SUMERIAN LANGUAGE

Language: / Sumerian/Cuneiform / Date of Usage: / 3350-1800 BC (Middle Bronze Age)
Location: / Modern day Iraq, along the Tigris & Euphrates rivers.
Replaced By: / Akkadian / Style: / Pictography
Who were they?
The Sumerians were a group of city-states situated along the Tigris-Euphrates river in what is now modern-day Iraq. Although they had a similar language and culture, they were not united until almost the very end of their culture. Lug Al-Zagessi conquered all of the city states of Sumer, but they were almost immediately conquered by Sargon of Akkad shortly after the unification.
Notable Characteristics:
1. There may have been a "female-only" element to the language.
2. Formal use of the language ended around 2000 BC, but it continued to be used in religious rituals.
3. The language was 'agglutinative', which means that words were not changed by context.
Agglutinative example (Japanese). Wagata (understand) Wagata-nai (I do not understand)
Non-Agglutinative example (English). Ate (Past tense) Eating (present tense)
4. There were no pronouns to distinguish males and females. (There is only a word for 'human'.)
5. There were only two tenses. Past and Present/Future.
6. It is a 'language isolate' meaning that it did not evolve from any language, nor did it evolve into another language.
7. Since there are no surviving speakers of Sumerian, scholars can only guess how it actually sounded. However, they have attempted to do so by backtracking through other languages.
8. Texts with both the Akkadian and Sumerian language on them have been used to help translate the language. (Similar to how the Rosetta Stone was used to translate Egyptian.)
Notable Writings:
1. Their creation myth includes a story similar to Noah's where the gods flood the Earth, but one god takes pity on mankind and directs a hero (Utnapishtim) to save some of them.
2. Another tale about the hero Enmerkar contains another Biblical similarity where the gods cause the humans to have multiple languages. (The Tower of Babel story.)
3. The most famous Sumerian story, Gilgamesh, ironically has no surviving copies in Sumerian Cuneiform. The oldest copy of the story is a 1200 BC Babylonian text.
4. Their last important work, The Lament of Ur is also similar to Biblical texts as the responsibility for the city's destruction is considered the will of the gods.
Reason for disappearance:
At some point around the year 2000 BC, Sumer became de-populated. It is generally accepted that this occurred because their irrigation techniques ruined the soil, and their society could not produce enough food for the population. As the population decreased they became vulnerable to predatory neighbors such as the Elamites (who lived in South-west Iran). Eventually, Sumer was conquered by Akkad (north of Sumer). Although the language continued to be used in religious ceremonies, it was phased out by the conquering empire of Akkad.