Ancient Sumerian and Mesopotamian Language

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Ancient Sumerian and Mesopotamian Language

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1VioletStarry
Mai 28, 2010, 7:48 am

I've done research on Sumer, and its odd
language. Most was accessed thru the
Necronomicon, translated by a monk. Many
persons have ( Crowley was one ) investi-
gated the language and culture of the Sum-
erian people. The language is similiar to
Ancient Sanskrit and Chinese, yet, in many
ways totally different. I have a book,
"Fundamentals of Sumarian Grammar/
Grundzuge der Sumerischen Grammatik",
by Arno Poebel. Any thots anyone on the
possible origins of this strange pre-Semetic
language?????

2Choreocrat
Juin 11, 2010, 2:25 am

Sumerian has been linked with I don't know how many languages, almost exclusively based on scant and unreliable evidence. It's not remotely similar to Sanskrit or Old Chinese.

3hdcclassic
Juin 11, 2010, 3:08 am

AFAIK most linguists consider Sumerian to be language isolate, having no known related languages.
(and I will not even start commenting on the Necronomicon mentioned by OP).

4DaynaRT
Juin 11, 2010, 9:40 am

5bjza
Juin 11, 2010, 2:37 pm

If your research on Sumerian includes fictional books like the Necronomicon, you probably need to start over from scratch. But that aside...

I've never studied Sino-Tibetan languages, but I can't imagine any similarities between Sumerian and any fact about modern Chinese that I know. What exactly do you find similar?

Likewise, I'm no Sanskrit expert, but I don't see a lot of non-superficial overlap between the two. What leads you to suggest a relationship?

6bjza
Juin 11, 2010, 2:41 pm

I haven't read Poebel's work, but I know a huge number of texts have been discovered and deciphered since Poebel published. If you want an up-to-date grammar on Sumerian, try Edzard's Sumerian Grammar or Thomsen's The Sumerian Language.

7Choreocrat
Juil 1, 2010, 3:28 am

4 - Sumer is icumen in!

8omboy
Sep 14, 2011, 12:43 pm

We seem to assume that we have gathered and studied all of the evidence that is out here on Mesopotamian writing when in fact we are only at the baby stage of the vast and intriguing field.

We should not be too anxious to declare anything as absolute in this field. Tomorrow's finding of a clay shard somewhere between Syria and India or analysis of a completed puzzle of pieces in the British Museum may send us in a far different direction.

We haven't even been able to analyze, as of yet, all of the stacks and stacks of Middle English documents on hand.

A note of caution also on speaking of "The Sumerian Language". This language was around for so long and was influenced so much at different times by different sister languages that we may simply be not be able to use any one snapshot in some one moment as "The Sumerian Language".

A thousand years from now someone could find an example of Runic antler writing and declare it to be "The English Language"

I have seen speculation that there are some now saying that there may be a strong early influence of hieroglyphics on Mesopotamian writing.