universally rejected.[16]