Learn to Read Ancient Sumerian: An Introduction for Complete Beginners.

Product Information

Michalowski’s chapter “Sumerian” in the Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World’s Ancient Languages [Cambridge; Ref 4 P371 . F55 2015], which in addition to its efficient overview to the script is also beautifully illustrated by photographs of the British Museum’s collection.

I am most familiar with Marie-Louise Thomsen, The Sumerian Language and Otto Edzard Dietz, Sumerian Grammar and the Liepzig-Münchner Sumerischer Zettelkasten. A friend of mine was taking Akkadian or Sumerian (I can’t remember which) and described the wide range of possible correct translations of a text with a story from class. Every chapter includes a list of vocabulary and cuneiform signs for the student to master, as well as exercises to help solidify the reader's understanding of grammatical concepts. Jacobsen presents verse translations of Sumerian poetry with introductions and notes for a general audience. This accords well with Jacobsen’s warning in the “Introduction” to his book: “The translations here presented can…be offered only as a subjective attempt, though one that I sincerely hope and trust is true in its essentials.

Finance is provided by PayPal Credit (a trading name of PayPal UK Ltd, Whittaker House, Whittaker Avenue, Richmond-Upon-Thames, Surrey, United Kingdom, TW9 1EH). I am currently a history master student, but want to start learning Akkadian or Sumerian for my PhD.

The earliest surviving tablets are predominantly administrative records and teaching materials from the end of the fourth millennium, but over time Sumerian literature would encompass a wide range of forms and genres.Many signs seem to have the same pronunciation, which are indicated with forms like du 5 (“doo five”) and è (“ee three”) when Sumerian is transcribed in Latin letters. As for translations, Konstantopoulos recommends a few volumes that cover the range of Sumerian literature.

Turning off the personalised advertising setting won’t stop you from seeing Etsy ads, but it may make the ads you see less relevant or more repetitive.Her interest stemmed originally from ancient religion, but she was soon drawn to the inner workings of the language itself all the more so because of its status as a language isolate.

I could speak about the controversies about Sumerian grammar, or the difficulties of the script, but in this post I will try to talk about the intersection of both.M. in Old Testament studies from Capital Bible Seminary, where he wrote his thesis on the meaning of the divine title "El Shaddai. If you’d like to file an allegation of infringement, you’ll need to follow the process described in our Copyright and Intellectual Property Policy. Using an authentic, ancient Sumerian story, "The Curse of Agade" as a teaching tool, this book provides further details on topics such as case, verbal prefixes, and non-finite verbal forms, and introduces new concepts including the Sumerian numbering system and DIRI compounds.