Sumerian

Su·me·ri·an

S0879800 (so͞o-mîr′ē-ən, -mĕr′-)adj. Of or relating to ancient Sumer or its people, language, or culture.n.1. A member of an ancient people, probably of non-Semitic origin, who established a nation of city-states in Sumer in the fourth millennium bc that is one of the earliest known historic civilizations.2. The language of the Sumerians, of no known linguistic affiliation.

Sumerian

(suːˈmɪərɪən; -ˈmɛər-) n1. (Historical Terms) a member of a people who established a civilization in Sumer during the 4th millennium bc2. (Peoples) a member of a people who established a civilization in Sumer during the 4th millennium bc3. (Languages) the extinct language of this people, of no known relationship to any other languageadj4. (Historical Terms) of or relating to ancient Sumer, its inhabitants, or their language or civilization5. (Placename) of or relating to ancient Sumer, its inhabitants, or their language or civilization6. (Peoples) of or relating to ancient Sumer, its inhabitants, or their language or civilization7. (Languages) of or relating to ancient Sumer, its inhabitants, or their language or civilization

Su•me•ri•an

(suˈmɪər i ən, -ˈmɛr-)

n. 1. a native or inhabitant of Sumer. 2. the extinct language of the Sumerians, of uncertain affiliation, attested in pictographic and later in cuneiform writing. adj. 3. of or pertaining to Sumer, its people, or their language. [1870–75]

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	Sumerian - a member of a people who inhabited ancient SumerBabylonian - an inhabitant of ancient Babylon
Adj.	1.	Sumerian - of or relating to ancient Sumer or its inhabitants

Translations

Sumerian

1. a member of a people who established a civilization in Sumer during the 4th millennium bc 2. the extinct language of this people, of no known relationship to any other language

Sumerian

the language of the Sumerians, spoken until the late third millennium B.C.

Sumerian, whose linguistic affinity has not been established, is attested in cuneiform texts written in the period beginning in the 29th or 28th century B.C. and ending between the third and first centuries B.C. The texts are classified as Archaic Sumerian (before the 25th century); Classical Sumerian (24th-22nd centuries); New Sumerian (21st century); Late Sumerian (early second millennium), which is attested mainly in literary texts but also in business documents; and Post-Sumerian, which appeared in written form when Sumerian was retained only as a second literary language, after Akkadian.

Sumerian grammar includes an ergative construction, in which the subject of a transitive verb is marked by means of a special case and the subject of a verb of state (including a state resulting from an action—that is, an object) is unmarked. Verbs of action have two aspects; there is no category of tense. Sumerian has affixes that express agreement with the subject of a verb of action or of state, as well as with all indirect objects and several adverbial expressions.

Case relationships are marked by suffixes that are added sequentially to the noun; these suffixes, which may reach approximately ten in number, also serve as subordinating elements in nominalized constructions that replace subordinate clauses. There are markers for several types of plural, including, in addition to the collective and definite plurals, a plural that expresses all the objects in a given class. All nominal grammatical markers appear at the end of such syntagms as “headword—modifier” or “noun-subordinate clause” in inverse order with respect to the words they refer to. Certain words and phonemes were taboo for women.

REFERENCES

D’iakonov, I. M. lazyki drevnei Perednei Azii. Moscow, 1967.
Falkenstein, A. Das Sumerische. (Handbuch der Orientalistik.) Leiden, 1959.

I. M. D’IAKONOV

Sumerian

Su·me·ri·an

Sumerian

Su•me•ri•an

Sumerian

Sumerian

Sumerian

REFERENCES

Sumerian

Words related to Sumerian

noun a member of a people who inhabited ancient Sumer

Related Words