Notation in Sumerian transliteration – With some contributions and comments

Aleksi Sahala 2012 – University of Helsinki (Revised and corrected 28.9.2012)

Indices

As the Sumerian language features an overwhelming number of homonyms, Assyriologists were once forced to develop a system to segregate similar sounding words from each other. Solution to this problem was to use indices (1...n) referring to their cuneograms. For example, Sumerian phonemic compound /gu/ has over 20 possible translations including voice, cry, noise, cord, neck, force, pulse, bean, entirety, ox, side, edge, land, food, eat, swallow, devour, flax, string, wool yarn, snare and river bank. These can, however be divided under five different subgroups based on their cuneographic appereance.

Sign Reading Translations

GU1 gu1 string, cord, thread; wool yarn; flax; snare; net

GU2 gu2 neck; river bank; side; force; land; pulse, entirety

KA gu3 voice, noise; cry

GUD gu4 ox

KA×GAR gu7 food, eat; nurse; devour; swallow

GU GU2 KA GUD KA×GAR

The index numbers were originally determined by the frequency of the cuneograms in Akkadian literature in a way, that the most common sign was given the smallest index 1, growing up to n alongside with the decreasing frequency. Because the sign frequencies in Sumerian and Akkadian are different, some Sumerian words having large index numbers are actually more frequent than those with small ones.

Common practice is to use indices only from 4 onwards. The first index is normally left out and 2nd and 3rd are replaced with acute and grave accents. The accents are always placed on the first vowel of the word: gu, gú, gù, gu4 … gun. In some earlier sign lists, lexicons and transliterations also 4th and 5th indices were marked with accents, in a way that indices 2 and 3 were marked by acute and grave

1 accents over the last vowel of the word, and indices 4 and 5 were marked over the first vowel, e.g. umun, umún, umùn, úmun, ùmun, umun6. However, as word final sounds are often omitted in Sumerian, e.g. búru ~ búr, this practice tended to cause some confusion and is not practiced by modern sumerologists.

There is also a “wild card” index marked with x, which is used for pronunciations being relatively new and still under debate. Readings with x indices should be followed by the sign name or compound written in parentheses, e.g. sisix(ANŠE.KUR) 'horse'. It must be emphasized, that in the web based corpora and dictionaries like ETCSL and ePSD accents are never used to simplify searching. Common practice is to use unmarked reading value for the 1st index and a number from 2nd index onwards, e.g. gu, gu2, gu3. Actually now when the digital releases are taking over print, it is possible that the accent system will be completely abandoned during the next decade.

Sign names

Sign names are always written in capital letters and their indices should always be written in subscript instead of accents: GU2, not GÚ. Sign names should be included in the transliteration always when the reading of the word is unclear, tentative or fairly new (cf. previous sisixANŠE.KUR). There are also several words which reading is completely or partly unknown. For example NE.ŠE3 '?' and bulug-KIN-gur4 'lancet'. Unclear parts are naturally transliterated with sign values only. Often sign names are also written after words which are written by complex logographic compounds, like énsi(PA.TE.SI) 'governor'. However, this is not necessary, but useful if the word is somewhat rare or the transliteration will be prepared for students which are new to the Sumerian language.

Separators

Reading values are separated from each other with dashes, but sign values should be separated with dots. Eg. dim-me-er but ANŠE.KUR. Only the signs which are considered to form a single word are linked to each other. However, there is still some debate how “a word” should be defined in Sumerian. Some scholars tend to connect adjectives/participles with their head nouns, some regard them as separate words:

é-dù-a == é dù-a '(the) built house' /house build+PP/

2 I personally prefer é dù-a over é-dù-a, because there is no evidence of such constructions being single lexical units. Only exceptions to this are 1) proper names and 2) frequently attested compound words like kù-bábbar 'silver' /metal+white/ or gù-dé-a '(royal name: Gudea)' /voice+pour+PP/ == (called by name). In some transliterations, reversed sign order is indicated by using a colon. For example ab:zu (mythical underground freshwater sea) can be used instead of abzu or abzu(ZU.AB). Some very common and graphemized reversed words such as lugal(GAL.LU2) 'king' are never written with colon. Different methods of sign compounding or graphemization are indicated by using various symbols described below.

Symbol Meaning Example

Conjoined signs. Two signs very close to + each other: GAL+BUR = ušumgal 'dragon'

Nested signs. A sign inside another one: × KA×ME = eme 'tongue'

Two signs one below another: DU&DU = & lah4 'to bring (pl.)'

Two signs crossing each other in a 45º % angle: MUŠ%MUŠ

Compound of two signs, of which the last @ one is mirrored horizontally: NAGA@NAGA = dalhamun7 'storm'

n number of sign Y arranged in a X+Y×n symmetrical pattern around X: A+NAGA×4 = dalhamun4 'storm'

Gunû: Sign with a coloring of several @g small horizontal, vertical or diagonal wedges: SAG@g = KA

Šeššig: Sign with a partial ŠE sign inside: @s DA@š

3 @t Tēnû: The sign is angled: GAN2@t

Long and short values

Recently Sumerologists have begun to transliterate two different reading values for consonant final cuneograms. What was previously transliterated <šag4-ga> is now often transliterated <šà-ga> to make it morphologically more accurate, cf. /šag+a/. Also the auslaut (deletion of final consonant unless it is followed by a vowel) is marked in modern transliterations, e.g. <šìr dùg> 'good song' has became <šìr du10>. Where this practice is well reasoned, one should be careful to avoid hypercorrection. For example, transliterating /an+a/ as instead of , or /diĝir+e/ as would serve absolutely no purpose regardless of it being morphologically more accurate. Also arbitrary deletion of final consonants in compound words or reduplicated words should be avoided, as their pronuncation is often more or less unclear. For example Sum. du8-du8 → Akk. ţuḫḫudu 'very plentiful' (cf. CAD p. 415) was certainly not pronounced /*dudu/, but perhaps /*duḫdu/, indicating that the first syllable was pronounced in its strong form. Another examples include such words as kušdùg-gan → Akk. tukkannu 'leather bag', kuš where transliterating it du10-gan would exclude the possibility of geminate, even though we have nothing to back up or deny its existence in this particular word. It is often underlined that geminates in Akkadian loan words are formed from short vowels, e.g. Sum. gar → Akk karru 'knob' vs. Sum. kar → kāru 'harbor' (Sum. *kār), but in syllabically more complex words such as kušdùg-gan the gemination may as well have been original. It is another question in which contexts the ablaut really occurred. For example or in expressions 'from remote times' and 'my sweet name of heaven' should probably not be transliterated and , as it is possible that morphophonemic conditions prevented auslaut from taking place similarly to Finnish 'the boat broke up', where the normally silent /Ɂ/ in /veneɁ/ triggers a boundary gemination with the following /h/, even though they are not morphologically in contact with each other [venehːajosi]. However, this is another topic and not discussed further here.

Determinatives

Some cuneiform signs are not meant to be read aloud, and they are transliterated in superscript. These are called determinatives. Their function is to specify the reading

4 and meaning of another sign, or a sign compound next to them. For example sign APIN can be modified with a determinative that specifies its meaning and reading: lú ĝeš uru4(APIN), engar( APIN) and apin( APIN). The place of the determinative depends on its quality. The following ones are written before their headword:

anše Equids m Male names d Divine names. mul Stars and planets

dug Vessels na4 Stones é Buildings and rooms ninda Baked items f Female names and occupations sa Braided items gi Reeds and items made of reeds šáḫ Pigs gud Bovids túg Garments

ĝeš Trees and wooden items tum9 Winds íd River names ú Plants im Objects made of clay udu Sheep and goats kaš Alcohol drinks urud Bronze and copper items kur Countries and mountains uzu Body parts kuš Objects made of leather zabar Bronze items lú Men's occupations

The rest of the determinatives occur after the head word:

iku Surface measures ki Place and city names

ku6 Fishes mušen Birds sar Vegetables

Imperfection indicators

There are some conventions how to indicate anomalies and imperfections of the clay tablet in transliteration. Most commonly used symbols are listed below.

5 Symbol Example Description [ ] Text has been badly damaged (e.g the table has a hole in it) and is unreadable, but the lu[gal-a]-ni1 editor has been able to reconstruct the missing part due to its context or textual repetition.

[X] [X]-ni One sign is completely missing and the editor has been unable to restore it. [...] abzu-ta [...] Unknown number of signs are missing. X X X eĝer Fragmentary unreadable signs. / \ luga/l-a-ni\ Fragmentary, but still readable signs. ⌈ ⌉ luga⌈l-a-ni⌉ Chevrons are normally used in internet corpora instead of half brackets.

< > an- Corrected scribal error. The missing sign has been supplied by a modern editor. « » gaba-ri «ri» Corrected scribal error. An unnecessary sign that has been delete by a modern editor. ! lugal-a-ni! Corrected scribal error. Sign has been imperfectly (e.g. some wedges are missing) and corrected by a modern editor.

? men?-/na\ A queried sign. Due to damage, scribal error or other obscurity, the editor is not completely sure of the signs quality or reading. lacuna of ~14 lines Indicates the approximate number of lines missing. obv. / edge / rev. Indicates where the text has been written. Obverse (front side), edge or reverse (back side).

1 Note that bracketed segments should not start or end with a separator symbol, e.g. lugal-[a-ni] instead of lugal[-a-ni.] However, brackets can begin and end in the middle of sign/word in case the word has been partially damaged, e.g. l[ug]al.

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