sumerianlanguage

[sumerianlanguage]

Silim, y'all! You may have noticed no posts from me for a bit. My life is bonkers chaotic these days (for mostly-exciting but overwhelming reasons!) so I've been forced onto a mini-hiatus. Also, I won't be doing my regular stream tonight, though other streams will remain intermittent. Thank you for your patience & understanding, and be well!

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thinking about these mesopotamian scribes who were struggling with their math. i love them

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Gwendolyn Leick: Sex and Eroticism in Mesopotamian Literature. 1994

when a line of a literary analysis hits so hard you have to take a minute of just staring at the page

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Built of mud-brick, the Ziggurat at Ur was built by Ur-Nammu c. 2050 BC during the Third Dynasty of Ur and dedicated to the moon-goddess Nanna.

The massive structure is 210 feet in length, 150 feet in width. It was massively restored under King Nabonidus in the 6th century BC.

Photo taken by Tla2006 

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another addition to the Hobby Lobby crimes list

WHY COULDN'T IT HAVE BEEN HOBBY LOBBY

[sumerianlanguage]

Hello! I have just learned about sumerian AND cuneiform as of this hour, and I'm wondering if there are any letters symbolizing/meaning chaos? As in, mayhem, disorder, etc Thank you!

Hi there! There are two words I know of for "chaos" in Sumerian. Dih means "chaos, disorder", and is written 𒉏 in cuneiform. It's related to dih 𒄑𒉏, which means "thorny plant or weed, caper shrub, camelthorn", if you want an evocative metaphor.

The other is suh "chaos, confusion; to confuse, be confuse, be tangled or twisted". It's written with the great sign 𒄗.

[sumerianlanguage]

Thank you for these corrections & great info!

Votive tablet depicting Shamash, the sun-god of Sippar, seated in his shrine with the Babylonian king Nebopaliddin being led into the God's presence by two figures. Babylonian art, 9th century BC.

Learn more https://www.archaeologs.com/w/sippar/

[sumerianlanguage]

Just wondering, how would you say "eagle of light" in sumerian? Also, do you have links to any of the sources you use to check your translations? I'd love to look into it myself :)

Hi! Please see recent posts or my Sumerian resources tag for your second question.

I've previously answered about "eagle", huriin 𒄷𒌷𒅔𒄷, and about "light", for which there are several words but I'd use zalag 𒌓 as a good one useable in most contexts. Putting them together, "eagle of light" would be huriinzalaga, written 𒄷𒌷𒅔𒄷𒌓𒂵 in cuneiform.

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Researchers Unveil a Vast Network of Canals and Farms in Eridu - Archaeologs

https://www.archaeologs.com/n/researchers-unveil-a-vast-network-of-canals-and-farms-in-eridu

[sumerianlanguage]

Hello, I hope you are always happy and well...May I ask for a Sumerian equivalent for my name "Mostafa"? It is an Arabic male name that translates into "the chosen one" (selected or picked) in English. Thank you.

Hello, and thanks! I have actually previously answered about this name here. Zag 𒍠 means "to choose, select", as well as "choice" and, in participle form, "chosen" or "the one (having been) chosen". This participle could look like either zag or zagga 𒍠𒂵 in cuneiform.

[sumerianlanguage]

Hello! Can you recommend me a good Sumerian-English dictionary? I'm looking for a reference for words in Sumerian for my worldbuilding. Thank you in advance!

Hi there! As I've mentioned before (see my Sumerian resources tag), the two dictionaries I use are the print version of Halloran's Sumerian Lexicon (2006), which is Sumerian-to-English only, and the ePSD2, which is bidirectional. I'm also available as a resource if you want any assistance with translations, either through my askbox, dms, or on twitch where I stream a Sumerian Q&A twice a month!

[sumerianlanguage]

how do you get ahold of romanized translations? just… the whole concept of this blog amazes me

Hi there, and thanks for the kind words! If you mean, how do I find vocabulary, I use a combination of Halloran's Sumerian Lexicon (2006) and the ePSD2. If you mean longer translations, I either do them myself, or when pulled from elsewhere make sure to note that - for original Sumerian texts I most often use the invaluable ETCSL. I transliterate a little more simply than many other sources, ignoring (almost all) sign boundaries and sign numbers, to make things easier to read/understand for a conversational learner or modern speaker.

I also recommend checking out my Sumerian resources tag which has lots and lots of valuable links and material!

[sumerianlanguage]

Of course it goes without saying that I am hopelessly dependent on the monolith

[sumerianlanguage]

Quick question, what are the Sumerian terms for mother and grandmother?

Hello! I have both of these translated in the review sheet for one of my old Sumerian lessons, which also contains a bunch of words for other relatives. "Mother" is ama, and "grandmother" is amagula.

I also realized my Sumerian family vocab tag got split up at some point, so check out both of these for more.

[sumerianlanguage]

Hello! The work you do on this blog is incredible, I’ve been learning so much and getting really emotional over Gilgamesh :’) I had a question, is there a name in Sumerian that means “determined”? Or maybe something like “hope”? I’m trying to think of a name for someone who carries the will of her people and the love of her family onward even after they’ve gone, if that additional context helps a bit. Thank you so much for all you do!

Hi there, and thank you for the kind words! I have some suggestions, but a couple pieces of bad news first. One is that there isn't a great resource for what qualifies as a name in Sumerian - so I'll just be translating these as regular nouns.

Another piece of bad news is that I've already answered about "hope", for which there isn't a great translation. The word "hope" isn't used anywhere in the entire ETCSL corpus, for example. In that answer, I said "I generally use either la 𒆷 “wish, desire, wealth, abundance, bliss”, ash 𒀾 “wish, want, need”, or ningsa 𒃻𒁲 “goal, aspiration”, depending on context." Based on the overlap between "hope" and "determined", I think ningsa "goal, aspiration" may fit your purposes best.

Another option for "determination" would be simply shag 𒊮, which means "heart" and also "will, volition", and seems to work well in the context of your story.

Let me know if these work for you, and best of luck with your learning!

[sumerianlanguage]

Hello,

I love your translations and supplemental information you provide. I’m writing a story with a Sumerian influence. What would the phrase for “Passage through the flower” translate to?

Thanks!

Hello, and thank you for the kind words! "Flower" is girin and "passage, route, path" is harraan. The tricky element is "through", which doesn't have a precise match in Sumerian. Some verbs carry this meaning, like bala "pass through", so we can easily make a sentence (Girin bala "I passed through the flower(s)"), but not a verbless phrase. Instead, I'd just use the genitive -a "of" - harraan-girina "passage of the flower". Let me know if that works for you!

[sumerianlanguage]

Hello! I'm new to Sumerian and I've done a little bit of research, but I can't seem to figure out how to properly translate a couple things. I understand the basic concept of possession being Y's X = X + Y + genitive case ending (a)(k)

So if I wanted to say something like "the fate of the universe", it would roughly translate to namanki

But what if I wanted to further describe the possession with an adjective, for example "a star's radiant light"? And what about in the case of multiple possessions, such as "a man's strength and wisdom"?

Thanks in advance!

Hello, and great questions! For a prior post on stacked genitives see here.

Adjectives attach to the noun they modify and are then treated as a single unit for case purposes. So "a star's (mul) light (si)" would be simula, and zalag "radiant" can be attached right after whichever element it's modifying: sizalagmula "a star's radiant light" (zalag modifies si) or simulzalaga "a radiant star's light" (zalag modifies mul). Note that in the latter case, the genitive -(a)(k) attaches after the adjective, as a noun and all of its adjectives are treated as a single unit for purposes of case.

For one genitive possessing multiple things, the clearest and most common is just to use the genitive phrase twice: a-lu namzu-lu "a man's strength and a man's wisdom". If the two possessed things form a clear unit, they can take just one genitive afterwards (ankilu "a man's universe" = technically "a man's heaven (and) earth"), but I wouldn't use this unless it was very clear.

Let me know if that's clear! And check out my Sumerian case tag for lots more.