2020 Languages of the Ancient Near East

The Sumerian Language An Introduction, 1984

This is a new non-official edition of The Sumerian Language, rebuilt from third edition (reprinted of 1st edition). This book was printed in 1984 and now is some outdated in any few things but still is a reference book among Sumeriologist and Assyriologist who wants to learn Sumerian. This book has not any word in cuneiform script, is a transliterated grammar but with numerous examples. This is not like monumental works of Jagersma, and not update books as OD Edzard's but still valuable and hard to find with a reasonable price. I hope you enjoy this new edition, as a contribution to study of Sumerian, as a great human people from our past.

International Journal of Linguistics, 2013

The Sumerian language still keeps the prestigious position of being the first ever written language. In this paper there are some presented linguistic data and examples, suggesting that the Sumerian is not a language isolate, as it is regarded so far, but that it may be classified as an r-Altaic language of the Bolgar branch. A proposed methodology for deducing such an inference is also presented, along with the outcomes of its application in the form of thirty-nine phonological rules.

2017

This textbook provides an introduction to the grammar of Sumerian, one of the oldest documented languages in the world. It not only synthesizes the results of recent scholarship but introduces original insights on many important questions. The book is designed to appeal to readers of all backgrounds, including those with no prior background in Sumerian or cuneiform writing. It is written for undergraduate students and structured for a semester-long course: the order of the topics is determined by didactic considerations, with the focus on syntactic analysis and evidence. It explains the functioning of Sumerian grammar in 16 lessons, illustrated with more than 500 fully glossed examples. Each lesson ends with a series of tasks; a solution key to selected exercises can be found at the end of the volume. Above all, this is the first Sumerian textbook that introduces and utilizes the online assyriological resources available on the internet. An Introduction to the Grammar of Sumerian has been written on the assumption that after decades of grammatical research it has become possible now to teach a general framework of Sumerian grammar that may function as the basis of further, more intensive and elaborate studies.

Learn to Read Ancient Sumerian: An Introduction for Complete Beginners, 2020

Sumerian is the world's oldest written language, but the ability to read it is restricted to the lucky few - until now! 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! Each of the 11 chapters introduce and explain important grammatical features, building upon previous chapters to provide and in-depth understanding of the language without being overwhelming. Every chapter includes a list of vocabulary and cuneiform signs for the student to master, as well as exercises to help solidify the reader's understanding of grammatical concepts. Exercises written in cuneiform mean that you start reading authentic Sumerian right from the start, building up to translating ancient cuneiform inscriptions from drawings and photographs! This book will: Teach you the fundamentals of Sumerian grammar in language you can understand. Give you exercises so you can test and consolidate your new-found knowledge. Let you read actual cuneiform inscriptions from 4,000 years ago!

Logographically written languages offer rich possibilities for the use of iconic signs and configurations to encode meaning alongside ordinary denotational textuality. Although indexical iconism has been used to clarify the micro-structure of conversational interactions and other performances, this paper looks at implicit metapragmatics within the text-artifact itself in two test beds (European concrete poetry and Tang Chinese poetry), before turning to Sumerian literary materials from the Old Babylonian period (ca. 1800–1600 BCE). The absence of theoretical treatises from this period has often led to the suggestion that there was no theory in ancient Mesopotamia, but this paper argues that Mesopotamian “theory” resides in the implicit metapragmatics of the same cuneiform signs that also generate the denotational meaning of the text.► Internally complex logograms model metapragmatic structure in various scripts. ► Modernist and Tang poetry provide good case studies with explicit theoretical texts. ► No explicit metapragmatics (viz. commentaries) in earlier Sumerian literature. ► Diagrammatic form of complex logograms acts in place of explicit metapragmatics.

Natalia Bolatti-Guzzo / Silvia Festuccia / Massimiliano Marazzi (ed.), Centro Mediterraneo preclassico: Studi e Ricerche III. Studi vari di egeistica, anatolisticae del mondo mediterraneo, pp. 225-251., 2012

Writing systems contrast with iconography, "mnemonic symbol systems", sign languages, and natural language itself. All writing systems feature signs which are assigned semantic and phonetic values. Most signs were originally pictures of tangible things. The key attributes of a sign are identity, frequency, visual form, semantic and phonetic values. The "etymological sign" is the key to writing system etymology and all logographic systems should have a transliteration system reflecting this.

PhD Dissertation - The University of Chicago, 2023

My doctoral dissertation (Defended: May 5, 2023 - accepted with full honors). This is the file as available on ProQuest. I have plans to expand certain points in the monograph (ex., adding a thorough discussion about transitivity and why it does not feature prominently in my work), so please bear such things in mind. I am excited to share this work and wrote it with the utmost respect for Sumerian grammar specialists of all schools of thought.

Ugarit-Verlag, 2021

A world without writing is hard to imagine, as it has become a regular feature of everyday life. However, our Western alphabetic writing system is the outcome of a millennia-long evolution. What is more, this system is only one strand of the many possible shapes that scripts can assume. This volume explores the various shapes and potentialities of ancient Near Eastern writing systems: the relationship between language and writing; the influences and pragmatics that affect sign form, organization, meaning, and purpose; the techniques for and necessity of phonetic values; and the interplay of the cognitive processes, behaviors, and material forms in producing and interpreting writing. It also works as a means of reflecting on our own alphabetic writing system, in terms of its implicit rules and limits. Ranging in time from the mid-4th millennium BC to the middle of the 2nd millennium BC and distance from today’s Southern Iraq to the Anatolian mountains, the contributions explore how languages like Sumerian, Akkadian, Hurrian, Hittite, and Luwian were written, and how writing works without a specific linguistic referent. Part I focuses on signs, meanings, and language, while Part II concerns the pragmatics of signs and their production. Finally, Part III deals with the organization of lists, a prominent text genre in early writing. Cognitive processing in reading and writing is a pervasive theme, and indeed, the addition of neuroscientific findings to current interpretational methods and theories promises to yield exciting new insights into early writing systems.