Sumerian Language

Sumerian Language, language of the peoples of the ancient kingdom of Sumer in Mesopotamia. Its vocabulary, grammar, and syntax do not appear to be related to those of any other known language.

Sumerian was written in cuneiform script. Its earliest records date from about 3000 bc; after about 2000 bc it was no longer spoken, but it continued in use as a literary language until cuneiform writing died out (about 1st century bc). The existence of the language—and of the Sumerian culture—was subsequently forgotten until cuneiform was deciphered in the 19th century, revealing an unexpected language among the expected ones.

Sumerian is an agglutinative language, rather than an inflected one, such as one of the Indo-European or Semitic languages. Generally speaking, the root words are not subject to inflective change. The basic grammatical units consist of word complexes rather than individual words, and these grammatical units usually retain their independent structures. The grammatical structure of Sumerian resembles that of other agglutinative languages, such as Turkish, Hungarian, and some Caucasian languages.

Sumerian has six vowels: three open vowels, a, e, ô; and three corresponding closed vowels, ā, ē, ü. The vowels were not sharply articulated and often were modified in accordance with a law of vowel harmony. This law applied especially to vowels in short, unaccented grammatical particles. At the end of a word, or between two consonants, the vowels were often elided. Sumerian has 15 consonants: b, p, t, d, hard g, k, z, s, sh, ch (as in Scottish loch), r, l, m, n, and ng (as in lung). The consonants were not pronounced at the end of a word unless the word was followed by a grammatical particle beginning with a vowel.

Most Sumerian roots are monosyllabic and may be joined with other roots to form polysyllabic words. Nouns frequently consist of compound words, such as lu-gal, “king” (literally, “big man”); dub-sar, “scribe” (literally, “tablet writer”); and di-ku, “judge” (literally, “judgment determiner”). Abstract terms are formed with the use of nam; thus, nam-lu-gal means “kingship.” Plurals are formed by repetition of the roots. Sumerian has no grammatical gender, but nouns are divided into the two categories, animate and inanimate; grammatically, animals belong to the inanimate category.

The Sumerian sentence consists of a predicate and a series of substantive complexes related to the predicate as subject, direct object, indirect object, or dimensional object, that is, one which establishes location. The predicate consists of the verbal root and a series of infixes, or grammatical elements inserted into the body of a word. These infixes serve to corroborate the relationship between the predicate and the complexes that has already been established by the grammatical particles. The substantive complex may consist of a noun, or of a noun and its modifiers, such as adjectives, genitives, relative clauses, and possessive pronouns. The relationship particles, known as postpositions, are always at the end of the substantive complex.

Sumerian is rather limited in adjectives, since genitival expressions were often used instead. Copulas and conjunctions are rare, their functions being assumed by the use of parallel arrangements of clauses and complexes. No relative pronoun exists in Sumerian. Instead, relative clauses are indicated by a nominalizing particle at the end. Relative clauses, however, are used only to a limited extent; frequently a passive particle, which is identical in form to the infinitive, is substituted for the relative clause.

The main Sumerian dialect was the one known probably as Emegir, or the “princely tongue.” Several other dialects of lesser importance were spoken. One of these was used by women and eunuchs.