#sumerian phonology

[sumerianlanguage]

Hello! I was wondering if you had any advice for writing a song in Sumerian? I have been writing lyrics for a bit and I have always been interested in ancient languages so I wanted to know how I should get started. I have some ideas swirling around in my mind as the music I have been writing is very soulful.

Hello! What an interesting question - I haven't done any songwriting in Sumerian myself, but I have practiced by translating modern songs into Sumerian, which I think gives a little insight. On my twitch stream we once translated Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen - a song that is not written for easy translation, it turns out! But it taught me many things about the interaction between Sumerian phonology/grammar and lyrical composition.

One thing I've learned is that sentences in Sumerian often use fewer words but more syllables to convey the same information. "I'd trade my soul for a wish" is seven syllables, but it's nearly impossible to convey the same meaning in Sumerian in less than nine: Zinga ashta shu gabalan. So if you write music with a strict syllable plan, prepare to convey less information per line; or to convey the same amount of info, prepare to sing "faster" (i.e. cram more syllables into a line).

Another important issue is that Sumerian sentences always end with a verb. This makes rhyming a different experience than in English - rather than having two "impact nouns" rhyme at the end of the sentence, common in many music genres, you instead have to rhyme the verbs, and often the verb conjugations. (Here's a post about how this functions in Sumerian poetry - I've linked the in-tumblr version since the on-blog version seems to be rendering out of order, and will also reblog it after this post.) Creative liberty with concept structuring can help: "You took your time with the call / I took no time with the fall" is most easily translated by making call and fall function as verbs: Ullabi gu numaden / Annga ullabi shuben "You didn't call me quickly / But I fell quickly", still a slant rhyme but helped by the fact that the first and second person conjugations ("you called", "I fell") often look identical.

Note that we can't rhyme ullabi "quickly" with the second ullabi since they're adverbs and can't end the sentence or clause. Though in my translation of the chorus, I use namga "perhaps" as almost a final exclamation in order to pull it out of the sentence and slant-rhyme with annga "however": Uda muraten / tumidim, annga / shidngu murabban / gu hemaden, namga "I met you today / a wild act, however / I give my number to you. / Call out to me, perhaps!" (Another really useful word in translating pop music is gana "let's go!" or "yeah!", which is an interjection and thus can stand separate from any clause like this.)

And one final tip: Keep your sentences simple! This is both because of the verb-final structure - Sumerian sentences don't "trail off" in the same way they do in English - and because English loves to use helping verbs, weird time-clauses, etc. that you rarely find in Sumerian. One long, languid English sentence is often best matched by several shorter, choppier Sumerian sentences. It's really hard to convey the combo of time-sequence and counterfactual in the phrase "before you came into my life, I missed you so bad", unless you're willing to spend a whole verse of the song to do so, so I ended up just simplifying it to Zae namtila ekur / Ngae namurashen "You entered my life / I wished for you a lot".

I hope that's helpful! Do check out my Sumerian music tag for more, including examples of actual ancient Sumerian lyrics (not to say "Call Me Maybe" isn't timeless and eternal in its own right). And let me know if you have further questions or any translation I can help with!

[justgottafinishthischapter]

Making a Fictional Language

So you’re writing a story where you want to create a fictional language. That’s great. Only problem is, you’re not quite sure how to go about it. Fear not, I have a few tricks up my sleeve that I use myself when constructing a language. Now of course, before we can discuss how to build a conlang, it’s worth mentioning what a conlang is.

The term “Conlang” is short-hand for Constructed Language. What this means is that the language is fully realized and fully formed with proper grammar, an expansive dictionary, and could theoretically be learned and used in day-to-day conversation. A Conlang is not a real language. It doesn’t exist in our real world. But it’s well formed enough that it could be learned and spoken with a wide reach of use. Examples of Conlangs include Klingon, High Valyrian, Dothraki, and Na’vi. There are some lesser forms of Conlangs such as Functional Languages. That is, languages that exist only to say a few words. Before being turned into an official language for the show, Valyrian had very few words. It was the job of a linguist to construct a language around the fundamentals that George established in his books. Another example is Atlantean from the Disney movie Atlantis: the Lost Empire. There is just as much Atlantean as needed for the script and nothing else, and if you wanted to learn the Atlantean word for fire, you’ve gotten your hopes up for nothing. Some are also simply text-based, such as Hylian in the Legend of Zelda. It uses different symbols, but it all directly translates to the Japanese language, making it just a re-skinned version of Japanese.

So, how does one actually build a conlang? Honestly, a good first step is to do some research on Phonetics. But the crash course is this: a Phoneme is the simplest sound you can make. There’s an international phoenetic alphabet (IPA) that you can find tons of online. Every distinct sound made by human language has a specific symbol to represent the sound. Learning to read these symbols and the sounds they make will make it easier to find sound links between words. Now, let’s get to the actual methods and the steps involved.

Method 1: The Library

You may have heard of a Sound Library before. For sound technicians, a sound library is a database of sound effects and noises they can Foley into film projects. Building a language can work the same way. In the Librarian method, look through the list of IPA and look for the sounds you want to use in your language. Think about the tone of the language, and whether you’re looking for something softer or harsher, and the kind of culture the people have. Once you have your library of phonemes, it’s just a question of how you want to go about forming words. You could roll die to decide syllables and which sounds to use, you could play it by ear, you could compare to languages you want to sound like. The main appeal of this method is that it creates a great consistency with the sound of a language.

Method 2: The Language Blender

You know you want your language to sound coarse and rough but you’re not sure how to make it sound that way? A good method I like using is taking common words that your world would use, such as Fire or Sun, and translate it into about 3-5 languages that fit the sound you’re trying to invoke. Once you have all of your words translated, you have two paths. Option 1: Find the middle ground. If 3/5 of your words had the letters ma next to each other, chances are, that’s a good pair of letters to carry over to your own language. Option 2: Take your real life languages and put them through the Language Mixer on Chaoticshiny.com. A major benefit of this method is systematically learning words in other languages, and even seeing the etymological roots that tie languages together. The one downside of this language building format is that you may end up with words that don’t mix well together, or as they mix, you find that the sounds of the words don’t tend to mesh well, so it’s important to have a Base Language, the root language you build your fictional language around. No matter what, include at least part of the translation from this language, and you’ll be more grounded in your approach. 

Method 3: The Root System

This is a conlang creating system I learned from Artifexian on Youtube, and I’ll link the video he made right [here] if you want to see it for yourself. He has a lot of great world building videos and I love his content, so don’t be shy about giving him your likes and support because he talks about a lot of the world building aspects people tend to gloss over, myself included. What this method does is it focuses on forming root words that then lead into forming other words.

This is a root system language sheet I designed based on my own fantasy world. In their culture, running water is associated with healing and cleaning because it carries off dirt and other foul things and wipes them away. For this reason, rivers have associations with cleanliness, healing, and life. And this is something worth keeping in mind when building your own language. How does the culture itself interact with the word you are describing? For instance, the reason we say “vandalize” to mean to destroy someone else’s property is because of the Vandal barbarians that plagued Europe during the last legs of the Roman Empire. Heck, the term Flanderize isn’t even that closely linked to the Simpsons, but it emerged as a result of Ned Flanders’ character becoming stock and one-note, which led to the creation of the term. When it comes to actually building the dictionary, this can be a really useful step. So, for example, let’s say the word for River in my language was Asar. A boatman might be Asarii, much like how we have work and worker, fight and fighter, dance and dancer, the suffix of -ii denotes someone who does the root term, in this case, they go on the river. Meanwhile, a fisher could be Asarakii, having Asar mean river, -ak as a suffix for a thing living in the river, and the -ii as a suffix for those who catch the things that live in the river. And for something more abstract like River of Time or River of Stars, you might get something like Asarag Talari.

UNIVERSAL CONLANG TIPS

Keep in mind the people the language exists for. if you’re creating a conlang for dragons, reptiles don’t have lips, so the labial sounds of [p], [b], [f], [v], and possibly even sounds that require lip shaping such as [o], [u], and [w] might not fit the creatures that need to be speaking. Furthermore, if the culture exists before global communication and they live next to the ocean, chances are, they won’t have a word for camel, desert, or sandstorm unless it’s a desert port city. This is why Dothraki has words for every kind of horse and no word for thank-you.

Remember that certain sounds can be switched around. Throughout human language, I’ve learned that certain letters can easily be switched out for each other, and this is in part due to linguistics history. Most of the letters that can be exchanged I actually realized while studying Grimm’s Law and the evolution of language, and by looking at Welsh in particular. In Welsh, the way to write a [f] sound is to write it as ff. When just one f is by itself, it becomes [v]. The sounds of [d], [t], [θ], and [ð] share a similar connection, as do [k] and [g], [ʃ] and [ꭓ], and [b] and [p]. So changing between these similar sounds could prove to be a useful strategy for mixing up your language.

You absolutely have to create a grammar system or you’re going to make a huge mess. That means word order, syntax, suffixes, tense, conjugation, and whatever else is needed. If it helps, learn how another language conjugates its terms. In Sumerian, the phrase “I am your king” is Lugdalzuimen. Lugdal means King, zu is your, and imen means “I am”. So word order is Object Possessive Subject. Then in the phrase Sesguene imes means “they are my brothers”. In actual word order it translates out as “brother my -s they are”. Now we see that the word order is Object Possessive Pluralization Subject. In the phrase Dumuninlagasakak, it becomes child queen Lagas of of. Meaning child [queen of Lagas] of or Child of the Queen of Lagas. By understanding how this language structures itself, something like the phrase River of Stars I made earlier could now be broken down to be something like Asartalariag (River Star -s of). I find it helps in this case to word it as “River star many of” to get “river of many stars” to figure out when the pluralizing suffix would be applied.

Resources:

Wiktionary.com

Chaoticshiny.com

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/definitionlookup (for all of your ancient greek translation needs. Set it to Latin transliteration)

http://www.abair.tcd.ie/?lang=eng (because Google Translate doesn’t sound out Irish words)

https://www.wordreference.com/enfr/ (it’s set English to French, but it has a lot of languages, and it’s great because it also teaches you slang uses of words.)

[gwendolynlerman]

Arabic dialects

Arabic is spoken by around 369.8 million people and is the official language in 24 countries, in a geographical area that stretches from Morocco to Oman.

It is subdivided into three main varieties: Classical Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic, and spoken Arabic. Classical Arabic, also known as Quranic Arabic, is the written language of the Quran. It is no longer a spoken language and is used only for religious purposes.

Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), or fusha, derives from Classical Arabic and is the foundation of all dialects. It is used in formal meetings, politics, media, and books.

Spoken Arabic refers to the Arabic dialects used in everyday life for daily tasks and to communicate informally with other people. They do not have a standardized written form.

Compared to MSA, it has a simpler grammatical structure and a more casual vocabulary and style. Some letters are pronounced differently.

Dialects vary considerably from region and region and are not always mutually intelligible. There are 25 of them, classified into five groups: Maghrebi, Egyptic, Mesopotamian, Levantine, and Peninsular.

Two main groups were formerly distinguished: Mashriqi (eastern), which includes Peninsular, Mesopotamian, Levant, and Egyptic Arabic, and Maghrebi (western) dialects. Mutual intelligibility is high within each of the groups, while intelligibility between them is asymmetric: Maghrebi speakers are more likely to understand Mashriqi than vice versa.

Maghrebi Arabic

Maghrebi Arabic includes Moroccan, Algerian, Tunisian, Libyan, Hassaniya, and Saharan. These varieties have been influenced by Punic and the Amazigh and Romance languages. They are collectively known as Darija, also written as Derija or Derja.

Darija has over 100 million speakers across Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Mauritania. It is known to sound very fast and to be difficult to understand for other Arabic speakers. One of its most remarkable characteristics is the integration of English and French words in technical fields.

Maghrebi dialects use n- as the first-person singular prefix on verbs instead of a-. In Moroccan Arabic, short vowels are weakened, and double consonants are never simplified.

Egyptic

Egyptic Arabic comprises Sudanese, Juba, Egyptian, Sa’idi, and Chadian. Sudanese and Juba Arabic are influenced by the Nubian languages, while the rest have been shaped by Coptic.

They are spoken in Sudan, South Sudan, Egypt, and Chad. Egyptian Arabic alone is spoken by 83 million people and is the most widely spoken dialect. Its grammar is significantly different from that of MSA, and it has 10 vowels instead of six.

Sudanese Arabic has 32 million speakers and has some unique characteristics. For example, the letter ج is pronounced like “g” instead of “sh” like in other Arabic dialects.

Mesopotamian

Mesopotamian Arabic includes North Mesopotamian, Cypriot Maronite, Iraqi, and South Mesopotamian. It is spoken by almost 50 million people in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Turkey, Cyprus, Israel, and Kuwait.

They have been influenced by Turkish, Iranian languages, and Mesopotamian languages like Akkadian, Aramaic, and Sumerian.

Iraqi Arabic has more than 40 million speakers. It has more consonants and long vowels than MSA. Furthermore, words end in consonants rather than vowels.

Levantine

Levantine Arabic can be further divided into North and South. North Levantine, spoken by 25 million, includes Syrian and Lebanese, and South Levantine, with 12 million speakers, comprises Palestinian and Jordanian. Northwest Arabian Arabic, or Bedawi, forms its own group and has more than 2 million speakers.

Levantine varieties are influenced by the Canaanite and Western Aramaic languages and to a lesser extent by Ancient Egyptian, Greek, Persian, Turkish.

It has unique phonological, lexical, and grammatical features. For example, personal pronouns can take up to 12 different forms depending on the dialect.

Lebanese Arabic has a simpler morphology than MSA, but its syllables are more complex. Palestinian Arabic is the closest dialect to Modern Standard Arabic, but still differs in morphology.

Peninsular

Peninsular Arabic includes the following dialects: Najdi, Gulf, Bahrani, Hejazi, Yemeni, Omani, Dhofari, Shihhi, and Bareqi. It has more than 40 million speakers. Some varieties were influenced by the extinct South Arabian languages.

It is mainly spoken in the Arabian Peninsula and its neighboring regions. Peninsular Arabic has fewer loanwords than other dialects. Gulf Arabic differs in phonology and lexicon from MSA. It is mostly mutually intelligible with Egyptian Arabic, but unlike it, pronounces ج like “j”.

Yemeni Arabic, on the other hand, retains many classical features that are not used in other parts of the Arabic-speaking world, such as the -k suffix.

Here is a comparison of how interrogative pronouns are said in each dialect:

(what - where - when - how - why - who)

MSA: maatha - ayna - mataa - kayf - limaatha - man

Egyptian: eih - feen - imta - izzayy - leih - miin

Levantine: shoo - wayn - imta - keef - leesh - meen

Maghrebi: shnoo - feen - foquash - kifash - 3lash - shkoon

Peninsular: maa aysh - ayn - mata - layf - limih - man

[superlinguo]

All of the languages discussed and mentioned in Crash Course Linguistics

The list below outlines the languages that feature in Crash Course Linguistics (Nielsen 2020). For each episode we list both illustrative examples and other languages mentioned. We created a running list of languages used in the videos while writing, to help us actively move towards a greater diversity of language examples. This table might be of interest to you if you want to jump to a particular episode, or if you want to do some critical reflection on your own teaching or lingcomm work.

Looking at the episodes in a single table, I can see the ebb and flow of our focus. It’s much easier to talk about phonetics using a range of examples from different languages than it is to talk about semantics, where you’re focused on the nuance of meaning. I can also see the interests of various members of the production team show through in some example choices, which is why I appreciated working with a team on this project.

The introduction of every video also included an opening animation that had facts about language in English, but also some facts in French, Russian, Chinese, Arabic, German, Korean, Vietnamese and Klingon, reflecting the linguistic diversity and interests of the animation team.

We’ve made this table available as a document on FigShare as well:

Grieser, Jessi; Gawne, Lauren; McCulloch, Gretchen (2021): Languages mentioned in Crash Course Linguistics. La Trobe. Figure. https://doi.org/10.26181/61031a232e96e

See also:

Crash Course Linguistics full playlist on youtube

Crash Course Linguistics Mutual Intelligibility Resources

Crash Course Linguistics

Episode 00 - Preview On screen: Japanese, Auslan, Welsh, Swahili, Proto-Indo-European, Tzeltal, Basque, Xhosa, Arabic, English, Nicaraguan Sign Language, Tok Pisin, Inuktitut, Nahuatl

Episode 01 - Introduction Examples in: Spanish, Indonesian, ASL, Auslan, Swahili, English

Episode 02 - Morphology Examples in: English, Mandarin, Murrinhpatha, ASL, German, Malay, Old English, French, Arabic Mentioned: Hebrew

Episode 03 - Morphosyntax Examples in: English, Hindi, Irish, Latin, ASL Mentioned: Nahuatl, Portuguese, Malagasy, Czech, Tibetan, Korean, Hawaiian, Māori, Chatino, Turkish, Modern Greek, Yupik, South African Sign Language

Episode 04 - Syntax Examples in: English, Japanese

Episode 05 - Semantics Examples in: English, Polish, Portuguese, Norwegian

Episode 06 - Pragmatics Examples in: English, Malay, Mandarin, French, BSL, Mentioned: Tzeltal, Japanese, Lao, Danish

Episode 07 - Sociolinguistics Examples in: English (Appalachian English, African American English, Standardized American English) Mentioned: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Spanish, BSL, Auslan, NZSL, South African Sign Language, Spanish, ASL, French Sign Language, Irish Sign Language

Episode 08 - Phonetics, Consonants Examples in: ALS, English, Scottish, Spanish, Welsh Mentioned: Arabic, Basque, Navajo, Zulu, Xhosa Language families mentioned: Khoesan

Episode 09 - Phonetics, Vowels Examples in: French, English (General, Californian, Australian), Spanish, Italian, Mandarin Mentioned: German, Turkish, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Tamil, Arabic, Arabic, Japanese, Finnish Language families mentioned: Germanic languages, Niger-Congo, Nilo-Saharan, Afro-Asiatic, Kam–Sui

Episode 10 - Phonology Examples in: English, Hindi, Spanish, Nepali, Taiwainese Sign Language, Auslan, Old English, ASL Mentioned: BSL, ASL

Episode 11 - Psycholinguistics Mentioned: English, Mandarin

Episode 12 - Language acquisition Examples in: English, Italian Mentioned: Malay, Russian, Spanish, Japanese

Episode 13 - Historical linguistics & language change Examples in: Old English, Middle English, Modern English, Iberian Spanish, South American Spanish, Dutch, Icelandic, German, Proto-Germanic, Latin, Sanskrit, Mentioned: Nicaraguan Sign Language, Hatian Creole, Kriol, Tok Pisin, French, Tibetan, English, Hindi, Nepali, Proto-Indo-European, Proto-Semitic, Arabic, Amharic, Hebrew, Proto-Algonquian, Cree, Ojibwe, Massachusett, Proto-Austronesian, Javanese, Tagalog, Malagasy, Proto-Pama-Nyungan, Pama-Nyungan, Yolŋu, Kaurna, Dharug, Proto-Bantu, Swahili, Zulu, Shona, Basque, Ainu, Korean Language families mentioned: Khoesan, Bantu, Oceanic 

Episode 14 - Languages around the world Mentioned: Spanish, Latin, French, Italian, Greenlandic, Inuktitut, Tibetan, Nicaraguan Sign Language, French Sign Language, Kata Kolok, Central Taurus Sign Language, Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language, Adamorobe Sign Language, ASL, Old French Sign Language, Martha's Vineyard Sign Language, Hindi, Urdu, English (US, British), Sanskrit, Arabic, Chinese, Turung, Karbi and Runglo, Hebrew, Wampanoag, Maori, Hawaiian

Episode 15 - Computational linguistics Examples in: English, Turkish Mentioned: ASL, Greek

Episode 16 - Writing system Examples in: English, Middle English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Inuktitut, Cherokee, Korean Mentioned: English, Finnish, Vietnamese, Swahili, Bulgarian, Russian, Greek, Latin, Arabic, Hebrew, Sumerian, Egyptian, Phoenician, Olmec, Zapotec, Aztec, Mayan, Turkish

[tomasorban]

Mesopotamian Mother Goddess (Ninmah, Nintud/r, Belet-ili)

The Mesopotamian mother goddess is known under many names, the most prominent of which is the Sumerian name Nintud/Nintur. Other frequent names are Ninmah and Belet-ili. She was in charge of pregnancy and birth and, especially in earlier periods, appears as the creator of humankind.

image:  Boundary stone (kudurru) of the Kassite ruler Melishipak (r. 1186-1172 BCE) at the Louvre Museum, showing in the top right corner an inverted Ω thought to be a symbol of the mother goddess. Sb 22. (c) RMN.

Functions

A recent and comprehensive study of the mother goddess(es) in ancient Mesopotamia is still lacking. Black and Green (1998: 132) already pointed out that the terms 'mother goddess' and 'fertility goddess' are problematic since many goddesses could at times include these aspects. Because the functions of the three goddesses mentioned here overlap significantly, the three goddesses Nintur, Ninmah, and Belet-ili are treated in one article. For other names of the 'mother goddess' see Krebernik (1993-98a: 503-7). The term 'mother goddess' is retained here as a matter of convenience.

In the third and second millennium BCE, the mother goddess was in high standing within the divine hierarchy of gods, as for example in the Lamentation over the Destruction of Sumer and Ur (ETCSL 2.3.3, line 55; Michalowski 1989: 39) or in the Lament over Nibru (ETCSL 2.3.4, line 237; Tinney 1996: 115), where she is mentioned together with the highest gods of the Mesopotamian pantheon, An, Enlil, and Enki. In the course of the second millennium BCE this situation changes and the goddess loses some of her high standing in favour of the healing goddess Gula and the goddess of love and war, Ištar (Krebernik 1993-98a: 512).

One of her main functions was associated with pregnancy and childbirth. She guides children when they are still in the womb and feeds them after they have been born (Stol 2000: 80).

The mother goddess also appears as the creator of humankind. In the Akkadian myth of Atrahasis, the Mesopotamian flood story, Nintur created humankind by mixing clay with blood of a slain god (Lambert and Millard 1969: 57-61), and in the Sumerian tale of Enki and Ninmah (ETCSL 1.1.2) the two deities compete by creating various creatures out of clay, resulting ultimately in the creation of humans. The clay is said to come from the top of the abzu TT , the cosmic underground waters. In her role as the creator of humankind she is eventually replaced by the god Enki/Ea, as visible in Enūma eliš TT (tablet VI, lines 32-36). Frymer-Kensky (1992: 70-80) referred to the diminishing importance of goddesses even in primarily female functions, such as creation, as the "marginalization of goddesses".

Divine Genealogy and Syncretisms

Nothing is known about the mother goddess's divine parentage. The gods An, Enlil, Enki, and Šulpae are at times considered to be her husbands (Krebernik 1993-98a: 507-8). Her offspring were so numerous that they cannot all be mentioned here (see Krebernik 1993-98a: 508-10 for further information). The beginning of the second tablet of the god list An-Anum (Litke 1998: 66ff.) lists several names of the mother goddess.

Cult Place(s)

The main city where the mother goddess was worshipped is the city of Keš (not Kiš), which has not been located yet (for possible locations and further literature see Edzard 1976-80b: 573). It has been suggested that Keš was the sacred district of the city of Urusagrig (Irisagrig), close to Adab (Wilcke 1972: 55). An inscription of the Neo-Babylonian king Nabonidus indicates that Keš was still in existence in the first millennium (Foster 1983). Other major cities where her cult is attested are: Adab, Assur, Babylon, Lagaš, Larsa, Malgium, Mari, Nippur, Sippar-Aruru, Susa, Umma, and Ur (Krebernik 1993-98a: 511-2). For evidence of worship of Ninhursaŋa see Heimpel 1998-2001b.

Time Periods Attested

Because the mother goddess appears under so many different names, she is attested from the Early Dynastic period until well into the first millennium BCE, though, as mentioned above, she loses importance throughout the second half of the second millennium.

Iconography

In Mesopotamian iconography, the mother goddess is represented by the Ω sign, which is thought to represent a uterus (Seidl 1993-98). Sometimes the Ω sign is accompanied by a knife, which is interpreted as the tool that is used to cut the umbilical cord after birth. Specific anthropomorphic representations of the mother goddess are difficult to distinguish from depictions of other goddesses (Seidl ibid.). The so-called Göttertypentext (Stol 2000: 80) contains a passage describing the looks of the mother goddess.

Name and Spellings

Not all the names of the mother goddess can be enumerated here. The most important ones are mentioned in the title to this entry. Other important names that also occur frequently in the written record are Aruru, Dingirmah, and Ninhursaŋa (Heimpel 1998-2001b; Stol 2000: 74-9). However, her most frequently attested name is Nintur.

The Sumerian names of the mother goddess discussed here have the following meanings:

Ninmah "Magnificent Queen"According to Heimpel (1998-2001) the adjective mah "magnificent" is frequently associated with Ninhursaŋa.Nintud/Nintur "Queen of the (birthing) hut" (Jacobsen 1973) The Sumerian word /tur/ is also an allusion to the word for uterus/womb (šà-tùr) (Jacobsen 1973  Cavigneaux and Krebernik 1998-2001). Some scholars (Selz 1995) follow the traditional interpretation that the element /tu/ is the same as the Sumerian verb /tudr/ "to give birth," but this has been contested on phonological grounds (Jacobsen 1973 Cavigneaux and Krebernik 1998-2001).

The Akkadian name Belet-ili means "Queen of the gods.

"Written forms: (see Krebernik 1993-98)

Ninmah

Ninhursag

Nintu, Nintur, Nintud

Belet-ili, Beletili 

[elliepassmore]

Babylonian Life and History

4/5 stars Recommended for people who like: history, Middle/Eastern history, ancient history, Babylonia, ancient civilizations, nonfiction This book is a wonderful fountain of information regarding Babylonia, even if it was originally published in 1883 and revised in 1925. Obviously, this means some things in the book are outdated or have proven to be incorrect since it was originally published--one of the reasons I deducted a star. Likewise, it also means that the writing is difficult to understand at times. There were several passages I had to reread to make sure I was understanding them completely--another reason for the deducted star. It also felt a bit more like an overview, due to the shortness of the book and the number of things it covered, but I found as I read on I didn't really mind the 'overview' feeling of the writing. Despite the above two complaints, I still think the book acts as a good guide to Ancient Babylonia. I enjoyed the topics covered in the book, and appreciated that Budge went over geography and history first before going into more detail about the religion, cities, laws, and people of Babylonia. Obviously, the entire book is about the history, but providing background information for people who aren't too familiar with the time or culture definitely helps with comprehension. I was pleased with the number of plates included in the book as well. It's one thing to read a description of art or a map from the time period, and another thing entirely to actually see said art or map. It helped me to visualize the style of of art as well as the artifacts used during the time period, which I appreciated. One of the other things I really reallyliked about the book was how Budge included cuneiform in the text. There is a specific chapter dedicated to language and education, but the cuneiform can be found throughout the entire book alongside many of the people and place names Budge provides. I'm not 100% on how accurate his translations are (I do not know Sumerian in any sense), but I still enjoyed puzzling out common symbols and getting a light grasp on how the written language worked. It should come as no surprise, then, when I say my favorite chapter was the Writing and Learning chapter. Budge spent time going back and showing how pictographs began changing to cuneiform as more tools became available, and how that early cuneiform was transformed into the later form of it via the same process. He provides examples of this process a couple times, pointing out how the details of certain pictographs were lost to early cuneiform while others stayed, and then how some of those details got accentuated and others lost as early cuneiform evolved into later forms of the writing. I think Budge provides the most visual evidence in this section, which helps the reader better understand what he's talking about in terms of 'detailing' and 'wedge.' My only disappointment with this chapter is that we don't get a table that translates the symbols to their phonology in a more comprehensive manner. We have the translations he provides, as well as descriptions and examples of how the numbering system worked, but we don't get anywhere near a comprehensive example of how the symbology and phonology connect (other than the obvious: one symbol for one sound). Some of my other favorite chapters were the ones that dealt with the religion, myths, and legends that were present in Babylonia. I definitely think this is where Budge's expertise truly shines through, since there are multiple chapters on different aspects of the subject. Budge takes his time to explain several of the Babylonian myths and legends in detail, and he later goes back and references some of them. He also spends some time near the beginning of the book explaining the pantheon of gods--what gods there were, how they related, what they did, etc.--as well as how they evolved as the society evolved, and how some gods who were prominent during one period became less prominent during another, and vice versa. I think Budge did and excellent job compiling and presenting his research on Ancient Babylonia in this book. He covers a wide range of topics, some in greater detail than others, in a relatively short span of pages. While it does feel a bit like an overview of Babylonia in general, and it can be a bit hard to understand at times, I definitely think it's worth the read if you're interested in the topic.

[implexis]

Timeline: 4000 to 2001 BCE

4000  The wooden plow is being used in central Europe. Agriculture has spread to what today is Britain and Ireland.

4000  Some agricultural hubs have come into being in southern Scandinavia. A Danish science magazine, Videnskab, in the year 2013 will write: " The people in these hubs had a different approach to the flint axe than the contemporary hunter-gatherers did. This indicates that the first Scandinavian farmers moved from the south and that it wasn't local hunter-gatherers that got the grand idea to begin farming."

4000  It is hypothesized that in the Eurasian steppes, horses have begun to be domesticated.

4000-3000  In Europe farmers' genetic signature has become melded with that of the indigenous Europeans.

3600  In southwest Asia, copper is being mixed with tin to produce a metal harder than copper: bronze. Around this time the Sumerians create a system of writing that is for enumurating – counting.

3500  Sumerians have migrated to Mesopotamia and have taken over villages and the agriculture of others. Food surpluses are allowing a diversity of occupations to develop: soldier, farmer, craftsperson, merchant. Individual possession of land has been replacing communal possession.

3500  What is today known as the Sahara Desert begins forming in North Africa. People flee from drought to the Nile River, where they trap water for irrigation and begin an intense agriculture in what is otherwise desert.

3500  Settlements exist in what today is northern Israel.

3500  In what today is Kazakhstan, people are riding, milking and eating horses.

3300 A man dies crossing the mountain range known today as the Alps. In 1991 CE his body will be found and he will be given the nickname "Ötzi" (ice man). A Computed Tomography (CT) scan of his body will find an arrowhead embedded in his back that was unhealed, indicating it may have been a factor in his death.

3100  In the Fertile Crescent (an area which encompasses what is now Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq), objects made of conch shells are imported from what is today Pakistan. Transport costs leave the items of trade exclusive to those elites who possess the wealth to pay for them.

3000  In what today is western Finland, people were chewing a gummy, sugarless birch bark tar for use as an adhesive, but which also had antiseptic properties. It helped fight gum infections and chewing after meals helped fight tooth decay.

3000  Among the Sumerians, democratic assemblies are giving way to the authority of kings. Priesthood is becoming distinct from working alongside others in the fields. Field labor is described as deserved subservience to the gods. Hardship is seen as a product of sin. People and animals are still sacrificed to gods. Floods are common and a story of a great flood exists. Trade and wealth are pursued. Competition for power between the kings of city-states produces wars of conquest. The warrior tradition continues with men dominating women. With commerce, cuneiform writing develops.

3000  The Persian Gulf is a major artery of commerce. The ways of Mesopotamians are spreading to Egypt and Greece.

3000  Writing has developed in Egypt believed by some scholars in modern times to have been derived from the Sumerians. Words and ideas but not sound are represented by the most simple of pictures – pictographs.

3000  Egypt is united through warfare. There, human and animal sacrifices continue. Egyptians have many gods but Egypt has little rain and no myth of a flood. The rule of Egyptian kings is claimed to be associated with the gods. Kings are believed descended from the gods and more deserving than common people.

2700  The Sumerians have expanded their writing, marks on clay tablets that represent syllables of their spoken langage: phonological writing.

2700  It is estimated that around this time Minoan civilization, on the island of Crete, begins – built by seagoing tradesmen. Rule is to be by the wealthy with a well-organized bureaucracy. Workmen will produce fine vases, sheet metal, tweezers, stonework and other artifacts.

2700  In the Americas, corn, beans, chilies and squash are among cultivated plants.

2600  Agricultural people give rise to the city-settlement of Mohenjo-daro in the Indus Valley in what today is India.

2600  In the Middle East, oxen are pulling wooden plows, cutting deeper into soil.

2500  In the Fertile Crescent, the new imports are ceramic jars, copper tools and jewelry. Transportation costs make these items of trade too expensive for all but wealthy elites. Common people are still using stone tools.

2500-2000  Farmers appear in what today are the Philippines and eventually in what today is Indonesia. They are said to have had the Dapenkeng culture style of pottery.

2500  Around now, Bronze Age pastoralists from Southern Russia move into Europe's heartland. A DNA study will produce a conclusion that the pastoralists will contribute to 50 percent of some modern north Europeans. Southern Europeans will appear to have been less affected by the expansion, this according to BBC News, March 2, 2015, which adds: "Most indigenous European tongues, from English to Russian and Spanish to Greek, belong to the Indo-European group. The classification is based on shared features of vocabulary and grammar."

2300  Indo-Europeans move into southern Greece conquering the current population and making themselves into an aristocracy over those who had migrated there many centuries before. These latest migrants are to be known as the Mycenae Greeks, who have gods similar to other Indo-Europeans, including a father god.

2300  In what today is England, the stone monument Stonehenge is built. (Carbon dating performed in the year of 2008.)

2250  The Mycenae Greeks are in contact with sea-going tradesmen, the Minoans of Crete – a commercial society ruled by the wealthy.

2200  Troy, a coastal town in Asia Minor, known as Troy II among archaeologists (a second level settlement with numerous others to be built on top in coming centuries) is destroyed by fire.

2200  A Semite to be known as Sargon the Great takes power in the Sumerian city of Kish. He conquers in the name of the Sumerian god Enlil and builds an empire across Mesopotamia and Syria.

2200  The settlements in what today is northern Israel have been abandoned.

2150  The empire of Sargon's grandson, Naramsim, is overrun by migrating Gutiens. Naramsin's subjects blame their misfortune on their having angered their gods.

2130  Reduced waters in the Nile are accompanied by political upheaval. Instability within the royal families of Egypt have ended previous dynasties, and now an eighth dynasty of kings loses power. Two hundred years of political chaos has begun. Common folks attack the rich and local lords assume power independent of any king.

[ayearinlanguage]

A Year in Language, Day 29: Hittite

Hittite is an ancient Indo-European language spoken in Anatolia (modern day Turkey) between the 16th and 13th centuries BCE. Though the language was preserved on cuneiform tablets it was not deciphered until the early 20th century.

The decipherment of Hittite came with the discovery of tablets written in the Hittite language but using the already deciphered Akkadian style of cuneiform, thus allowing linguists to piece the language together from a phonological standpoint. However, while we could now make accurate guesses at what the language sounded like, the grammar and meaning remained elusive; consider if someone taught you the sounds made by the letters in the Hebrew alphabet, but nothing of the Hebrew language. The linguist Bedřich Hrozný made a breakthrough when considering the following sentence:

nu NINDA-an ezzatteni watar-ma ekutteni

"NINDA" is in all caps because it does not represent the actual Hittite word. Instead the cuneiform symbol used was an ideogram i.e. a pictographic image known to represent bread, the word for which is "ninda" in Sumerian. Bedřich noticed two things. First the word following "ninda", "ezzatteni" looks similar to German "essen", meaning "to eat", and also to its Latin equivalent "edo". Eating and bread are common couples. Secondly he noticed "watar" which, well, sounds like water. He guessed correctly that the sentence would translate to something like "eat bread and drink water". Noticing these roots was impressive as it meant Hittite, unlike most of the languages spoken around it, was Indo-European.

The decipherment of Hittite was also an important moment for reconstructive linguistics i.e. the science of reconstructing unattested languages. Using a tool called the comparative method linguists can reconstruct more ancient unattested languages by comparing the existing daughter languages. The issues with these reconstructions though is that they are inherently impossible to truly verify; one must simply trust modern linguistic theory, which, I should mention, is in a state of constant flux. Ill try to keep the explanation digestible. Before Hittite was rediscovered Linguists had posited a certain sound that existed in Proto-Indo-European (PIE) to explain certain features of its descendants. The only issue was this sound had fused with other sounds very early in the language families history, so the only evidence of it where echoes of echoes. The comparative method said it must exist, but the historical record said it did not. Then comes Hittite. Hittite belongs to a branch of Indo-European that split off much earlier than most other branches. As such, it preserves features that were lost in other branches. Amongst these where sounds that could have only emerged from these theoretical PIE sounds. Thus Hittite proved the legitimacy of the comparative method.

[letsdesignbrostuff-blog]

A Short History of Graphic Design

  Graphic design is a field that is widely known today by people around the world, but even if it had been existing since forever, its origins had to come from somewhere. The term itself first appeared in print in the 1922 essay “New Kind of Printing Calls for New Design” written by a typographer William Addison Dwiggins. Later on, “Raffe's Graphic Design” published in 1927 was the first book title that included the words ‘graphic design’ on a cover. Although Leon Friend's 1936 book “Graphic Design” is believed to be the earliest comprehensive description of the field, today, there are millions of publishings that focus on both its brief history and its compelling subject in general. We’d like to think that everything that is significant in history happened during our lifetime. However, to truly grasp the bigger picture of graphic design , we should take our time to dig into its historical discoveries, starting from the very first cave paintings. This is where it all began. Graphic Design Roots: Prehistory Age

Image source: Medium Where should you look to find the origins of graphic design? You’ve probably heard of the Lascaux caves in Southern France, Rome's Trajan's Column, or the illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages and so on. Fast forward just a couple thousand years later, you’ll discover the Blau Monument (3100-2700 BC), a pair of inscribed stone objects from Mesopotamia which is now located in the British Museum. It’s the first known artifact to use both words and pictures on it. We already knew that the history of graphic design didn’t kick-off with computers or any other digital means. It has been assumed that graphic design has almost no end and is strongly interwoven with human existence and culture. The traces of the earliest undisputed art originated with the Homo sapiens’ Aurignacian archaeological culture in the Upper Paleolithic. Hence, it could be said that the vague preference for aesthetics probably already emerged in the Middle Paleolithic, which was about 100,000 to 50,000 years ago. Cave paintings 38,000 BCE Since graphic design, in its most basic description, is the art of creating graphics on a surface, it can literally be done on canvas, paper, computer screen, stones, pottery, or even on cave walls. The other name for cave paintings is "parietal art", and they were exhibited on cave walls, ceilings, and date back to around 38,000 BCE in Eurasia. Around 35,000 years ago, the first cave painting “Pettakere” was made in Sulawesi, Indonesia. However, their exact purpose is still not yet entirely known by scientists. Ancient people decorated walls with paint made from dirt or charcoal mixed with spit or animal fat. What's important is that at that time, they couldn't write, so apart from being just a simple decoration, their designs could have probably served as a means for communication as well. Some theories ascribe a religious or ceremonial purpose to them. The most common themes in European cave paintings are large wild animals, such as bison, horses, aurochs, deer, and tracings of human hands (most likely artists’ signatures) as well as abstract patterns. Sumerian written language 3300 – 3000 BCE At one point, writings started to appear, and one of the earliest known written languages is Sumerian. The so-called proto-literate period of Sumerian writing spans roughly 3300 to 3000 BC. In this era, records were purely logographic (icons used to represent entire words instead of phonetic sounds), and they all had phonological content. It was underlined by researchers that this logographic way of constructing a language suggested the natural ability for humans to use visual representations to communicate complex ideas. Surprisingly enough, this natural method refers directly to the field of modern graphic design. Archaic Sumerian was the earliest stage of inscriptions with linguistic content, beginning with the Jemdet Nasr (Uruk III) era from about 3100 to 3000 BC. The oldest document of the proto-literate period was the Kish tablet. Paper and Printing Era

Image source: ThoughtCo. Before the idea of graphic design has proliferated to support commercial and creative endeavors such as magazines, logo designs, book covers, and outdoor advertisements up to reaching its digital forms, it first had to get familiar with paper and print! Contrary to popular belief, Gutenberg entered the playfield pretty late, since the origins of paper and graphics actually began with Chinese discoveries. The invention of paper in 105 AD by a Chinese man was what led to the concept of printing. It was around a thousand years later, in 1045 AD, that the first moveable type was invented. In 1276, a paper mill arrived in Fabriano, Italy, and this era was known for officially kicking off the first paper mill in Europe. However, only in 1450 was the system for printing books and other forms of literature at its heights. In 1460, the first illustrations in a printed book followed. Advancements in Chinese printing 200 CE – 1040 CE Some of the Chinese printing discoveries included non-papyrus paper making, woodblock printing, and movable type. Since 200 CE, they were already using wood reliefs to print and stamp designs on silk clothes and later on paper. It was only in 1040 (400 years before Gutenberg) that Bi Sheng invented the world’s first movable type printing press out of porcelain. During the Tang Dynasty (618–907), wood blocks were initially cut to print on textiles. However, they were later used to reproduce Buddhist texts. The Buddhist scripture printed in 868, was the earliest known printed book. Beginning in the 11th century, longer scrolls and books were produced, making them widely available to the masses (960–1279). Medieval calligraphy 700 - 900 It seems as if people have always had the inherent drive towards art, and this has been evidential since the early cave paintings. As human development progressed, typography became more important, since aesthetic horizons were being broadened and the intellectual mind was increasingly eager to collect information. This period dates all the way back to the Middle Ages. Texts in this era were still produced and replicated by hand, and the artistry in producing small portions of exquisite books was what made these items and its creators stand out of the crowd. Interestingly, in Islamic cultures for example, figurative art was seen as sacrilegious. Therefore, typography was among the few permissible ways of artistic expression at the time. European heraldry ~1100 - 1400

Image source: Enacademic Heraldry is a system by which coats of arms and other armorial bearings are devised, described, and regulated. In all likelihood, the first real logo, in its semantic entirety, was actually the coat of arms which became a symbol used to represent family houses or territories. During the Crusades, soldiers from different countries used them on armor and battle flags to distinguish themselves apart. As coats of arms are therefore used to represent certain values, it can be successfully compared to the modern use of a logo for brands. Storefront signage 1389 Looking back at the 14th century, times seemed rather hard. During this era, beer and ale were commonly drunk by people, therefore King Richard II of England made a law that ale houses must have signs out front so that the public could find them easier. This allowed for various work opportunities for graphic designers at the time since pubs ' visual identities and drinking etiquettes were graphic products waiting to be designed. This was how the first signage that represented commerce was born. The Birth of Graphic Design - The Industrial Revolution Era 1760 – 1800

Image source: Foundation for Economic Education For hundreds of years, people’s lives were primarily focused on agriculture. Folks farmed small pieces of land for the subsistence of their own families, producing DIY tools, furniture, and clothing for their use or inter-neighborhood trade. The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain around 1760 and from then on, it spread to other parts of the world. To put it shortly, it was a cultural and economic shift from the cottage industry to a factory-based manufacturing system. But what did this mean for the field of graphic design? As a major turning point in the history of human mankind, it marked almost every aspect of daily life. The general mechanization acted as a strong accelerator of processes. When it comes to printing speed in 1810, industrial innovation allowed for 400 pages to be printed per hour. According to some critics, civilisation was shifting from admiring humanist values to worshiping material goods. Mass production brought the need for mass communication, therefore the nature of visual information had changed significantly during this era. Graphic communications became more important, photography was invented, while the expansion of printers, advertisement, and posters also occurred. Growth of Graphic Design: Up until 1900s This was when good design days came about. Gutenberg's printing press enabled people to recreate text, art, and design on a massive scale and in a cost-effective manner. From this, companies started to learn how to grow in terms of their visual identity and how to sell with the use of it. Invention of the Gutenberg press – 1439 What changed thanks to Johannes Gutenberg's invention was people’s attitude towards printed books and the press. With accessibility came all sorts of profits starting with easier mass communication and affordable knowledge and information. The year 1439 changed civilisation and shaped Western culture. Graphic design ultimately gained a supporter, with the Gutenberg press paving the way for its broad commercial use. First logos – late 1400s We've already mentioned where the roots of logos lie, but before the press arrived, it had been a whole different story. The printing industry allowed for graphic designs to be multiplied perfectly in an infinite number of times. The first logos were limited to marks on companies' documents. Parallel to actually being used to visually represent a company, a logo was also meant to present the brand’s advancement in its printing technique. In short, how well the logo was printed reflected how well everything else was printed by them. First print advertisements – 1620s You know them. They are funny, and today we often laugh at them when they appear on the internet. The first printed advertisements' amateurish style were as amusing and original as for our modern, refined perception. They appeared suddenly in massively printed newspapers. In that era, they were called “coranto”. The ads invasion happened in Europe in the early 1600s, but written advertisements initially date back to ancient Egypt. So what was all the fuss about? The thing is, this became the first time people could actually see images in mass-produced ads. Chromolithography – 1837 The further the technological progress reached, the more the world of graphic design could develop and spread its wings. Look at the seemingly simple ability to print in color or at chromolithography for example. It dramatically changed the perspective and broaden the range of advertising possibilities - characteristic, brand-linked color schemes, color-based emotional connections, etc. Furthermore, chromolithography enabled a higher degree of realism and attractiveness added to the simple objects of life and fashion. Until then, graphic design was solely based on shapes and marks. That's why the message was first of all clear and informative. Later on, the graphic design field of commerce started to approach the topic based on emotional attitudes, an approach that is very well-known to us today. Growth of Graphic design: After 1900s In 1993, Paul Rand successfully distinguished the core of this profession: “To design is much more than simply to assemble, to order, or even to edit: it is to add value and meaning, to illuminate, to simplify, to clarify, to modify, to dignify, to dramatize, to persuade and perhaps even to amuse. To design is to transform prose into poetry.” Today's form of graphic design began developing since the late 1800s. Whereas technological advancements of the industrial revolution era completely changed the game, the time to develop the specific tools and learn how to play with them came afterwards.

Image source: My Modern Met In 1903, the first graphic design agency, The Wiener Werkstätte, was established. The benefit of graphic design became evident and widely recognized since then, which helped kick off an entirely new industry. The Wiener Werkstätte was the first organization of visual artists which included architects, painters, and early graphic designers. They boldly reached out to cubism and other stylistic innovations, and their symbolic accomplishments set the stage for the Bauhaus and Art Deco styles. Staatliches Bauhaus was founded in 1919 in Weimar, Germany. Another difficult German word linked to it, the ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’, was an artistic ideal that encompassed or synthesized existing art forms into one perfect work. The goal that was actually brought into life - Bauhaus became one of the central driving forces behind the popularization of the modernist style. In 1922, William Addison Dwiggins explained in his book what graphic design actually was. Hence, the actual profession and the style of life in which it brings has been well-described through it. Moreover, “Thoughts on Design” by Paul Rand (the designer responsible for the logos for Ford, Westinghouse, Yale, ABC, UPS, and IBM) was published in 1947. In his book, he focused on “functional-aesthetic perfection,” an ideal balance between a logo looking good and communicating its points effectively. Up to this day, graphic designers' books and speeches collectively happen to fuel all the creative innovations within this field. Graphic design in this day and age From the 1950s onwards, the Industrial Revolution became almost insignificant compared to the digital one. Instead of mass printing, humans are enjoying the continuous technological advancements, with the computer, Internet, and social networks being huge turning points to how graphic design is today. Online platforms created many professions and opportunities for graphic designers. Meanwhile, digital softwares became more and more polished, cheaper, and more accessible than ever before. In 1990, the first version of Adobe Photoshop was released, creating a revolution in the way graphic designers worked. Photo manipulation created a whole new subcategory of graphic design. Prior to this, only artistic collages provided the possibility to blend together elements of photography, illustration, and CGI. Now, practically everything can be done. What are the forecasts for the future then? The above-mentioned route of surprising turns in the development of graphic design and the progression of visual communication is exciting because it shows that this field has no end. It continuously develops and changes paths, but the core idea of communication with the use of visual symbolism remains the same. Today, graphic design trends, styles, and preferences vary from designer to designer, but one thing is for sure - there is infinitely a plenitude of space for development.   Read the full article

[stumpyjoepete]

Required reading for anyone who wants to use the word “ideographic”. Might as well actually quote from John DeFrancis when invoking the #angry ghost of john defrancis:

Here Creel says: "We have specialized on the representation of sounds; the Chinese have specialized on making their writing so suggestive to the eye that it immediately calls up ideas and vivid pictures, without any interposition of sounds" (1937:159). If we take this statement at face value without qualifying it with "What the author really meant to say was ..." -- a practice that runs the risk of misinterpreting what the author meant -- the statement is absurdly false, as can be attested by any reader of this book who has not studied Chinese. Simply look at the characters sprinkled throughout the work and note how many or how few immediately call up ideas and vivid pictures without any interposition of sounds.The qualification that we hesitate to read into Creel's statement is suggested by the author himself, but in the same specialized journal mentioned earlier and quoted to the effect that Chinese is not "a pictographic language in the sense that it consisted of writing by means of pictures all or most of which would be readily understood by the uninstructed." But if the ability to grasp an idea "immediately" or "readily" from symbols that are "a practical pictographic and ideographic script" though not "pictoral writing" is limited to those who presumably must be classified as "the instructed," this makes the otherwise absurd statement inanely true. For it is equally true that the instructed can immediately grasp an idea whether it is expressed in Chinese characters, in Egyptian hieroglyphs, in Japanese kana, or even in our less than perfect English orthography.

We need to go further and throw out the term itself. Boodberg proposed doing so years ago when he sharply criticized students of early Chinese inscriptions for neglecting the phonological aspect of Chinese writing and for "insisting that the Chinese in the development of their writing ... followed some mysterious esoteric principles that set them apart from the rest of the human race." Boodberg added (1937:329-332):

Also, a friendly reminder that it’s not just Chinese--All full writing systems have phonetic elements!

Champollion's success in deciphering the Egyptian script was due to his recognition of its phonetic aspect. He believed that what he called "the alphabet of the phonetic hieroglyphs" existed in Egypt "at a far distant time," that it was first "a necessary part" of the hieroglyphic script, and that later it was also used to transcribe "the proper names of peoples, countries, cities, rulers, and individual foreigners who had to be commemorated in historic texts or monumental inscriptions" (1822:41-42). These insights won by Champollion are supported by the succinct description of the Egyptian system of writing made by a recent authority: "The system of hieroglyphic writing has two basic features: first, representable objects are portrayed as pictures (ideograms), and second, the picture signs are given the phonetic value of the word for the represented objects (phonograms). At the same time, these signs are also written to designate homonyms, similar-sounding words" (Brunner 1974:854). The same authority also stresses that "hieroglyphs were from the very beginning phonetic symbols. ... Egyptian writing was a complete script; that is, it could unequivocally fix any word, including all derivatives and all grammatical forms" (Brunner 1974:853-855).

In human history it seems that the idea of using a pictograph in the new function of representing sound may have occurred only three times: once in Mesopotamia, perhaps by the Sumerians, once in China, apparently by the Chinese themselves, and once in Central America, by the Mayas. (Conceivably it was invented only once, but there is no evidence that the Chinese or the Mayas acquired the idea from elsewhere.)

[sumerianlanguage]

Silim! Sorry I wanna ask again hehe, what is the cuneiform letter for the word "beloved" and also the right pronunciation? Because when I looked at Sumerian Lexicon the word is pronounced as "ki-ág" but on Electronic Text Cospus of Sumerian Literature the word is pronounced as "ki aj-ja-ni"

Silim! So both of the examples you have here are (non-standard) transliterations - the ETCSL's in particular is used for search strings only, because there's no single English letter that corresponds to the Sumerian "ng" sound, so they chose the (unrelated) letter "j" to make searching their site easier.

The cuneiform for this word is 𒆠𒉘 or 𒆠𒉘𒂷, pronounced kiang or kianga respectively. The "ng" is pronounced like the sound in English "singing", not with a hard "g" like in "finger". So it'd be approximately "kee-awng(-uh)" (if that's helpful!)

The form you list with -ni on the end includes the possessive suffix corresponding to "his/her", so kiangani 𒆠𒉘𒂷𒉌 would be "his/her beloved". "My beloved" would be kiangangu 𒆠𒉘𒂷𒈬.

[necropsittacus]

besides everything else going on with this book like

a. these are *blatantly* just attempted sumerianizations of lovecraft names, i wouldn't buy the idea that there was some kind of Underlying Truth lovecraft was tapping into that lined up with mesopotamian myth in any circumstances whatsoever anyway but even assuming these were real sumerian mythological figures at all, that lovecraft might have been referencing, i feel like the names shouldn't be this similar

b. they're often not even good sumerianizations; based on my limited knowledge of sumerian phonology im p sure the author isnt differentiating between sumerian and akkadian, and the sound systems arent the same

[skullssales]

Huns | Wikipedia article

The Huns had been a nomadic folks who lived in primary Asia the Caucasus in japanese Europe between the 4th and 6th century advert in line with European tradition they have been first pronounced living east of the Volga River in an discipline that was once part of Scythia at the time the Huns arrival is related to the migration westward of a Scythian folks the Allens by using 370 ad the Huns had arrived on the Volga and by means of 430 the Huns had situated a titanic if brief-lived Dominion in Europe conquering the Goths and many different Germanic peoples living external of Roman borders and inflicting many others to flee into Roman territory the Huns exceptionally below their king Attila made common and devastating raids into the japanese Roman Empire in 451 the Huns invaded the Western Roman province of Gaul where they fought a mixed military of Romans and Visigoths at the combat of the Catalonian fields and in 452 they invaded Italy after a Teela’s death in 453 the Huns ceased to be a important danger to Rome and misplaced a lot of their empire following the fight of Neto 464 descendents of the Huns or successors with similar names are recorded by using neighboring populations to the south east and west as having occupied constituents of eastern Europe and vital Asia from concerning the 4th to sixth centuries editions of the Hun identify are recorded in the Caucasus until the early eighth century within the 18th century the French pupil Josef dig Wiens grew to become the primary to advise a link between the Huns and the Xiongnu persons who were northern neighbors of China within the 3rd century BC since Greene’s time giant scholarly effort has been devoted to investigating this kind of connection nonetheless there’s no scholarly consensus on a right away connection between the dominant aspect of the Xiongnu and that of the Huns little or no is known about Hunnic tradition and only a few archaeological stays were conclusively associated with the Huns they are believed to have used bronze cauldrons and to have performed synthetic cranial deformation no description exists of the Hunnic religion of the time of Attila however practices such as divination or attested and the existence of shaman’s doubtless additionally it is identified that the Huns had a language of their possess nonetheless best three words and private names attested economically they’re identified to have practiced a type of nomadic pastoralism as their contact with the Roman world grew their financial system became increasingly tied with Rome by means of tribute raiding and alternate they do not appear to have had a unified govt once they entered Europe however rather to have developed a unified tribal leadership within the course of their wars with the Romans the Huns ruled over a type of peoples who spoke more than a few languages and a few of whom maintained their possess rulers their foremost navy method was mounted archery the Huns can have encouraged the satisfactory migration a contributing component in the fall down of the Western Roman Empire the reminiscence of the Huns also lived on in quite a lot of Christian saints lives the place the Huns play the roles of antagonists as well as in Germanic heroic legend the place the Huns are variously antagonists or allies to the Germanic fundamental figures in Hungary a legend developed headquartered on medieval chronicles that the Hungarians and the CKD ethnic group in certain are descended from the Huns however mainstream scholarship dismisses a detailed connection between the Hungarians and Huns modern-day tradition commonly associates the Huns with severe cruelty and barbarism topic origin the origins of the Huns and their links to different steppe individuals remain uncertain students mostly agree that they originated in central Asia however disagree on the specifics of their origins classical sources assert that they regarded in Europe all of a sudden round 370 most in most cases Roman writers makes an attempt to elucidate the origins of the Huns easily equated them with prior step peoples Roman writers also repeated a story that the Huns had entered the area of the Goths at the same time they had been pursuing a wild stag or else considered one of their cows that had gotten loose across the Kerch Strait into Crimea discovering the land excellent they then attacked the Goths Jordans Aesthetica relates that the Goths held the Huns to be offspring of unclean spirits and Gothic witches matter relation to the Xiongnu and different persons’s known as Huns since Joseph tremendous wins in the 18th century present day historians have associated the Huns who appeared on the borders of Europe in the 4th century advert with the Xiongnu who had invaded China from the territory of present-day Mongolia between the 3rd century BC and the 2nd century ad due to the devastating defeat by using the chinese language Han Dynasty the northern branch of the Xiongnu had retreated north westward their descendants may have migrated by means of Eurasia and consequently they may have some measure of cultural and genetic continuity with the Huns students also discussed the relationship between the Xiongnu the Huns and a quantity of men and women in significant Asia were also known as her got here to be recognized with the identify hun or Iranian Huns the Chia Knights the child rights and the hefty lights or white Huns being probably the most distinguished OTO Jame historic helfen was once the first to challenge the average approach headquartered especially on the study of written sources and to stress the significance of archaeological study seeing that maintian well being ins work the identification of the Xiongnu as the Huns ancestors has become controversial additionally a number of scholars have puzzled the identification of the iranian Huns with the ecu Huns walter pol cautions that none of the great Confederations of steppe warriors was ethnically homogeneous and the identical name was used by distinct corporations for causes of status or by using outsiders to explain their tradition or geographic origin it’s consequently futile to speculate about identity or blood relationships between HS IU and G new pet the lights and Attila’s huns for illustration all we will safely say is that the title Huns in late antiquity described prestigious ruling companies of steppe warriors up to date scholarship mainly by way of younger Jin Kim and Etienne de la vie sea air has revived the hypothesis that the Huns and the Xiongnu are one within the identical de la vie sea air argues that historical chinese language and indian sources used track nu and hunt to translate each and every different and that the various Iranian Huns had been in a similar way identified with the Xiongnu Kim believes that the time period hunt used to be now not above all an ethnic workforce but a political class and argues for a fundamental political and cultural continuity between the Xiongnu and the ecu Huns as well as between the Xiongnu and the iranian Huns subject name and etymology the title hunt is attested in classical European sources as Greek annoy annoy and Latin honey or Tunis John malala’s documents their title as una una one other feasible Greek variant could also be Cho no account even though this staff’s identification with the Hong’s is disputed classical sources additionally most likely referred to as the Hong’s massaged a Scythians Sumerians and different names for earlier companies of steppe nomads the etymology of hunt is unclear quite a lot of proposed etymologies often anticipate as a minimum that the names of the more than a few Eurasian groups referred to as Huns are associated there were a quantity of proposed Turkic etymologies deriving the identify variously from Turkic on onna to develop June glutton kun gun a plural suffix supposedly that means persons June drive and hunt ferocious Auto principal channel Fionn dismisses all of these Turkic etymologies as mere guesses essential chin health and himself proposes an Iranian etymology from a word corresponding to a vest in hunter skill hoon er Avant skilful and means that it may initially have detailed a rank as an alternative than an ethnicity Robert Warner has suggested an etymology from toque Aryan ku dog suggesting based on the truth that the chinese called the Xiongnu dogs that the dog was the totem animal of the Hunnic tribe he additionally compares the title message day noting that the detail Sokka in that name method dog others equivalent to Harold Bailey as parlando and Jamshid jock see have argued that the name derives from an Iranian word equivalent to a vest in Zion ax and was a generalized time period meaning hostel’s opponent Christopher Atwood dismisses this probability on phonological and chronological grounds even as not arriving at an etymology per se atwood derives the title from the Anki river in mongolia which was once said the equal or just like the title Zhang nu and suggests that it was once in the beginning a dynastic title alternatively than an ethnic identify topic race old descriptions of the Huns are uniform in stressing their unusual look from a Roman point of view these descriptions by and large sketch the Huns as monsters jordanes harassed that the Huns were short of stature and had tanned dermis various writers stated that the Huns had small eyes and flat noses the Roman writer Priscus offers the next eyewitness description of Attila short of stature with a huge chest and a huge head his eyes had been small his beard skinny and sprinkled with grey and he had a flat nostril and tanned epidermis showing evidence of his starting place many scholars take these to be unflattering depictions of East Asian mongoloid racial traits major chin well being and argues that even as many Huns had some East Asian racial traits they were not going to have regarded as Asiatic because the yakit or Tungus he notes that archaeological finds have presumed Huns endorse that they have been a racially mixed workforce containing only some members with East Asian points Kim in a similar way cautions towards seeing the Huns as a homogeneous racial staff even as still arguing that they have been partly are predominantly of mongoloid extraction as a minimum at the beginning some archaeologists have argued that archaeological finds have didn’t show that the Huns had any mongoloid aspects in any respect and a few scholars have argued that the Huns have been predominantly Caucasian Kim notes that at the combat of chlons 451 the great majority of Attila’s entourage and troops seems to had been European topic historical past you subject earlier than Attila the Romans grew to be mindful of the huns when the latter’s invasion of the pondok steppes compelled thousands of Goths to maneuver to the diminish Danube to search refuge in the Roman Empire in 376 the Huns conquered the Allens lots of the GRU thong gear Western Goths and then most of the 13 er jap Goths with many fleeing into the roman empire in 395 the Huns started out their first large-scale attack on the jap roman empire Huns attacked in Thrace overran Armenia and pillaged Cappadocia they entered materials of Syria threatened Antioch and passed through by way of the province of Euphrasia while the Huns invaded the sasanian empire this invasion was once at the beginning triumphant coming just about the capital of the empire at si te siphon however they were defeated badly throughout the Persian counter-attack during their temporary diversion from the eastern Roman Empire the Huns will have threatened tribes extra west alden the primary hunt recognized by using identify in cutting-edge sources headed a gaggle of Huns and allens fighting in opposition to Radig isis in protection of italy alden was additionally recognized for defeating gothic rebels giving obstacle to the east Romans across the Danube and beheading the goth gained is round four hundred to 4 hundred one the east Romans started to feel the pressure from elgin’s Huns once more in 408 Alban crossed the Danube and pillaged Thrace the east Romans tried to purchase Alden off however his sum used to be too high in order that they as a substitute bought off Alden subordinates this resulted in lots of desertions from Aldens staff of Huns Eldon himself escaped again throughout the Danube after which he isn’t stated again Hunnish mercenaries are recounted on a few occasions being employed by using the East in West Romans as good because the Goths throughout the late 4th and 5th century in 433 some materials of Pannonia had been ceded to them with the aid of Flavius Adeus the Magister melindam of the Western Roman Empire topic beneath Attila from 434 the brothers attila and blade a ruled the Hunts collectively attila and blade mindful as bold as their uncle rutila in 435 they compelled the eastern roman empire to sign the treaty of Margus giving the Huns alternate rights and an annual tribute from the romans when the romans breached the treaty in 440 attila and blade attacked castro Constantius a roman fortress and market on the banks of the Danube warfare broke out between the Huns and Romans and the Huns overcame a vulnerable Roman army to raze the cities of Margus Singha dunam and Venetian despite the fact that a truce was once concluded in four hundred forty one two years later constantinople again didn’t supply the tribute and war resumed in the following crusade hun armies approached constantinople and sacked a few cities earlier than defeating the romans on the battle of chersonesus the eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius ii gave into hunda man’s and in autumn 443 signed the Peace of Anatolia swith the to hunt Kings bladed ied in 445 and Attila grew to become the sole ruler of the Huns in 447 Attila invaded the Balkans and Thrace the war got here to an lead to 449 with an agreement in which the Romans agreed to pay a Atilla and annual tribute of 2100 pounds of gold for the duration of their raids on the eastern Roman Empire the Huns had maintained good members of the family with the Western Empire nevertheless in Honoria sister of the Western Roman Emperor Valentinian the third sent it Atilla a ring and requested his support to escape her betrothal to a senator attila claimed her as his bride and half of the western roman empire as dowry additionally a dispute arose concerning the rightful inheritor to a king of the salian franks in 451 Attila’s forces entered gaul as soon as in gaul the Huns first attacked Metz then his armies endured westwards passing each Paris and Troy’s to put siege to or lay on Flavia ceadeus was once given the obligation of relieving or leon through emperor Valentinian the 0.33 a mixed army of Roman and Visigoths then defeated the Huns at the combat of the Catalonian plains the following year attila renewed his claims to Honoria and territory within the western roman empire main his army throughout the Alps and into northern Italy he sacked and raised a quantity of cities hoping to prevent the sack of Rome Emperor Valentinian the 1/3 despatched three envoys the excessive civilian officers gennadius AV inocent rajesh Asst as well as Pope Leo the primary who met Attila at minseo within the neighborhood of Mantua and acquired from him the promise that he would withdraw from Italy and negotiate peace with the Emperor the new eastern Roman Emperor Marcion then halted tribute payments resulting in a Atilla planning to assault Constantinople nevertheless in 453 he died of a hemorrhage on his marriage ceremony night time matter after Attila after a Teela’s dying in 453 the Hunnic Empire confronted an internal energy struggle between its vassal eyes Germanic peoples in the hunnic ruling body led by way of ellic attila’s appreciated son and ruler of the akut seri the Huns engaged the Gepard king our derek on the combat of meta who led a coalition of Germanic peoples to overthrow Hunnic Imperial Authority the amali Goths would revolt the identical year below val a mere allegedly defeating the Huns in a separate engagement nevertheless this didn’t effect within the entire fall down of hunnic vigor in the Carpathian neighborhood however did influence within the lack of many of their Germanic vassals whilst the Huns have been additionally dealing with the advent of extra ogre turkic-talking peoples from the east including the ogres Sara gore’s and ogres and therefore seems in 463 the Sara Gore’s defeated the Alcott’s Eyrie or a Kadir Huns and asserted dominance within the Pontic vicinity the Western Huns below Deng’s every experienced difficulties in 461 after they had been defeated via val a mere in a warfare in opposition to the Sioux dodges a people allied with the Huns his campaigning was additionally met with dissatisfaction from incomes ruler of the Alcazar Huns who desired to focus on the incoming ogre talking folks’s gangs attacked the Romans in 467 without the assistance of earn ik he was surrounded by means of the Romans and besieged and got here to an agreement that they’d give up if they were given land and his starving forces given food during the negotiations a hunt in provider of the Romans named she’ll relax persuaded the enemy Goths to assault their hunt overlords the Romans below their general a spar and with the aid of his Bachelor II then attacked the quarreling Goths and Huns defeating them in 469 Danzig H was defeated and killed in Thrace after densey gages death the Huns seemed to have been absorbed by way of different ethnic corporations such as the bull ders Kim nonetheless argues that the Huns continued underneath earning fitting the ku trigger and also you Tagore huh no bull Gers this conclusion is still field to a few controversy some students additionally argue that an additional group identified in old sources as Huns the North Caucasian hunts have been precise hunts the rulers of various submit Hunnic steppe peoples are known to have claimed descent from Attila with a view to legitimize their right to vigor and various steppe peoples were also known as Huns by using Western and Byzantine sources from the fourth century onward topic culture and financial system you topic pastoral nomadism the Huns have almost always been described as pastoral nomads residing off of hurting and moving from pasture to pasture to graze their animals Jung Jin Kim however holds the term nomads to be misleading Teke termed nomads if it denotes a wandering staff of people and not using a clear sense of territory can’t be applied wholesale to the Huns the entire so known as nomads of Eurasian steppe historical past where peoples whose territory territories were ordinarily certainly outlined who is pastoralists moved about searching for pasture but inside a fixed territorial space maintian wellbeing and notes that pastoral nomads or semi nomads ordinarily alternate between summer season pastures and iciness quarters at the same time the pastures may vary the iciness quarters perpetually remain the same that is actually what jordanes writes of the searching referred to as Xia jury tribe they pastored close chur cenang the Crimea after which wintered extra north with maintian wellness and protecting the side as a probable vicinity old sources mentioned that the Huns herds consisted of more than a few animals including cattle horses and goats sheep although unmentioned in historic sources are more essential to the steppe nomads even than horses and need to have been a enormous part of their herds additionally maintian health and argues that the Huns could have kept small herds of Bactrian camels in the a part of their territory in present day Romania and Ukraine whatever attested for the Tsar countries a Mientus says that almost all of the Huns weight loss plan got here from the meat of those animals with maintian well being and arguing on the foundation of what’s recognized of alternative steppe nomads that they possible most often ate mutton together with sheep’s cheese and milk in addition they surely ate horse meat drank mares milk and certain made cheese and kumis in instances of hunger they will have boiled their horses blood for food ancient sources uniformly denied that the Huns practiced any style of agriculture Thompson taking these money owed at their phrase argues that w with out the help of the settled agricultural populace on the edge of the step they might not have survived he argues that the Huns have been compelled to supplement their food regimen with the aid of searching and gathering maintian wellness and however notes that archaeological finds indicate that quite a lot of steppe Nomad populations did grow grain in he identifies a in finding at Cunha u-az enquires Amon the OBE river of agriculture amongst a humans who practiced artificial cranial deformation as evidence of Hunnic a develop tradition kim in a similar fashion argues that every one step empires have possessed both pastoralist and sedentary populations classifying the hans s agro pastoralist topic horses and transportation as a nomadic individuals the Huns spent a quality deal of time using horses ambien has claimed that the Huns are close to glued to their horses Zosima identical that they reside and sleep on their horses and Cydonia scammed that s cars had an infant discovered to stand with out his mom’s aid when a horse takes him on his back they appear to have spent so much time using that they walked clumsily something discovered in different nomadic companies Roman sources characterised the Hunnic horses as unpleasant it’s not feasible to determine the specified breed of horse the Huns used despite moderately excellent Roman descriptions seiner believes that it was seemingly a breed of mongolian pony however horse remains are absent from all recognized han burials headquartered on anthropological descriptions and archaeological signs of different nomadic horses maintian wellness and believes that they wrote frequently geldings besides horses ancient sources stated that the Huns used wagons for transportation which hold well being and believes have been principally used to transport their tents booty and the historic individuals women and children topic fiscal members of the family with the Romans the Huns received a massive quantity of gold from the Romans both in exchange for fighting for them as mercenaries or as tribute raiding and looting also furnished the Huns with gold and other valuables denis signer has argued that on the time of Attila the Hun economic system grew to be virtually fully elegant on plunder and tribute from the Roman provinces civilians and soldiers captured by way of the Huns would even be ransomed again or else bought to Roman slave purchasers as slaves the Huns themselves preserve well being and argued had little use for slaves as a result of their nomadic pastoralists way of life extra recent scholarship nonetheless has demonstrated that pastoral nomads ist’s are actually extra likely to use slave labor than sedentary societies the slaves would have been used to manipulate the Huns herds of cattle sheep and goats Priscus attests that slaves have been used as domestic servants but additionally that trained slaves had been used by the Huns in positions of administration or even architects some slaves had been even used as warriors the Huns also traded with the Romans ei Thompson argued that this exchange used to be very giant scale with the Huns buying and selling horses furs meat and slaves for Roman weapons linen and grain and quite a lot of other luxury items even as maintian wellness and concedes that the Huns traded their horses for what he considered to had been an extraordinarily gigantic supply of revenue in gold he’s in any other case skeptical of Thompson’s argument he notes that the Romans strictly regulated exchange with the barbarians and that in line with Priscus exchange most effective befell at a fair once a year while he notes that smuggling also possible came about he argues that the quantity of each illegal and illegal trade used to be it sounds as if modest he does word that wine and silk perceived to were imported into the Hunnic Empire in huge portions nonetheless Roman gold coins appear to have been in circulation as foreign money inside the entire of the Hunnic Empire subject connections to the Silk avenue Christopher Atwood has suggested that the rationale for the customary Hunnic incursion into Europe will have been to set up an outlet to the Black Sea for the Saudi and retailers beneath their rule who were involved in the alternate along the Silk road to China Atwood notes that jordanes describes how the Cremeans city of Churston the place the avaricious traders convey within the goods of Asia was below the control of the Akagi Huns in the 6th century topic government hunnic governmental constitution has long been debated Peter Heather argues that the Huns have been a disorganized Confederation in which leaders acted thoroughly independently and that finally centered a ranking hierarchy very like Germanic societies denis signer in a similar fashion notes that except for the historically uncertain Balam er no hun leaders are named in the sources until elven indicating their relative unimportance Thompson argues that permanent kingship handiest developed with the Huns invasion of Europe and the close constant warfare that followed related to the organization of hun accrual underneath Attila Peter golden comments it can hardly be referred to as a state much less an empire golden speaks alternatively of a hunnit Confederacy Kim nevertheless argues that the Huns were far extra geared up and centralized with some basis in organization of the Xiongnu state walter pol notes the correspondences of Hunnic executive to those of other steppe empires however nevertheless argues that the Huns don’t appear to had been a unified group once they arrived in Europe M ian has stated that the Huns of his day had no kings however instead that every group of Huns rather had a gaggle of leading men primates for times of conflict EI Thompson supposes that even in conflict the leading guys had little specific energy he additional argues that they most likely did not gather their role simply hereditarily Heather nonetheless argues that a Mientus purely implies that the Huns didn’t have a single ruler he notes that olympia doris mentions the Huns having a couple of kings with one being de frst of the kings a Mientus additionally mentions that the Huns made their choices in a normal council omne xing commune at the same time seated on horseback he makes no mention of the Huns institution in two tribes however Priscus and different writers do naming a few of them the primary Hunnic ruler known via name is Eldon Thompson takes Aldens unexpected disappearance after he was once unsuccessful at conflict as a sign that the Hunnic kingship was democratic right now as a substitute than a everlasting institution kim however argues that alden is honestly a title and that he was once probably merely a sub king Priscus calls it Atilla king or emperor the sillies but it is unknown what native title he used to be translating apart from the guideline of Attila the Huns most commonly had two rulers Attila himself later appointed his son ellic as cocaine subject humans’s of the Huns were led through their possess kings Priscus additionally speaks up picked guys or low gates low gates forming a part of a Tila’s executive naming 5 of them one of the crucial picked guys appear to have been chosen considering that of start others for reasons of benefit thompson argued that these picked men had been the hinge upon which the whole administration of the hun empire grew to become he argues for their existence within the govt of alden and that every had command over detachments of the Hunnic navy and ruled over specified portions of the Hunnic empire the place they were responsible also for amassing tribute and provisions maintian wellness and nonetheless argues that the word low gates denotes simply prominent participants and no longer a constant rank with constant duties kim affirms the value of the low gates for Hunnic administration but notes that there have been differences of rank between them and means that it used to be more possible cut back rating officers who gathered taxes and tribute he suggests that various Roman defectors to the Huns can have worked in a style of Imperial forms matter society and tradition you subject artwork and material tradition there are two sources for the fabric tradition and art of the huns historic descriptions in archaeology alas the nomadic nature of hung society approach that they’ve left very little within the archaeological document certainly despite the fact that a first-rate quantity of archaeological fabric has been unearthed because 1945 as of 2006 there have been handiest 200 positively recognized Hunnic burials producing hunnic material culture it may be complex to differentiate searching archaeological finds from these of the Sarmatian x’ as each peoples lived in close proximity and seemed to have had very identical material cultures kim as a result cautions that it’s complex to assign any artifact to the Huns ethnically it is also possible that the Huns in Europe adopted the material culture of their Germanic subjects Roman descriptions of the Huns in the meantime are quite often extremely biased stressing they are supposed primitiveness archaeological finds have produced a tremendous quantity of cauldrons that have when you consider that the work of paul rynek in 1896 been recognized as having been produced by means of the Huns even though mainly described as bronze cauldrons the cauldrons are mainly made from copper which is more commonly of negative best maintian well being enlists 19 identified finds of Hunnish cauldrons from all over the place central and jap Europe and Western Siberia he argues from the state of the bronze castings that the Huns were not very good metalsmiths and that it’s probably that the cauldrons were forged within the same places where they had been located they come in various shapes and are many times discovered in conjunction with vessels of more than a few different origins maintian health and argues that the cauldrons have been cooking vessels for boiling meat but that the fact that many are observed deposited close water and were most commonly not buried with individuals may indicate a sacral utilization as good the cauldrons appear to derive from those utilized by the Xiongnu a Mientus also studies that the Huns had iron swords thompson is skeptical that the Huns forged them themselves however maintian wellbeing and argues that t he suggestion that the Hun horsemen fought their method to the walls of Constantinople and to the Marne with bartered and captured swords as absurd each historic sources and archaeological finds from graves tested that the Huns wore elaborately decorated golden or gold-plated die makes an attempt maintian well being enlists a total of six recognized Hunnish diadem’s Hunnic females gave the impression to have worn necklaces and bracelets of probably imported beads of various substances as good the later common early medieval practice of redecorating jewellery and weapons with gem stones appears to have originated with the Huns they’re also identified to have made small mirrors of an at the start chinese language type which in general perceived to were intentional damaged when placed right into a grave archaeological finds indicate that the Huns wore gold plaques as ornaments on their garb as well as imported glass beads a Mientus experiences that they wore clothes fabricated from linen or the furs of marmots and leggings of goat dermis a Mientus studies that the Huns had no constructions but in passing mentions that the Huns possessed tents and wagons maintian helfen believes that the Huns possible had tens of felt and sheepskin Priscus as soon as mentions that Teela’s tent and jordanes stories that attila lay in state in a silk tent nonetheless through the center of the fifth century the Huns are also identified to have additionally own everlasting wood houses which maintian health and believes had been constructed with the aid of their Gothic topics topic artificial cranial deformation more than a few archaeologists have argued that the huns or the the Aristocracy of the huns as well as germanic tribes influenced via them practiced artificial cranial deformation the process of artificially lengthening the skulls of toddlers with the aid of binding them the purpose of this process was to create a transparent bodily difference between the the Aristocracy and the final populace while Erik krub as he has argued in opposition to a Hunnish foundation for the spread this observe nearly all of students keep the Huns liable for the unfold of this tradition in Europe the practice was not firstly offered to Europe by the Huns nonetheless but as a substitute with the Alan’s with whom the Huns were closely associated and Sarmatian ‘z it used to be also practiced with the aid of different peoples referred to as Huns in Asia subject languages a sort of languages were spoken within the hunt empire Priscus noted that the Hunnic language differed from different languages spoken at a Teela’s court he recounts how it Teela’s gestures all right made a deal his guests snicker additionally with the aid of the promiscuous jumble of phrases latin mixed with Hunnish and gothic Priscus said that Attila’s Scythian area spoke besides their own barbarian tongues either Hunnish or gothic or as many have dealings with the western romans latin but now not one among them conveniently speaks Greek except captives from the Thracian or illyrian frontier areas some scholars have argued that the Gothic was used because the lingua franca of the Hunnic Empire young Jin Kim argues that the Huns can have used as many as 4 languages at various stages of presidency with out anyone being dominant Hunnic gothic Latin and Sarmatian as to the Hunnic language itself simplest three phrases are recorded in old sources as being Hunnic all of which show up to be from an indo-european language all different information on Hunnic is contained in individual names and tribal ethnonyms on the groundwork of these names students have proposed that Hunnic will have been a Turkic language a language between mongolic and Turkic or a uni equal language nevertheless given the small corpus many scholars preserve the language to be unclassifiable topic marriage and the function of women the elites of the Huns practiced polygamy whilst the commoners had been mainly monogamous Amy Anna’s Marcellinus claimed that the Hunnish women lived in seclusion however the primary-hand account of Priscus suggests them freely moving and mixing with men Priscus describes Hunnic females swarming round Attila as he entered a village as good as the spouse of a teyla’s minister ona juiciest delivering the King food and drinks together with her servants Priscus was equipped to enter the tent of a Teel as chief wife / Rekha simply Priscus also attests that the widow of attila’s brother blade Oh used to be in command of the village that the Roman ambassadors rode through her territory will have included a better field thompson notes that other step peoples such as the you Tagore’s within the severes are identified to have had feminine tribal leaders and argues that the Huns customarily held widows in high respect due to the pastoral nature of the Huns economic system the females probably had a huge measure of authority over the domestic loved ones topic religion practically nothing is famous in regards to the faith of the huns Roman creator a Mian brush aside Elena’s claimed that the Huns had no faith while the 5th century Christian writer Salvi incorporate them as pagans Jordan’s Aesthetica also documents that the Huns worshipped the sword of Mars an historic sword that signified a Tila’s right to rule the whole world maintian wellbeing and moats a general worship of a battle god in the form of a sword among steppe peoples together with among the Xiongnu denis signer nonetheless holds the worship of a sword among the many hunts to be a proc raffle maintian wellness and also argues that even as the Huns themselves don’t appear to have considered a Atilla as divine some of his field men and women certainly did a perception in prophecy and divination is also attested among the many Huns maintian well being and argues that the performers of those acts of soothsaying and divination were probably shaman’s seiner additionally finds it likely that the Huns had shaman’s even though they’re completely unattested maintian wellness and likewise deduces a perception in water spirits from a customized stated in a me anise he extra means that the Huns will have made small steel picket or stone idols which are attested amongst other steppe tribes and which a Byzantine supply attests for the Huns in Crimea within the sixth century he additionally connects archaeological finds of Hunnish bronze cauldrons located buried close or in jogging water two viable rituals performed by the Huns within the spring John Mann argues that the Huns of Attila’s time possible worshipped the sky and the steppe deity Tengri who is also attested as having been worshipped via the Xiongnu maintian wellbeing and likewise suggests the possibility that the Huns of this interval may have worshipped Tengri but notes that the god is not attested in european files unless the ninth century worshipped of Tengri under the name tang greek on is attested among the many Caucasian Huns in the armenian chronicle attributed to moths as dasker an cheat for the period of the later 7th century moths s additionally records that the Caucasian Huns worshipped trees and burnt horses as sacrifices to Tengri and that they made sacrifices to fire and water and to unique gods of the roads and to the moon and to all creatures viewed in their eyes to be come what may first rate there may be also some evidence for human sacrifice among the European Huns maintian well being and argues that people appear to were sacrificed at a Teela’s funerary proper recorded in jordanes under the name Strava Priscus claims that the Huns sacrificed their prisoners to victory after they entered Scythia however this is not in any other case that proven as a hunted custom and may be fiction moreover to those pagan beliefs there are countless attestations of hunts converting to Christianity and receiving Christian missionaries the missionary activities among the Huns of the Caucasus look to have been exceptionally positive resulting within the conversion of the Hunnish prints out constructed bir attila seems to have tolerated each Nicene and Aryan Christianity amongst his subjects nevertheless a pastoral letter through Pope Leo the fine to the Church of aquileia indicates that Christian slaves taken from there through the Huns in 452 had been forced to participate in Hunnic devout routine matter battle you matter technique and strategies hun struggle as a entire is just not well studied one of the primary sources of understanding on hunnic war as a Mientus Marcellinus who involves an increased description of the Huns ways of conflict in addition they oftentimes fight when provoked and then they enter the combat drawn up in wedge-shaped plenty while their medley of voices makes a savage noise and as they’re flippantly organized for swift movement and unexpected inactivity they purposely divide all of a sudden into scattered bands and attack speeding about in ailment right here and there dealing splendid slaughter and due to the fact of their exceptional rapidity of action they’re in no way noticeable to assault a rampart or pillage an enemy’s camp and on this account you would not hesitate to name them essentially the most horrible of all warriors on account that they battle from a distance with missiles having sharp bone rather of their normal features joined to the shafts with amazing talent then they gallop over the intervening spaces and combat hand-to-hand with swords despite their possess lives and at the same time the enemy are guarding in opposition to wounds from the saber thrusts they throw strips of cloth plaited into nooses over their opponents and so entangled them that they fetter their limbs and take from them the vigour of riding or running based on a me sincere description maintian health and argues that the Huns strategies didn’t fluctuate markedly from these used by different nomadic horse archers he argues that the wedge-formed plenty cneyt mentioned by means of a Mientus have been likely divisions prepared with the aid of tribal clans and families whose leaders could have been called a cur this title would then have been inherited because it used to be passed on the clan like a Mientus the sixth century writers asommus additionally emphasizes the Huns nearly exceptional use of horse archers and their severe swiftness and mobility these characteristics differed from different nomadic warriors in Europe at the moment for this reason our international locations for example relied on closely armored cataphracts armed with Lance’s the Huns use of horrible battle cries are additionally observed in different sources nevertheless a quantity of Emmy and is’s claims were challenged by means of modern scholars in certain while Emmy and his claims that the Huns knew no metalworking maintian wellbeing and argues that a persons so primitive could on no account had been positive in warfare in opposition to the Romans Punic armies relied on their excessive mobility in a shrewd sense of when to attack and when to withdraw an foremost method utilized by the Huns was a feigned retreat – pretending to flee and then turning and attacking the disordered enemy that is mentioned via the writers Zosima syn Agathis they were nonetheless no longer constantly robust in pitched combat struggling defeat at Toulouse in 439 barely successful at the combat of the yudice in 447 likely shedding or stale mating at the battle of the Catalonian plains in 451 and shedding at the battle of meadow 454 Christopher Kelly argues that at Atilla sought to hinder as far as possible large-scale engagement with the Roman army conflict and the threat of conflict have been typically used instruments to extort Rome the Huns normally relied on the nearby traders to avoid losses bills of battles be aware that the Huns fortified their camps by way of using transportable fences or creating a circle of wagons the Huns nomadic subculture stimulated facets reminiscent of quality horsemanship whilst the Huns expert for warfare by typical looking a number of students have urged that the Huns had predicament maintaining their horse cavalry and nomadic way of life after choosing the Hungarian undeniable and that this in flip resulted in a marked lessen in their effectiveness as opponents the Huns are in general noted as combating alongside non hunnic Germanic or Iranian discipline persons’s or in earlier instances allies as Heather notes the Huns army computer multiplied and extended very speedily via incorporating ever greater numbers of the Germany of vital and jap Europe at the fight of the Catalonian Plains Attila as famous through jordanes to have placed his field peoples in the wings of the navy while the Huns held the middle a fundamental supply of expertise on steppe conflict from the time of the Huns comes from the sixth century technique con which describes the struggle of coping with the Scythians that’s Avars Turks and others whose subculture resembles that of the Hunnish peoples the method Kahn describes the Avars and Huns as devious and really experienced in army issues they’re described as preferring to defeat their enemies via deceit shock attacks and chopping off supplies the Huns brought gigantic numbers of horses to use as replacements and to provide the influence of a higher navy on cam the Hunnish people’s did not set up an entrenched camp however spread out throughout the grazing fields consistent with clan and guard their essential horses except they commenced forming the combat line underneath the cover of early morning the strategy Kahn states the Huns additionally stationed sentries at significant distances and in consistent contact with every different as a way to prevent shock attacks consistent with the strategy Kahn the Huns didn’t form a combat line in the approach that the Romans and Persians used however in irregularly sized divisions in a single line and maintain a separate force neighborhood for ambushes and as a reserve the strategy Kahn also states the Huns used deep formations with a dense and even front the procedure Kahn states that the Huns stored their spare horses and baggage knowledgeable to both side of the battle line at about a mile away with a reasonable sized shield and would many times tie their spare horses collectively behind the most important combat line the Huns desired to combat at long range utilizing ambush encirclement and the feigned retreat the process Kahn also makes notice of the wedge-formed formations stated via a Mientus and corroborated as familial regiments via maintian Halfin the approach Kahn states the Huns favored to pursue their enemies relentlessly after a victory after which put on them out through a protracted siege after defeat Peter Heather notes that the Huns were able to efficaciously besiege walled cities and fortresses in their crusade of 441 they had been as a consequence capable of building siege engines Heather makes be aware of a couple of viable routes for acquisition of this knowledge suggesting that it could have been introduced back from carrier beneath EDS obtained from captured Roman engineers or developed via the ought to strain the wealthy silk road metropolis-states and carried over into Europe David Nicola agrees with the latter point and even suggests that they had a complete set of engineering skills together with knowledge for establishing developed fortifications such as the fortress of IG DUI kala in Kazakhstan matter navy gear the strategic on States the Huns more commonly used male swords bows and Lance’s and that the majority Hunnic warriors were armed with both the bow and lance and used them interchangeably as needed it additionally states the Huns used quilted linen wool or frequently iron barding for his or her horses and also wore quilted quaff sand captains this comparison is largely corroborated by means of archaeological finds of hun army gear such because the volnek aapke & Brew burials a late Roman Ridge helmet of the BIR Kosovo form was once located with a hun burial at consist II a hunnic helmet of the segmental helm type was found at Tchaikovsky a hun expandin helmet at Terra zovsky grave 1784 and one more of the band helm variety at Turia vow fragments of lamellar helmets relationship to the Hunnic interval and within the Hunnic sphere have been found at eye Atris Ilitch Epke and known as me hun lamellar armour has now not been located in europe even though two fragments of possible hun foundation were located on the higher Oban in west kazakhstan dating to the 3rd 4th centuries a find of lamellar dating to about 520 from the highest-40 warehouse within the fortress of ham iris near bodybag romania suggests a late fifth or early sixth century introduction it’s recognized that the Eurasian avars offered lamellar Armour to the Roman military and migration technology Germanic sin the center sixth century however this later sort does now not appear earlier than then additionally it is widely approved that the Huns offered the Lang so a 60 centimeters chopping blade that grew to be widespread among the many migration era Germanic sand in the late Roman navy into Europe it’s believed these blades originated in China and that therefore our countries and hunt served as a transmission vector making use of shorter sea axes in important Asia that developed into the slim Lange so in japanese Europe during the late 4th and 1st half of the fifth century these earlier blades date as far back as the first century ad with the first of the newer form showing in jap Europe being the weaned simmerman illustration dated to the late 4th century advert different high-quality hunt examples incorporate the Lang so from the more contemporary find at volnek aapke in russia the Huns used a kind of spatha in the ironic or sassanid type with a long straight approximately 83 centimetres blade quite often with a diamond formed iron guard play swords of this sort were found at web sites comparable to alt much less i’m certain Mabus ano volna Kafka novo ivanovka and civilian 61 they on the whole had gold foil hilts gold sheet scabbards and scabbard fittings decorated in the polychrome kind the sword was once carried within the Iranian type connected to a sword belt alternatively than on a Bal trick essentially the most famous weapon of the Huns as the Darya variety composite recurve bow more often than not called the punished bow this bow was invented someday within the third or 2nd centuries BC with the earliest finds near Lake Baikal but unfold throughout Eurasia long earlier than the looking migration these bows were typifies with the aid of being uneven in cross section between a hundred forty five to a hundred and fifty 5 centimeters in length having between 4 to 9 lathes on the grip and within the seus although whole bows not often live to tell the tale in European climatic conditions indicators of bone seas are rather normal and attribute of steppe burials whole specimens were located at sites within the Tarim basin and Gobi wilderness comparable to nia come Darya and Shambhu simbel care Eurasian nomads such because the Huns in general used trial abate diamond formed iron arrowheads connected using birch tar in a tank with most often seventy five centimeters shafts and fletching hooked up with tar and sinew whipping such trial abate arrowheads are believed to be more correct and have higher penetrating energy or potential to injure than flat arrowheads fines of bows and arrows on this style in Europe are limited however archaeologically evidenced the most famous examples come from Wien simmerman although extra fragments have been located within the northern Balkans and Carpathian areas subject legacy you topic in Kristian hagiography after the fall of the hunnic Empire quite a lot of legends arose concerning the Huns amongst these are a quantity of Christian hagiographic legends in which the Huns play a position in an anonymous medieval biography of Pope Leo the primary a teal is marching to Italy in 452 has stopped due to the fact that when he meets Leo external Rome the Apostles Peter and Paul gave the impression to him conserving swords over his head and threatening to kill him until he follows the Pope’s command to turn back in other types attila takes the pope hostage and is forced via the saints to liberate him in the legend of Saint Ursula Ursula and her 11,000 holy virgins arrive at Cologne on their means back from a pilgrimage simply as the Huns underneath an unnamed Prince are besieging town Ursula and her virgins killed by means of the Huns with arrows after they refused the Huns sexual advances afterwards nonetheless the souls of the slaughtered virgins kind a heavenly army that drives away the Huns and saves cologne other cities with legends regarding the Huns and a Saint incorporate Orleans Troy’s Do’s Mets Madonna and Ron’s in legend surrounding Saint serve a shis of starvation and relationship to at least the eighth century service is claimed to have transformed Attila and the Huns to Christianity before they later grew to be apostates and returned to their paganism topic in Germanic legend the Huns also play an predominant role in medieval Germanic legends which almost always bring models of activities from the migration period and have been at the beginning transmitted orally reminiscences of the conflicts between the Goths and Huns in jap Europe gave the look to be maintained in the ancient English poem would sit as well as in historical Norse poem the combat of the Goths and Huns which is transmitted within the thirteenth century Icelandic Rivera saga wid Sethe additionally mentions at Atilla having been ruler of the Huns putting him at the head of a list of quite a lot of legendary and historical rulers and peoples and marking the Huns as probably the most noted the name Attila rendered in historical English as eighth law used to be a given title in use in anglo-saxon England ex Bishop Aliyah of Dorchester and its use in England on the time may have been linked to the heroic Kings legend represented in works comparable to Widseth maintian wellbeing and however doubts the usage of the name via the anglo-saxons had whatever to do with the Huns arguing that it was not a rare identify beed in his ecclesiastical history of the English people lists the Huns among different peoples dwelling in Germany when the anglo-saxons invaded England this will likely point out that beed considered the anglo-saxons as descending in part from the Huns the Huns in Attila additionally shaped critical figures within the two most popular Germanic legendary cycles that of the Nibelungs and of dietrich von Bern the old theoderic the fine the Nibelung legend certainly as recorded in the old norse poetic Edda and vole sangha saga as good as within the German novel lung in late connects the Huns and Attila and in the Norse tradition Attila’s dying to the destruction of the Burgundy and Kingdom on the Rhine in 437 in the legends about dietrich von Bern Attila and the Huns provide Dietrich with a refuge in support after he has been pushed from his kingdom at Verona a variant of the routine of the fight of nadao is also perceived in a legend transmitted in two differing versions in the middle high German die Robin schlock and historical Norse Diedrich saga in which the sons of Attila fall in fight the legend of Walter of Aquitaine meanwhile suggests the Huns to obtain child hostages as tribute from their subject persons’s customarily the Continental Germanic traditions paint a extra confident photo of Attila and the Huns than the Scandinavian sources where Hun’s appear in a particularly negative mild in medieval German legend the Huns were recognized with the Hungarians with their capital of Etzel burg attila metropolis being identified with Esther gone or Buddha the historical norse Diedrich saga however which is founded on North German sources locates Hoonah land in northern Germany with a capital at Sohus tin Westphalia in other ancient Norse sources the time period hunt is oftentimes applied indiscriminately to various individuals above all from south of Scandinavia from the thirteenth century onward the center high german phrase for hon excessive possess grew to become a synonym for enormous and continued to be used on this which means in the forms hoon and hewn into the modern day era on this way quite a lot of prehistoric megalithic structures exceptionally in northern Germany came to be recognized as Hoon engraver hun graves or hounam beddin hun beds topic hyperlinks to the Hungarians establishing within the excessive center a while Hungarian sources have claimed descent from or an in depth relationship between the Hungarians Magyars and the Huns the declare appears to have first arisen in non Hungarian sources and only steadily been taken up through the Hungarians themselves due to the fact that of its terrible connotations the nameless visitor to starvation Orem after 1200 is the primary Hungarian supply to mention that the road of our Padian Kings had been descendants of Attila however he makes no declare that the Hungarian and hun peoples are associated the primary Hungarian author to assert that hun and Hungarian peoples were associated with Simon of kaiza in his company to Honora at starvation Orem 1282 to 1285 Simon claimed that the Huns and Hungarians had been descended from two brothers named Honora and Magor these claims gave the Hungarians and historical pedigree and served to legitimize their conquest of Pannonia latest students generally brush aside these claims related to the claimed Hunnish origins found in these chronicles Gendo fits writes the Hunnish starting place of the Magyars is of direction a fiction just like the Trojan starting place of the French or any of the opposite Arrigo gentes theories fabricated at so much the same time the Magyars actually originated from the you Gurion department of the finno-ugric peoples within the direction of their wanderings within the steppes of japanese Europe they assimilated a type of chiefly Iranian and exclusive Turkic cultural and ethnic elements but that they had neither genetic nor ancient links to the Huns as a rule the proof of the connection between the Hungarian and the finno-ugric languages within the nineteenth century is taken to have scientifically disproven the searching origins of the Hungarians a different claim also derived from Simon of kaiza is that the Hungarian talking search a persons of Transylvania are descended from Huns who fled to Transylvania after a Teela’s dying and remained there unless the Hungarian conquest of Pannonia at the same time the origins of the CKD are unclear modern day scholarship is skeptical that they’re involving the Huns Laszlo McKee notes as good that some archaeologists and historians think CK’s were a Hungarian tribe or Annanagar BullGuard tribe drawn into the Carpathian Basin on the finish of the seventh century via the Avars who were identified with the Huns via modern day Europeans not like in the legend the CK were resettled in Transylvania from Western Hungary in the 11th century their language in a similar way indicates no proof of a change from any non Hungarian language to Hungarian as one would expect if they had been Hung’s even as the Hungarians and the CK’s will not be descendants of the Huns they had been historically closely associated with Turkic peoples Paul Engle notes that it cannot be utterly excluded that our Padian kings will have been descended from Attila nevertheless and believes that it is doubtless the Hungarians as soon as lived under the rule of the Huns jung jin kim supposes that the hungarians might be linked to the Huns by way of the bulgar zan de vars each of whom he holds to have had Hunnish factors whilst the idea that the Hungarians are descended from the Huns has been rejected through mainstream scholarship the thought has persisted to excerpt a important have an effect on on hungarian nationalism and country wide identity a majority of the hungarian aristocracy endured to ascribe to the Hunnic view into the early twentieth century the fascist arrow move-get together similarly talked about hungary as Honea in its propaganda hunnic origins also performed a massive function within the ideology of the cutting-edge radical proper-wing party Jobbik part ii ology of pantora nism legends related to the Hunnic origins of the seek a minority in Romania meanwhile continued to play a colossal role in that businesses ethnic identification the Hunnish starting place of the CK’s remains probably the most trendy theory of their origins among the many Hungarian general public subject twentieth-century use in reference to Germans on the 27th of July 1900 doing the Boxer rebellion in China kaiser wilhelm ii of germany gave the order to act ruthlessly toward the rebels mercy will not be proven prisoners is probably not taken just as a thousand years in the past the Huns below attila won a popularity of would that lives on in legends so made the name of germany in china such that no chinese may even again dare so much as to appear askance at a german this comparison used to be later heavily employed via british and english language propaganda in the course of World conflict one and to a lesser extent in the course of World conflict two in order to paint the Germans as savage barbarians matter see additionally record of rulers of the Huns nomadic Empire equals equals notes

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[sumerianlanguage]

In sumerian, is the letter "g" pronounced like the first or second g in garage?

The "g" sound in Sumerian is always a hard "g", like the first sound in "garage", "gumption" or "ghee". So gina "dues" and gana "let's go!" have the same starting sound. However, there is another sound in Sumerian often written "ĝ" which is pronounced like the "ng" sound in the word "singing" (not like in the word "finger", which incorporates an additional "g" sound). In my posts I generally write it as "ng" (ngae "I"), but you'll often find "ĝ" (so ĝae) or even "ŋ" (the ePSD has ŋa'e for "I").

[sumerianlanguage]

How do we know how Sumerian and other ancient languages *really* sounded? If no one has spoken them in centuries or millennia, how can we be certain?

Also, did they have a word for caste/class?

Hello! The answer is twofold - most of our understanding of Sumerian pronunciation comes from how speakers of other languages, primarily Akkadian, understood it, and made mistakes in it. For example, Akkadian speakers transcribing Sumerian consistently put the stress on the end of the word or word root (where stress could be variable in Akkadian) so we have a pretty good guess that Sumerian stressed the last syllables of words or word roots. (We have a better understanding, in turn, of Akkadian pronunciation because it's closely related to languages that are even better documented, like Hebrew and Arabic.)

However, our understanding of exact Sumerian pronunciation remains imprecise! Linguists still disagree on the exact pronunciation of Sumerian sounds like r and h, and some even disagree about the vowel system entirely. This is a big part of why I don't use the IPA when transcribing, because it would give a "precise" answer where such a precise answer doesn't exist.

For more on pronunciation in Sumerian, check out my Sumerian phonology tag!

As for your second question, there were words for specific "classes", often more like professions, but for many we don't have enough references to know what kind of class it was. So lagaztum, migtum and amaerina all referred to specific classes of workers, but we don't know what kind. As far as I know, there is no word for "class" or "caste" as a general concept, and the only broad class term with a fixed meaning I know is ungnga 𒌦𒅍, meaning "low social class, menial workers, employees dependent on rations".

[sumerianlanguage]

Hello! I've been scanning through your posts trying not to ask you things multiple times. I'm a writer and was wanting a different term for magic so (after reading) I decided to use ashzi [ash for want/desire/curse and zi for life/breath] 1) Do you think that would be ok? 2) pronunciation: ash-zhi? or would it be more awe-sh-zhi? zee?

Hello! If you're looking for a Sumerian word for magic I've previously answered on it (ningak is the word, along with a few others). You can also check out my Sumerian magic tag for all my posts on the topic.

I would interpret ashzi as something like "curse of breath" or "need/desire for breath", as in what someone who is choking or has respiratory illness feels. You may want to reverse the order to ziasha, which would mean something like "breath of a curse", "breath of need" or "life of a curse" - still not really a magic term but a little closer.

Ash rhymes (roughly) with "gosh!" or "Oshkosh". Zi is pronounced like the name of the letter Z in American English (so, not "zed"). There is no "zh" sound in Sumerian. For more on how to pronounce specific sounds in Sumerian, check out my video on the topic or my Sumerian phonology tag.

I hope that's helpful, and let me know if you have any other questions!