Knowra Sumerian language Sumerian language Sumerian was the language of ancient Sumer in southern Mesopotamia, written in cuneiform. It is generally regarded as a language isolate, with no demonstrated relationship to another language family.
Cuneiform : A writing system that used wedge-shaped signs impressed on clay and other materials. Sumerian is the earliest language known to have been written in this system.
Sumerian language chronology : The sequence of periods in which Sumerian was spoken, written, and studied in Mesopotamia. Its written record spans millennia, while its role as a spoken language changed.
Sumerian cuneiform : The use of cuneiform signs to write Sumerian words, syllables, and grammatical elements. Sumerian scribes adapted a developing script to represent their language.
Friedrich Delitzsch : A German Assyriologist who contributed to the study of Akkadian and the decipherment of cuneiform. His work helped establish methods later used to investigate Sumerian texts.
Sumerian administrative texts : Records of goods, labor, land, and institutions written in Sumerian, especially on clay tablets. They make up much of the earliest substantial written evidence for the language.
Sumerian grammar : The rules governing Sumerian word forms, sentence structure, and grammatical relationships. Its agglutinative verb forms and case-marked nouns distinguish its structure.
Uruk period : A late fourth-millennium BCE period marked by the growth of cities and early writing in southern Mesopotamia. The earliest proto-cuneiform records emerged in this period, before writing fully represented Sumerian.
Sumerian logograms : Cuneiform signs that represent Sumerian words or meaningful word parts rather than individual sounds. Logograms let signs convey words even when their pronunciation was not written out.
Jules Oppert : A French Assyriologist who studied Mesopotamian inscriptions and argued for the distinctiveness of Sumerian. His nineteenth-century arguments helped establish Sumerian as a separate language.
Sumerian royal inscriptions : Texts commissioned by Sumerian rulers to record building projects, military actions, and royal claims. Their language reveals how rulers used writing to present authority.
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