| 释义 |
Sumerian, a. and n.|s(j)uːˈmɪərɪən|
Also Sumirian, Shumerian.
[ad. F. sumérien (Oppert, 1872, in Journal Asiatique Ser. vii. I. 114), f. Sumer (see def.).]
A. adj. Pertaining to Sumer or Sumir, one of the districts of ancient Babylonia, or to its population; spec. belonging to the language of the people that created the non-Semitic element in the civilization of Babylonia.
The Sumerian language was formerly co-ordinated with Akkadian as a related dialect, but the latter term is now applied to Semitic Babylonian.
1875Sayce in Encycl. Brit. III. 192/1 The language of the primitive Sumirian and Accadian population of Assyria and Babylonia belonged to the Turanian or Ural-Altaic family of speech. 1882–3F. Brown in Schaff's Encycl. Relig. Knowl. III. 2174 The old Shumerian king Gudêa. 1887Sayce Lect. Relig. Anc. Babyl. App. i. 422 Most of the religious and other texts were composed in the Sumerian language. 1895Boscawen Bible & Monum. iii. (1896) 105 We find in the Sumirian Version ‘female and male’ the order: while in the Semitic texts it is ‘male and female.’ 1908Budge Babyl. & Assyr. Antiq. Brit. Mus. (ed. 2) 4 The beginning of Sumerian civilization may date from a period even as remote as b.c. 4000, or earlier.
B. n.
1. A non-Semitic inhabitant of Sumer.
[1872Sayce Assyrian Gram. 179 The Cassi, I now find, were not identical with the Sumiri or people ‘of the dog's language’.] 1878― Babyl. Lit. 24 It is probable that it was the Accadians rather than the Sumerians to whom was due the invention of the picture writing. 1884Birch Kouyunjik Gallery Brit. Mus. 4 The entry of these people (afterwards known as Akkadians and Sumerians) into Babylonia.
2. The language spoken by the inhabitants of Sumer.
1887Sayce Lect. Relig. Anc. Babyl. App. i. 421 Semitic wives would not have spoken Sumerian with the same purity as their non-Semitic husbands. 1908Budge Babyl. & Assyr. Antiq. Brit. Mus. (ed. 2) 53 Grammatical examples in Sumerian, with Assyrian translations.
Hence Sumero- |ˈs(j)uːmərəʊ|, used as the combining form of Sumerian in various formations, = Sumerian and{ddd}; so Suˈmerogram, a character or group of characters representing a Sumerian word, used in written Hittite (Akkadian, etc.) as a substitute for the equivalent (longer) word in that language; Sumeˈrology, the study of the Sumerian language and antiquities.
1897Expositor Sept. 162 The firstfruits of his studies in Sumerology. 1906Pinches Relig. Babyl. & Assyria ii. 10 The Sumero-Akkadians were non-Semites. 1913S. Langdon in Scientia (1914) XV. 223 There is no trace whatever of these primitive ideas in Sumero-Babylonian religion. 1952O. R. Gurney Hittites vi. 121 Hittite texts are liberally interspersed with purely Akkadian and Sumerian words, the latter usually written by single signs, the use of which as ‘ideograms’ (or better, ‘Sumerograms’) can often be recognized only by means of the context, for they may be the same signs that are normally used for mere syllables. 1965J. Puhvel in W. Winter Evidence for Laryngeals 83 The Sumerogram used for Ḫattusa- reveals its meaning of ‘Silver City’. 1983Trans. Philol. Soc. 102 The increasing tendency to make use of Sumerograms and Akkadograms in place of syllabically written Hittite words.
Add: Sumeˈrologist n., a specialist in Sumerology.
1956S. N. Kramer Hist. begins at Sumer 14 Today's Sumerologist can do no more than bow his head in simple gratitude as he uses the results of his unnamed predecessor's labors. 1980Month Aug. 281/1 As a Sumerologist, Pettinato does not examine biblical consequences. |