About the Sumerian language

Sumerian is probably the most mysterious language out there. It's the language of the people who created the first civilization and the first writing system. Or is it? This language was no longer spoken 4 thousand years ago, so we reconstruct it by the small fragments of the past that we find buried under the sands. I'm not solving the mystery of Sumerian here, but I hope I can present to you at least a small amount of what we know about this language for now.

Music used:
Ala Shawiti Digle by Ali Sabah
Dabke by Feras Charestan
Min Wahi El-Lami by Ali Sabah

#mesopotamia #middleeast #ancientlanguage

[timdoty]

I have a PhD in Near Eastern Languages, including Sumerian, and when this video popped up I watched it with skepticism. But I was very pleasantly surprised. Julie knows her stuff. In a short video she covers the issues of who were the Sumerians, the writing system, and the structure of the language. Very well done!

[SomasAcademy]

Skin tone definitely isn't my first thought when I hear "black headed, " hair color is. Like, most of you hair is on your head, so if you have Black hair, you're black headed - not saying that's the actual origin, it just seems more intuitive to me than skin tone lol

[mintonmiller]

As I read the comments, I can see I am not the target here. I am not particularly bright so am not an academic. I watch these types of videos knowing that many of the finer points are going to be over my head and will probably remain so. I watch these types of videos because I am fascinated by language in general and in other cultures. These videos give me a "big picture" understanding that I am not sure I can put into words, but yet somehow meaningful to me.

I said all that just to say thank you.

[archipelago_crypto]

Hi Julie - I absolutely love your videos! Although professionally I work as a data scientist, my first love is history. Over the last few years, my primary research interests outside of work have focused on cultures in ancient Mesopotamia and Meso-America. It’s wonderful to gain a better understanding of Sumerian and to hear that language brought to life. Thanks so much for what you do, it’s incredibly valuable. ❤

[saturn]

Imagine a civilization so old, the locals didn't even know about it for thousands of years

[mariemelansongundy-vxox]

I have been a student of this region, people's, and archeological sites for decades. Thank you for opening another door into these very ancient times.

[Pakanahymni]

Actually going from a <k> sound to a <š> sound is really common especially through an intermediary <č> and has happened in Swedish, French, and countless other languages.

[michaelyoung]

This is surely one of the most thorough discussions of Sumerian for the layperson/amateur linguist. It was easy for me to pause and go over the representations. Thank you.

[nomanmcshmoo]

Thank you so much for this introduction to Sumerian. I am a huge fan of the Gilgamesh Epic and have long been interested in this fascinating people from which many of our cultures may have sprung and, in many cases, absolutely DID.

[IchijoTorukojin]

Good job Julie. I enjoyed with the video.
I want to give you 2 names about Kiengir people aka Sumerian and their mythology which is directly connected to todays's religions and myths.
1- Muazzez İlmiye Çığ(She was a part of researches and translations of Sumerian language as a Sumerolog and archivist.) She never puts a comment and manipulates but gives direct trustful info.
2- Prof. Gönül Tekin (University of California, Turkologist and Turkish Literature Lecturer) When you start to listen her you will get amazed cause she is a walking library.
Enjoy!

[lansingday]

Excellent! I found myself drawn to your mention of the Ubaid Culture and went to Wiki to explore; which led me to the life and work of Thorkild Jacobsen "7 June 1904 – 2 May 1993) was a renowned Danish historian specializing in Assyriology and Sumerian literature. He was one of the foremost scholars on the ancient Near East." wiki. I was happy to feel pulled toward and to land on his work "The Harps That Once...: Sumerian Poetry in Translation". Have ordered that book and look forward to receiving soon What a fun learning adventure! Thank you! 🙏🏼

[timematrixtraveler]

I hold a degree in Linguistics and Languages and I have never seen as beautifully articulated and eloquently stated review❤❤. Outstanding clip! Please make more!!

[gb]

I watched this not knowing what to expect. I thoroughly enjoyed this presentation and your expertise. Your Bengal at the end was why I subscribed. I had a Bengal years ago that I raised from a kitten. His name was Genghis Khat (Genghis for short). He was 20% Asian spotted leopard and he was my best friend. I have never shared my life with a more intelligent, graceful, athletic or amazing animal in my life. He had a penchant for language, too, and I had to be careful what I said around him (for instance, he focused on the 'k' sound in the word 'milk', but he would also hear the word 'fuck' as 'milk', which made for some confusing and memorable moments). He lived to be 18 years old and remains as one of the finest souls I have ever known.

[jgkitarel]

On top of the dictionaries the Akkadians used to teach their scribes Sumerian, there are a fair number of loan words from Sumerian in the language, which helped with piecing the language together considering we have been replicating it from being only able to use second hand sources. Languages affect each other, and I wouldn't be surprised if a fair number of words from Sumerian show signs of having to be fit into the language's etymology from other ones.

I do find it interesting that you bring up the theory that the Sumerians may not have been the first culture to develop writing, merely the first one to leave an extensive written record. Which, actually wouldn't be surprising. There are a number of proto-writing systems that predate them, after all. The Ubaid people, who are considered to be the ones first there, probably got it started, but the Sumerians refined it. Again, nothing that actually contradicts history, the Sumerians are liable to retain the credit simply because writing figured so heavily among them.

[deprecor]

We need a part 2 on the sumerian language! I was craving for more examples and the sounds from full phrases!

[hunk]

Hi Juli, some additional for your topic: "1870 - FRANÇOIS C. LENORMAND, the amazingly talented French linguist, stated: “The Sumerian language, not only in its vocabulary but also in its structure, is a Turanian language.” It is obvious that his work was very thorough because he studied the Hungarian historical phonetic linguistics and he studied the Halotti Beszéd, the Legend of St. Margaret and the Bible of the Hungarian Hussites."

[benyovszkyistvan]

1932 – EDGAR CLEMENT, German linguist, was so impressed by the musicality of the language that he learned Hungarian. According to him, the Hungarian language had a magical strength, which reflected a deep spirituality and only the highest ranking languages, especially the old classical languages could match up to it.
1939 – GÉZA BÁRCZY, member of the Hungarian Academy of Science, discovered the 5000 year-old Sumerian suffixes and proved that they were identical to the Hungarian suffixes.
1940 – Sir LEONARD WOOLLEY, English archeologist and linguist, excavated the Sumerian city, Ur of the Chaldees. He found 400, 000 clay tablets, which were covered with linguistic material. He made a glossary and deciphered a large number of texts for the Institutum Biblicum in Rome, among them a six volume Sumerisches Lexicon, in which he deciphered 4, 000 words.

[GohanHachan]

Great video as usual !

Nonetheless, I'm surprised to hear you explaining that the diachronic mutation "from k to sh" is very unusual. On the contrary, I love diachronic linguistic and it turn out that evolution from velar to post-alveolar (or retroflex and palatal) consonants is pretty common. This relationship can been seen even in well-known Indo-European languages such as French or Spanish. Thus, the Latin voiceless velar stop consonant ["k"] led to a voiceless post-alveolar fricative ["sh"] in French, even before the back vowel "a" (ex : château < castellum, cheval < cabellus, etc). Symmetrically, Spanish saw what was its voiced post-alveolar fricative ["zh"] to be understood more easily by English speaking people) became a voiceless velar fricative ["ch" as in LoCH Ness], hence the current pronunciation of the spanish letter "j" ("la jota").

[brunomoura]

I just found your channel. A good surprise, indeed. I love to study languages since I was a kid.The way you contextualize all these ancient languages is amazing. A "cultural and sociological background " makes the study much more empiric and intense. Thanks for sharing this knowledge with us. From now on I will start to watch the earlier videos.

Best regards from Brazil.

[lajos-berenyi]

There are some theories, that the Sumarian language has connection with the Hungarian language. I wouldn’t like to go into the details of pros and cons of the argument, but two interesting things I would like to mention:
The names of many Sumarian towns has meaning in Hungarian and even there are some towns or villages or places in Hungary today with the same (or very similar) names.
The Sumarians only we call Sumarians, but they called themself Maghars. And the Hungarian call themself Magyars.