Basic principles with the Sumerian Grammar

koot van wyk (DLitt et Phil; ThD)

Kyungpook National University

Sangju Campus

South Korea

Conjoint lecturer of Avondale College

Australia

22 July 2010

It is always my great dream to be able to read Sumerian fluently. Last month a book was placed online that is a jewel to this dream. Daniel A. Foxvog was a lecturer in Assyriology at the University of California at Berkeley. At the site for these books, www.etana.org I ran into his book: Daniel A. Foxvog, Introduction to Sumerian Grammar (Revised edition, June 2010). This work is a revised edition of his 1990 Sumerian Grammar (Foxvog 2010: 3). He lamented that his views are not always accepted by the scholars but then, "there is still no full consensus on the subject" (Foxvog 2010: 3).

One cannot rewrite his standard work, but what one can do is to extrapolate or summarize some key thoughts to be kept in mind.

l. We do not know how to pronounce Sumerian

This is important since the way people go about to reconstruct the phonology of Sumerian is by way of Akkadian (Foxvog 2010: 18). Pre-sargonic Akkadian used the Sumerian script and logograms to transcribe their own scripts and in this way, their lists are helpful to refine the reading of Sumerian and also its pronunciation. "The Akkadian scribal schools produced signlists and vocabularies which spelled out syllabically how Sumerian signs and words were to be pronounced" (Foxvog 2010: 18). For that reason "our standard transcription of the Sumerian sound system should thus be regarded as only an approximation of how Sumerian was actually pronounced" (ibid.).

2. Sumerian periods:

OSOld Sumerian period (2521 [Flood] to 2305 BCE)

Sarg. Sargonic period (2305-2150 BCE)

Ur IIIThird Dynasty of Ur (2114-2004 BCE)

OBOld Babylonian period (1950-1600 BCE)

3. Books necessary for transcription and translation

The standard reference for sign list identification remains R. Labat's, Manuel d'Epigraphie akkadienne (1948-). Also a work by L. -J. Bord (2002) and C. Mittermayer (2006) for Sumerian literary texts, are necessary. The explain some new sign lists. Y. Rosengarten's, Répertoire commenté des signes présargoniques sumériens de Lagaš (1967) is also very important (Foxvog 2010: 4). The current standard word for sign readings and index list numbers [will explain shortly] is the work of R. Borger, Assyrisch-babylonische Zeichenliste (AOAT 33/33a, 1978). Some rare signs are explained by F. Ellermeier's Sumerisches Glossar I/I (1979-1980).

4. Index numbers in sign lists

There are single-syllable signs and multiple-syllable signs.

du (= du₁)

dú (= du₂)

dù (= du₃)

du₄ (= du₄)

5. Diacritic signs or index numbers

Diacritic signs placed in transliteration always falls on the first vowel (Foxvog 2010: 4).

Examples:

For Foxvog (2010)(earlier 1948) for Labat

muru                   muru

múru                   murú (muru₂)

mùru                   murù (muru₃)

muru₄                           múru (muru₄) [diacritical on first vowel]

mùru (muru₅)[diacritical on first vowel]

Labat's systems are not always consistent and that of Borger is to be preferred (Foxvog 2010: 5).

The diacritic signs acute and grave are lately abandoned for index numbers (Foxvog 2010: 5). It is the current convention of the Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary (see the examples of du supra in number 4 in brackets [du₁ etc.]).

6. New signs as d_x

When one see this x in transliteration it means that the sign is new and scholars have not yet given it an index number (Foxvog 2010: 5).

7. Upper and Lower Case, Italics, and Brackets

CAPS (upper case) are used:

a. When the word is unknown or unclear

KA-ĝu10 ma-gig My KA hurts me

KA can also be ka = mouth; kìri = nose; or zú = tooth (Foxvog 2010: 5).

b. When the exact pronunciation is unclear.

a-SIS brackish water

Is it a-ses or a-sis?

c. When one wants to identify an non-standard value of a sign.

da_x(Á)

d. To spell out components of a compound logogram

énsi (PA.TE.SI)

8. Transliteration conventions for Akkadian

In Sumerian and Akkadian bilingual texts Akkadian words are written in lower case roman letters or italic letters. Sumerian logograms used by Akkadian scribes we place in CAPS.

a-na É.GAL-šu to his palace

Variations can be seen:

Sumerian in spaced roman letters and Akkadian in lower case or italics. K I uru ro K I uru.

9. Determinitives are written in ^superscript or CAPS

^gišhašhur or ĜIŠ.HAŠHUR

Determinitives are placed before the word and they are called predeterminitives and what they are is actually a form of family specie classification word. In the example ^giš means tree or wood.

Common determinitives:

They were not pronounced in actual speech. They were kind of librarian inventions to help the reader chose a desired value for a polyvalent sign (Foxvog 2010: 13). This invention of using determinitives before the words started at the end of archaic Sumerian and the beginning of Neo-Sumerian (2114 BCE).

ad = voice but ^gišad = plank (Foxvog 2010: 13).

I (abbreviated as ^m) = one [personal names, males]

lú = man [male professions]

munus (abbreviated ^f) = woman [female names]

diĝir (abbreviated ^d) = god [deities]

dug = pot [vessels]

gi = reed [reed varieties]

ĝiš = tree, wood [trees, wooden objects]

i₇ (or íd) = watercourse [canals and rivers]

kuš = skin [leather, hides and objects]

mul = star [planets, stars etc]

na₄ = stone [stone and stone objects]

šim = aromatic [aromatic substances]

túg (or tu₉) = garment [woolen garments]

ú = grass [grassy plants, herbs, cereals]

iri = city [city names (was uru)

urudu = copper [copper and bronze objects]

uzu = flesh [body parts, meat cuts]

These are placed at the beginning of the word.

Others are placed at the end of the word.

ki = place [cities, geographical entity]

ku₆ = fish [fish, amphibians, crustaceans]

mušen = bird [birds, insects, etc.]

nisi(g) = greens [vegetables]

zabar = bronze [bronze objects]

Different than Sumerian, the Akkadians used munus not only for woman but also a profession (P. Steinkeller, Or 51 [1982]: 358f. op. cit. Foxvog 2010: 13).

10. Orthography of Sumerian

The Sumerian language is logophonetic and logosyllabic in character (Foxvog 2010: 12).

Logograms are written with one, two or more signs.

ur-mah lion [literally: beast great or great beast of prey).

Akkadian writers then had a choice to use syllables in their language or some Sumerian logograms to shorten their sentences:

Akkadian without Sumerian

The king came to the palace

šar-ru-um a-na e-kal-li-šu il-li-kam

Akkadian with Sumerian

LUGAL a-na É.GAL-šu il-li-kam

Logograms are used for nominal, verbal, and adjectival roots in Sumerian.

Syllabic signs are used in Sumerian to write grammatical elements. They are sometimes loanwords from Akkadian:

Sumerian sa-tu borrowed from Akkadian šadû

Syllabic signs are more used in the Emesal dialect (literally: tongue fine) than in the standard Emegir dialect (literally: tongue native).

Emesal (priestly imitation of direct speech of god) ka-na-áĝ = nation

Emegir (standard native tongue) kalam = nation

Syllabic texts were found near Elam (Susa) and also at Shaduppum (Tell Harmal) near Baghdad (Foxvog 2010: 12).

11. Auslauts or "ghostly" consonants

Nominal and verbal roots in Sumerian which ends in a consonant may drop that consonant but when suffixes are added, the "ghostly consonant" suddenly reappear. We call this phenomenon Auslaut (Foxvog 2010: 14).

the good child

dumu-du₁₀ (pronounced /dumu du/)

the goodness by the child

dumu-du₁₀-ge (pronounced as /dumu duge/)

We thus see that some roots in Sumerian have a long and short form (with or without their Auslauts). Students should memorize both forms together.

12. Double consonants

he gave it to him

mu+n+a+n+šúm (compound parts)

mu-un-na-an-šúm or also mu-na-an-šúm

in the sky

an-a or also an-na

13. Direction of writing

Originally, after the Flood (2521 BCE), people were writing from top to bottom. Even in the Law Code of Hammurabi the writing is from top to bottom in 1790 BCE. But, sometime afterwards, a change came and the writing was from left to write. The signs were written by 1200 BCE consistently left to right in a line with the orientation of the signs now shifted 90 degrees counterclockwise (Foxvog 2010: 15).

14. Sumerian vowels and diphthongs

Sumerian had vowels like /a/; /e/; /i/; and /u/. S. Lieberman claims the existence of /o/ but Foxvog doubt it (Foxvog 2010: 18). Sumerian did not have phonemic diphthongs such as /aw/ or /oy/ but there are indications of /y/ or /w/ semivowels glides between vowels, e.g. written mu-e-a-áĝ possibly pronounced as /m(u)weyaĝ/.

What was in-√ in archaic Sumerian (2300 BCE) became ì-a-√ in Ur III (2114-2004 BCE) and Old Babylonian period (1950 BCE) (Foxvog 2010: 18).

15. Voiceless consonants in the final position in Sumerian

P. Steinkeller had the rule that there is no voiceless consonants in the final position in Sumerian. It means that Sumerian will not have a /p/ and /t/ and /k/ in final position but it will be /b/ and /d/ and /g/. Thus, one should read gag instead of kak = peg. Foxvog does not agree (2010: 19).

16. Strange transcriptions that need care

Older literature used sometimes consonants that the latest convention do not permit.

Older transcriptions

kin = work, hun = to rent, alam/alan = figure

Current transcriptions

kíĝ, huĝ, alaĝ

Older transcriptions

balag = harp, sag = head

Current transcriptions

balaĝ, saĝ

Older transcriptions

dingir = god, sanga, nimgir

Current transcriptions

diĝir, saĝa, niĝir (Foxvog 2010: 20).

Emegir (native tongue)

halam

Emesal (priest imitating the feminine goddess in direct speech)

Pronounced as /ĝeleĝ/ but was normally written as ĝe₆-le-èĝ

The ĝ is normally a /ng/ written as /ŋ/ in phonology.

of the air

líl+a(k)

líl-lá (Foxvog 2010: 22)