Sumerian Grammatical Texts available online! The title is a misnomer - most of the texts given are early Sumerian-Akkadian lexica arranged by topic, or just plain Sumerian texts - but there are other interesting things, such as a phonetically organised syllabary (vowel order: u-a-i), and a series called "ana ittišu" (p. 30) with some rather paradigm-looking stuff, such as:
| Sumerian | Akkadian, English |
| ùr | sûnu, lap, bosom |
| ùr-bi | sûn-šu, his bosom |
| ùr-bi-šú | ana sûni-šu, upon his bosom |
| ùr-bi-šú in-gar | ana sûni-šu iškun, he placed upon his bosom |
which I guess offer a clue about the teaching methods used. These tablets were used to teach young Akkadian-speaking would-be scribes Sumerian, long after Sumerian itself had become extinct.
4 comments:
Refresh my aging memory: what language family is Akkadian? Semitic?
Does this "ur" have something to do with the city of Ur (wasn't that Sumerian?)--it'd be nice and poetic if it does; the "lap" or "bosom" of civilization (at least as it was then known)!
Great answer! Unfortunately, the ETCSL site seems to be down at the moment...
Although not related, but something we realized in our study of Aramaic (Modern Assyrian), the common and widespread word for store (دكان) Dukkaan, is originally akkadian. Its a very widespread word, and I'm not sure how exactly. It is found in Farsi, Pashto, Urdu, Gujrati, (not sure about hindi). The reason I amn't sure is because although spreading through Islam's spread makes sense, its is also very plausble contact through Persia as well, since those cultures have been in contact for centuries.
In Tamazight - Kabyle - you find the word 'taddukant' meaning storage compartment in a traditional house.
Amadal
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