The Origin of Sumerian
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Sumerian Lexicon, Version 3.0 1 A
Sumerian Lexicon Version 3.0 by John A. Halloran The following lexicon contains 1,255 Sumerian logogram words and 2,511 Sumerian compound words. A logogram is a reading of a cuneiform sign which represents a word in the spoken language. Sumerian scribes invented the practice of writing in cuneiform on clay tablets sometime around 3400 B.C. in the Uruk/Warka region of southern Iraq. The language that they spoke, Sumerian, is known to us through a large body of texts and through bilingual cuneiform dictionaries of Sumerian and Akkadian, the language of their Semitic successors, to which Sumerian is not related. These bilingual dictionaries date from the Old Babylonian period (1800-1600 B.C.), by which time Sumerian had ceased to be spoken, except by the scribes. The earliest and most important words in Sumerian had their own cuneiform signs, whose origins were pictographic, making an initial repertoire of about a thousand signs or logograms. Beyond these words, two-thirds of this lexicon now consists of words that are transparent compounds of separate logogram words. I have greatly expanded the section containing compounds in this version, but I know that many more compound words could be added. Many cuneiform signs can be pronounced in more than one way and often two or more signs share the same pronunciation, in which case it is necessary to indicate in the transliteration which cuneiform sign is meant; Assyriologists have developed a system whereby the second homophone is marked by an acute accent (´), the third homophone by a grave accent (`), and the remainder by subscript numerals. -
Can Threatened Languages Be Saved? Reversing Language Shift, Revisited: a 21St Century Perspective
MULTILINGUAL MATTERS 116 Series Editor: John Edwards Can Threatened Languages Be Saved? Reversing Language Shift, Revisited: A 21st Century Perspective Edited by Joshua A. Fishman MULTILINGUAL MATTERS LTD Clevedon • Buffalo • Toronto • Sydney Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Can Threatened Languages Be Saved? Reversing Language Shift Revisited: A 21st Century Perspective/Edited by Joshua A. Fishman. Multilingual Matters: 116 Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Language attrition. I. Fishman, Joshua A. II. Multilingual Matters (Series): 116 P40.5.L28 C36 2000 306.4’4–dc21 00-024283 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 1-85359-493-8 (hbk) ISBN 1-85359-492-X (pbk) Multilingual Matters Ltd UK: Frankfurt Lodge, Clevedon Hall, Victoria Road, Clevedon BS21 7HH. USA: UTP, 2250 Military Road, Tonawanda, NY 14150, USA. Canada: UTP, 5201 Dufferin Street, North York, Ontario M3H 5T8, Canada. Australia: P.O. Box 586, Artarmon, NSW, Australia. Copyright © 2001 Joshua A. Fishman and the authors of individual chapters. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher. Index compiled by Meg Davies (Society of Indexers). Typeset by Archetype-IT Ltd (http://www.archetype-it.com). Printed and bound in Great Britain by Biddles Ltd. In memory of Charles A. Ferguson 1921–1998 thanks to whom sociolinguistics became both an intellectual and a moral quest Contents Contributors . vii Preface . xii 1 Why is it so Hard to Save a Threatened Language? J.A. -
Central Anatolian Languages and Language Communities in the Colony Period : a Luwian-Hattian Symbiosis and the Independent Hittites*
1333-08_Dercksen_07crc 05-06-2008 14:52 Pagina 137 CENTRAL ANATOLIAN LANGUAGES AND LANGUAGE COMMUNITIES IN THE COLONY PERIOD : A LUWIAN-HATTIAN SYMBIOSIS AND THE INDEPENDENT HITTITES* Petra M. Goedegebuure (Chicago) 1. Introduction and preliminary remarks This paper is the result of the seemingly innocent question “Would you like to say something on the languages and peoples of Anatolia during the Old Assyrian Period”. Seemingly innocent, because to gain some insight on the early second millennium Central Anatolian population groups and their languages, we ideally would need to discuss the relationship of language with the complex notion of ethnicity.1 Ethnicity is a subjective construction which can only be detected with certainty if the ethnic group has left information behind on their sense of group identity, or if there is some kind of ascription by others. With only the Assyrian merchant documents at hand with their near complete lack of references to the indigenous peoples or ethnic groups and languages of Anatolia, the question of whom the Assyrians encountered is difficult to answer. The correlation between language and ethnicity, though important, is not necessarily a strong one: different ethnic groups may share the same language, or a single ethnic group may be multilingual. Even if we have information on the languages spoken in a certain area, we clearly run into serious difficulties if we try to reconstruct ethnicity solely based on language, the more so in proto-historical times such as the early second millennium BCE in Anatolia. To avoid these difficulties I will only refer to population groups as language communities, without any initial claims about the ethnicity of these communities. -
Machine Translation and Automated Analysis of the Sumerian Language
Machine Translation and Automated Analysis of the Sumerian Language Emilie´ Page-Perron´ †, Maria Sukhareva‡, Ilya Khait¶, Christian Chiarcos‡, † University of Toronto [email protected] ‡ University of Frankfurt [email protected] [email protected] ¶ University of Leipzig [email protected] Abstract cuses on the application of NLP methods to Sume- rian, a Mesopotamian language spoken in the This paper presents a newly funded in- 3rd millennium B.C. Assyriology, the study of ternational project for machine transla- ancient Mesopotamia, has benefited from early tion and automated analysis of ancient developments in NLP in the form of projects cuneiform1 languages where NLP special- which digitally compile large amounts of tran- ists and Assyriologists collaborate to cre- scriptions and metadata, using basic rule- and ate an information retrieval system for dictionary-based methodologies.4 However, the Sumerian.2 orthographic, morphological and syntactic com- This research is conceived in response to plexities of the Mesopotamian cuneiform lan- the need to translate large numbers of ad- guages have hindered further development of au- ministrative texts that are only available in tomated treatment of the texts. Additionally, dig- transcription, in order to make them acces- ital projects do not necessarily use the same stan- sible to a wider audience. The method- dards and encoding schemes across the board, and ology includes creation of a specialized this, coupled with closed or partial access to some NLP pipeline and also the use of linguis- projects’ data, limits larger scale investigation of tic linked open data to increase access to machine-assisted text processing. -
The University of Chicago Oriental Institute Seminars Number 2
oi.uchicago.edu i THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ORIENTAL INSTITUTE SEMINARS NUMBER 2 Series Editors Leslie Schramer and Thomas G. Urban oi.uchicago.edu ii oi.uchicago.edu iii MARGINS OF WRITING, ORIGINS OF CULTURES edited by SETH L. SANDERS with contributions by Seth L. Sanders, John Kelly, Gonzalo Rubio, Jacco Dieleman, Jerrold Cooper, Christopher Woods, Annick Payne, William Schniedewind, Michael Silverstein, Piotr Michalowski, Paul-Alain Beaulieu, Theo van den Hout, Paul Zimansky, Sheldon Pollock, and Peter Machinist THE ORIENTAL INSTITUTE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ORIENTAL INSTITUTE SEMINARS • NUMBER 2 CHICAGO • ILLINOIS oi.uchicago.edu iv Library of Congress Control Number: 2005938897 ISBN: 1-885923-39-2 ©2006 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. Published 2006. Printed in the United States of America. The Oriental Institute, Chicago Co-managing Editors Thomas A. Holland and Thomas G. Urban Series Editors’ Acknowledgments The assistance of Katie L. Johnson is acknowledged in the production of this volume. Front Cover Illustration A teacher holding class in a village on the Island of Argo, Sudan. January 1907. Photograph by James Henry Breasted. Oriental Institute photograph P B924 Printed by McNaughton & Gunn, Saline, Michigan The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Infor- mation Services — Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. oi.uchicago.edu v TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................................. -
"Evolution of Human Languages": Current State of Affairs
«Evolution of Human Languages»: current state of affairs (03.2014) Contents: I. Currently active members of the project . 2 II. Linguistic experts associated with the project . 4 III. General description of EHL's goals and major lines of research . 6 IV. Up-to-date results / achievements of EHL research . 9 V. A concise list of actual problems and tasks for future resolution. 18 VI. EHL resources and links . 20 2 I. Currently active members of the project. Primary affiliation: Senior researcher, Center for Comparative Studies, Russian State University for the Humanities (Moscow). Web info: http://ivka.rsuh.ru/article.html?id=80197 George Publications: http://rggu.academia.edu/GeorgeStarostin Starostin Research interests: Methodology of historical linguistics; long- vs. short-range linguistic comparison; history and classification of African languages; history of the Chinese language; comparative and historical linguistics of various language families (Indo-European, Altaic, Yeniseian, Dravidian, etc.). Primary affiliation: Visiting researcher, Santa Fe Institute. Formerly, professor of linguistics at the University of Melbourne. Ilia Publications: http://orlabs.oclc.org/identities/lccn-n97-4759 Research interests: Genetic and areal language relationships in Southeast Asia; Peiros history and classification of Sino-Tibetan, Austronesian, Austroasiatic languages; macro- and micro-families of the Americas; methodology of historical linguistics. Primary affiliation: Senior researcher, Institute of Slavic Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow / Novosibirsk). Web info / publications list (in Russian): Sergei http://www.inslav.ru/index.php?option- Nikolayev =com_content&view=article&id=358:2010-06-09-18-14-01 Research interests: Comparative Indo-European and Slavic studies; internal and external genetic relations of North Caucasian languages; internal and external genetic relations of North American languages (Na-Dene; Algic; Mosan). -
NUMERALS 1 0.1. GENERAL the Sumerian Language Had A
CHAPTER TEN NUMERALS 10.1. GENERAL The Sumerian language had a "sexagesimal" system in which numer ation proceeded in alternating steps of 10 and 6: 1-10, 10-60, 60- 600, 600-3600, 3600-36000, 36000-216000. With sixty as the "hun dred", Sumerian numeration had the enormous advantage of being able to divide by 3 or 6 without leaving a remainder. The sexa gesimal system has left its traces in our modern divisions of the hour or of the compass. It permeates the metrological systems of the Ancient Near East. Powell 1971; 1989. Since cardinal and ordinal numbers, including fractions, as well as notations of length, surface, volume, capacity, and weight are next to exclusively written with number signs, we are poorly informed on the pronunciation and the morpho-syntactical behaviour of numbers in Sumerian. To what degree were numbers subject to case inflection? If 600 was pronounced ges-u "sixty ten", i.e., "ten (times) sixty", what was the pronunciation of "sixty (plus) ten", i.e., 70? Was there a difference of stress or some other means of intonation, e.g., *[ges(d)u] versus [gd(d)u]? Syntactically, persons or things counted were followed, not pre ceded, by numerals so that the position of a numeral corresponds to that of an adjective. For-purely graphic-exceptions to this rule see 5.3.6, note. 10.2. CARDINAL NUMBERS The oldest pronunciation guide for the Sumerian cardinal numbers 2 to 10 is an exercise tablet from Ebla: TM 75.G. 2198: Edzard 1980; 2003b. 62 CHAPTER TEN Ebla later tradition 1. -
Alfréd Tóth – Are All Agglutinative Languages Related to One Another
Are all agglutinative languages related to one another? BY PROF . DR. ALFRÉD TÓTH Mikes International The Hague, Holland 2007 ALFRÉD TÓTH : ARE ALL AGGLUTINATIVE LANGUAGES RELATED TO ONE ANOTHER? Kiadó 'Stichting MIKES INTERNATIONAL ' alapítvány, Hága, Hollandia. Számlaszám: Postbank rek.nr. 7528240 Cégbejegyzés: Stichtingenregister: S 41158447 Kamer van Koophandel en Fabrieken Den Haag Terjesztés A könyv a következő Internet-címről tölthető le: http://www.federatio.org/mikes_bibl.html Aki az email-levelezési listánkon kíván szerepelni, a következő címen iratkozhat fel: [email protected] A kiadó nem rendelkezik anyagi forrásokkal. Többek áldozatos munkájából és adományaiból tartja fenn magát. Adományokat szívesen fogadunk. Cím A szerkesztőség, illetve a kiadó elérhető a következő címeken: Email: [email protected] Levelezési cím: P.O. Box 10249, 2501 HE, Den Haag, Hollandia _____________________________________ Publisher Foundation 'Stichting MIKES INTERNATIONAL', established in The Hague, Holland. Account: Postbank rek.nr. 7528240 Registered: Stichtingenregister: S 41158447 Kamer van Koophandel en Fabrieken Den Haag Distribution The book can be downloaded from the following Internet-address: http://www.federatio.org/mikes_bibl.html If you wish to subscribe to the email mailing list, you can do it by sending an email to the following address: [email protected] The publisher has no financial sources. It is supported by many in the form of voluntary work and gifts. We kindly appreciate your gifts. -
Euskara. Language and History
E uskara Language and History The Basque Country can be found in the south- east of Europe straddling part of France and Spain. Sociolinguistic Its northern-most borders are the Landes and status Bearne regions of France and the Bay of Biscay. To the south it borders on the Rioja and Zaragoza, to the east Bearne, Huesca and Zaragoza and to the Language policy west Cantabria, Burgos and the Rioja. It covers a surface area of 20,864 km2 and has a total population of 2,876,879. Legal status Basque and French are spoken in that part of the Basque Country which is in France and Basque and Spanish are spoken in the part of the Basque Country which is in Spain. C atalà G alego Cymraeg Elsässisch Euskara Language and History Sociolinguistic status Sancho The Wise Language policy defined the Basque language as a "lingua navarrorum" Legal status (1167) The Basque Country is currently divided up into seven different provinces or administrative territories: Lapurdi, Basse-Navarre and Zuberoa in the French part of the Basque Country, which account for a total of 249,275 inhabitants of the total population (according to the 1990 census) and the rest in the Basque Autonomous Community (comprised of Alava, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa) with 2,104,041 inhabitants (according to the 1991 census) and the region of Navarre with 523,563 inhabitants (1991census). According to data from the II Sociolinguistic Survey of 1996, 26.4% of the population is Basque-speaking in the French Basque Country, 25.3% in the Basque Autonomous Community whilst in the region of Navarre it is only 9.6%. -
Talking Neolithic: the Case for Hatto-Minoan and Its Relationship to Sumerian
Talking Neolithic: The Case for Hatto-Minoan and its Relationship to Sumerian Peter Schrijver University of Utrecht It is argued that the Minoan language of second-millennium BC Crete stands a good chance of being descended from the language that was imported into Crete by the earliest farmers that colonized the Island in the 7th millennium BC. Evidence is presented that links Minoan to the Hattic language of second- millennium BC northern Anatolia. An analysis of the Hattic verbal system supports the hypothesis that in turn Hattic is related to Sumerian. The existence of a Hatto-Sumero-Minoan language family is posited, which predates the expansions of Semitic and Indo-European in the Near East and which is implicated in the spread of migrant farmers into Europe. A word for ’pig’ is reconstructed for that language family. 1. Language, genes and culture The expansion of a language across a geographical area takes place as a result of two mechanisms: the language is taken along by people who migrate into new territory, or the language is adopted by local populations beside or instead of their original language. Before the times of widespread formal education, mass media and the internet, language spread by acculturation always went hand in hand with spread by migration: only the presence of migrant native speakers in a new territory is capable of exposing the natives to the new language and of creating social pressure to adopt that language. Exposure and social pressure are what it takes for a population to trade its native language for a different one. -
In Sumerian Proper and Lifiin Sumeri(M) "Tongue of Sumeru" in Akkadian
CHAPTER ONE THE SUMERIAN LANGUAGE Fiir Olympia, die mir seit 1954 aile meine Arbeiten geschrieben hat und die mir auf drei Kontinenten gefolgt ist. 1.1. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS Sumerian was called eme-ki-en-gi-ra "tongue of Kiengir (Sumer)" or eme-gi7(-r) in Sumerian proper and lifiin Sumeri(m) "tongue of Sumeru" in Akkadian. The replacing of [S) by [s] in most modern languages (but not Russian) has its analogue in the change of [S) for [s] in names of the Hebrew bible. Sumerian is characterized by the interaction of a word base (nom inal, verbal, other) which may be invariable or subject to variation (e.g., change of vowel, reduction, extension), and an intricate system of prefixed and suffixed morphemes. The word base itself is impen etrable by other morphemes. Unlike Semitic, no infixes occur. Cf. ha-ma-ab-sum-mu [ha-m+a-b-sum-e] "he should give it to me" (WO 8, 173: 11 b2): precative-to-me-it-base give-ergative (3rd person sing. person class). The number of prefixed morphemes varies between zero and six for the verb, zero and one for the noun; the number of suffixed morphemes between zero and three for the verb, zero and three for the noun. Words of considerable length may be built up that way, e.g., hu-mu-na-ni-ib-gi4-gi4 "let him return it to him there" (6 syllables, not comparable, however, with Akkadian ittanablakkatUnikkunufim "they will, over and again, revolt against you", 10 syllables). In both strings of morphemes, prefixed or suffixed, the sequence of the individual elements is unchangeable. -
Language Isolates Basque and the Reconstruction of Isolated Languages
This article was downloaded by: 10.3.98.104 On: 01 Oct 2021 Access details: subscription number Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG, UK Language Isolates Lyle Campbell Basque and the Reconstruction of Isolated Languages Publication details https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.4324/9781315750026.ch3 Joseba A. Lakarra Published online on: 25 Sep 2017 How to cite :- Joseba A. Lakarra. 25 Sep 2017, Basque and the Reconstruction of Isolated Languages from: Language Isolates Routledge Accessed on: 01 Oct 2021 https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.4324/9781315750026.ch3 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR DOCUMENT Full terms and conditions of use: https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/legal-notices/terms This Document PDF may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproductions, re-distribution, re-selling, loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The publisher shall not be liable for an loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material. Judith Aissen et al. Introduction CHAPTER 3 BASQUE AND THE RECONSTRUCTION OF ISOLATED LANGUAGES Joseba A. Lakarra 1 INTRODUCTION1 I think it’s appropriate to ask what the purpose of our genetic classification is. I believe that most historical linguists value the classifications because they help us find out about the histories of the languages in a family.