Sumerian language

Sumerian
𒅴𒂠 Emeg̃ir
Native to	Sumer and Akkad
Region	Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq)
Era	Attested from c. 2900 BC. Went out of vernacular use around 1700 BC; used as a classical language until about 100 AD.[1]
Language family	Language isolate
Dialects	Emesal Emesisa[2] Emetena[2] Emesukudda[2] Emesuha[2] Emesidi[2] Emeku[3]
Writing system	Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform
Language codes
ISO 639-2	sux
ISO 639-3	sux
Linguist List	uga
Glottolog	sume1241
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Sumerian (Sumerian: 𒅴𒂠, romanized: Emeg̃ir, lit. ''native language'') was the language of ancient Sumer. It is one of the oldest attested languages, dating back to at least 2900 BC. It is a local language isolate that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia, in the area that is modern-day Iraq.

Akkadian, a Semitic language, gradually replaced Sumerian as the primary spoken language in the area c. 2000 BC (the exact date is debated),^[4] but Sumerian continued to be used as a sacred, ceremonial, literary and scientific language in Akkadian-speaking Mesopotamian states such as Assyria and Babylonia until the 1st century AD.^[5][6] Thereafter, it seems to have fallen into obscurity until the 19th century, when Assyriologists began deciphering the cuneiform inscriptions and excavated tablets that had been left by its speakers.

In spite of its extinction, Sumerian exerted a significant impact on the languages of the area. The cuneiform script, originally used for Sumerian, was widely adopted by numerous regional languages such as Akkadian, Elamite, Eblaite, Hittite, Hurrian, Luwian and Urartian; it similarly inspired the Old Persian alphabet which was used to write the eponymous language. The impact was perhaps the greatest on Akkadian whose grammar and vocabulary were significantly influenced by Sumerian.^[7]

Stages

The history of written Sumerian can be divided into several periods:^{[9][10][11][12]}

• Proto-literate period – c. 3200 BC to c. 3000 BC
• Archaic Sumerian – c. 3000 BC to c. 2600 BC
• Old or Classical Sumerian – c. 2500 BC to c. 2350 BC
• Old Akkadian Sumerian – c. 2350 – 2200 BC
• Neo-Sumerian – c. 2200 BC to c. 2000 BC, further divided into:
  • Early Neo-Sumerian (Lagash II period) – c. 2200 BC to c. 2100 BC
  • Late Neo-Sumerian (Ur III period) – c. 2110 BC to c. 2000 BC
• Old Babylonian Sumerian – c. 2000 BC to c. 1600 BC
• Post-Old Babylonian Sumerian – after c. 1600 BC.

The pictographic writing system used during the Proto-literate period (3200 BC – 3000 BC), corresponding to the Uruk III and Uruk IV periods in archeology, was still so rudimentary that there remains some scholarly disagreement about whether the language written with it is Sumerian at all, although it has been argued that there are some, albeit still very rare, cases of phonetic indicators and spelling that show this to be the case.^[13] The texts from this period are mostly administrative.^[9]

The next period, Archaic Sumerian (3000 BC – 2500 BC), is the first stage of inscriptions that indicate grammatical elements, so the identification of the language is certain. It includes some administrative texts and sign lists from Ur (c. 2800 BC). Texts from Shuruppak and Abu Salabikh from 2600 to 2500 BC (the so-called Fara period or Early Dynastic Period IIIa) are the first to span a greater variety of genres, including not only administrative texts and sign lists, but also legal and literary texts (including proverbs) and incantations; however, the spelling of grammatical elements remains optional.^[9]

The Old Sumerian period (2500-2350 BC) is the first one from which well-understood texts survive. It corresponds mostly to the last part of the Early Dynastic period (ED IIIb) and specifically to the First Dynasty of Lagash, from where the overwhelming majority of surviving texts come. The sources include important royal inscriptions with historical content as well as extensive administrative records.^[9] Sometimes included in the Old Sumerian stage is also the Old Akkadian period (c. 2350 BC – c. 2200 BC),^[14] during which Mesopotamia, including Sumer, was united under the rule of the Akkadian Empire. At this time Akkadian functioned as the primary official language, but texts in Sumerian (primarily administrative) did continue to be produced as well.^[9]

The first phase of the Neo-Sumerian period corresponds to the time of Gutian rule in Mesopotamia; the most important sources come from the autonomous Second Dynasty of Lagash, especially from the rule of Gudea, which has produced extensive royal inscriptions. The second phase corresponds to the unification of Mesopotamia under the Third Dynasty of Ur, which oversaw a "renaissance" in the use of Sumerian throughout Mesopotamia, using it as its sole official written language. There is a wealth of texts greater than from any preceding time – besides the extremely detailed and meticulous administrative records, there are numerous royal inscriptions, legal documents, letters and incantations.^[14] In spite of the dominant position of written Sumerian during the Ur III dynasty, it is controversial to what extent it was actually spoken or had already gone extinct in most parts of its empire,^[4][15] as there are indications that many scribes^[4][16] and even the royal court actually used Akkadian as their main spoken and native language.^[16] Evidence has been adduced to the effect that native Sumerian speakers persisted, but only as a minority of the population.^[16]

By the Old Babylonian period (c. 2000 – c. 1600 BC), Akkadian had clearly supplanted Sumerian as a spoken language in nearly all of its original territory, whereas Sumerian continued its existence as a liturgical and classical language for religious, artistic and scholarly purposes. In addition, it has been argued that Sumerian persisted as a spoken language at least in a small part of Southern Mesopotamia (Nippur and its surroundings) until as late as 1700 BC.^[4] Nonetheless, it seems clear that by far the majority of scribes writing in Sumerian in this point were not native speakers and errors resulting from their Akkadian mother tongue become apparent.^[17] The written language of administration, law and royal inscriptions continued to be Sumerian in the undoubtedly Semitic-speaking successor states of Ur III during the so-called Isin-Larsa period (c. 2000 BC – c. 1750 BC). The Old Babylonian Empire, however, mostly used Akkadian in inscriptions, sometimes adding Sumerian versions.^[16][18]

The Old Babylonian period, especially its early part,^[9] has produced extremely numerous and varied Sumerian literary texts: myths, epics, hymns, prayers, wisdom literature and letters. In fact, nearly all preserved Sumerian religious and wisdom literature^[19] and the overwhelming majority of surviving manuscripts of Sumerian literary texts in general^[20][21] can be dated to that time, and it is often seen as the "classical age" of Sumerian literature.^[22] Conversely, far more literary texts on tablets surviving from the Old Babylonian period are in Sumerian than in Akkadian, even though that time is viewed as the classical period of Babylonian culture and language.^[23][24][21] However, it has sometimes been suggested that many or most of these "Old Babylonian Sumerian" texts may be copies of works that were originally composed in the preceding Ur III period or earlier, and some copies or fragments of known compositions or literary genres have indeed been found in tablets of Neo-Sumerian and Old Sumerian provenance.^[25][21] In addition, some of the first bilingual Sumerian-Akkadian lexical lists are preserved from that time (although the lists were still usually monolingual and Akkadian translations did not become common until the late Middle Babylonian period)^[26] and there are also grammatical texts - essentially bilingual paradigms listing Sumerian grammatical forms and their postulated Akkadian equivalents.^[27]

After the Old Babylonian period^[11] or, according to some, as early as 1700 BC,^[9] the active use of Sumerian declined. Scribes did continue to produce texts in Sumerian at a more modest scale, but generally with interlinear Akkadian translations^[28] and only part of the literature known in the Old Babylonian period continued to be copied after its end around 1600 BC.^[19] During the Middle Babylonian period, approximately from 1600 to 1000 BC, the Kassite rulers continued to use Sumerian in many of their inscriptions,^[29][30] but Akkadian seems to have taken the place of Sumerian as the primary language of texts used for the training of scribes^[31] and their Sumerian itself acquires an increasingly artificial and Akkadian-influenced form.^[19][32][33] In some cases a text may not even have been meant to be read in Sumerian; instead, it may have functioned as a prestigious way of "encoding" Akkadian via Sumerograms (cf. Japanese kanbun).^[32] Nonetheless, the study of Sumerian and copying of Sumerian texts remained an integral part of scribal education and literary culture of Mesopotamia and surrounding societies influenced by it^{[29][30][34][35][a]} and it retained that role until the eclipse of the tradition of cuneiform literacy itself in the beginning of the Common Era. The most popular genres for Sumerian texts after the Old Babylonian period were incantations, liturgical texts and proverbs; most commonly, the classics Lugal-e and An-gim were copied.^[19]

Classification

Sumerian is widely accepted to be a local language isolate.^{[37][38][39][40]} Sumerian was at one time widely held to be an Indo-European language, but that view has been almost universally rejected.^[41] Since its decipherment in the early 20th century, scholars have tried to relate Sumerian to a wide variety of languages. Because Sumerian has prestige as the first attested written language, proposals for linguistic affinity sometimes have a nationalistic flavour, leading to attempts to link Sumerian with a range of widely disparate groups such as the Austroasiatic languages,^[42] Dravidian languages,^[43] Uralic languages such as Hungarian and Finnish,^{[44][45][46][47]} and Sino-Tibetan languages.^[48] Turkish nationalists have claimed that Sumerian was a Turkic language as part of the Sun language theory.^[49][50] Additionally, long-range proposals have attempted to include Sumerian in broad macrofamilies.^[51][52] Such proposals enjoy virtually no support among modern linguists, Sumerologists and Assyriologists and are typically seen as fringe theories.^[53]

It has also been suggested that the Sumerian language descended from a late prehistoric creole language (Høyrup 1992).^[54] However, no conclusive evidence, only some typological features, can be found to support Høyrup's view. A more widespread hypothesis posits a Proto-Euphratean language that preceded Sumerian in Mesopotamia and exerted an areal influence on it, especially in the form of polysyllabic words that appear "un-Sumerian"—making them suspect of being loanwords—and are not traceable to any other known language. There is little speculation as to the affinities of this substratum language, or these languages, and it is thus best treated as unclassified.^[55] Other researchers disagree with the assumption of a single substratum language and argue that several languages are involved.^[56] A related proposal by Gordon Whittaker^[57] is that the language of the proto-literary texts from the Late Uruk period (c. 3350–3100 BC) is really an early Indo-European language which he terms "Euphratic".

Writing system

Development

Pictographic proto-writing was used starting in c. 3300 BC. It is unclear what underlying language it encoded, if any. By c. 2800 BC, some tablets began using syllabic elements that clearly indicated a relation to the Sumerian language. Around 2600 BC,^[58][59] cuneiform symbols were developed using a wedge-shaped stylus to impress the shapes into wet clay. This cuneiform ("wedge-shaped") mode of writing co-existed with the proto-cuneiform archaic mode. Deimel (1922) lists 870 signs used in the Early Dynastic IIIa period (26th century). In the same period the large set of logographic signs had been simplified into a logosyllabic script comprising several hundred signs. Rosengarten (1967) lists 468 signs used in Sumerian (pre-Sargonian) Lagash.

The cuneiform script was adapted to Akkadian writing beginning in the mid-third millennium. Over the long period of bi-lingual overlap of active Sumerian and Akkadian usage the two languages influenced each other, as reflected in numerous loanwords and even word order changes.^[60]

Transcription

Depending on the context, a cuneiform sign can be read either as one of several possible logograms, each of which corresponds to a word in the Sumerian spoken language, as a phonetic syllable (V, VC, CV, or CVC), or as a determinative (a marker of semantic category, such as occupation or place). (See the article Cuneiform.) Some Sumerian logograms were written with multiple cuneiform signs. These logograms are called diri-spellings, after the logogram 𒋛𒀀 'diri' which is written with the signs 𒋛 SI and 𒀀 A. The text transliteration of a tablet will show just the logogram, such as the word 'diri', not the separate component signs.

Not all epigraphists are equally reliable, and before publication of an important treatment of a text, scholars will often arrange to collate the published transcription against the actual tablet, to see if any signs, especially broken or damaged signs, should be represented differently.

Historiography

Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform syllabary

Left: Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform syllabary, used by early Akkadian rulers.^[61] Right: Seal of Akkadian Empire ruler Naram-Sin (reversed for readability), c. 2250 BC. The name of Naram-Sin (Akkadian: 𒀭𒈾𒊏𒄠𒀭𒂗𒍪: ^DNa-ra-am ^DSîn, Sîn being written 𒂗𒍪 EN.ZU), appears vertically in the right column.^[62] British Museum.

The key to reading logosyllabic cuneiform came from the Behistun inscription, a trilingual cuneiform inscription written in Old Persian, Elamite and Akkadian. (In a similar manner, the key to understanding Egyptian hieroglyphs was the bilingual [Greek and Egyptian with the Egyptian text in two scripts] Rosetta stone and Jean-François Champollion's transcription in 1822.)

In 1838 Henry Rawlinson, building on the 1802 work of Georg Friedrich Grotefend, was able to decipher the Old Persian section of the Behistun inscriptions, using his knowledge of modern Persian. When he recovered the rest of the text in 1843, he and others were gradually able to translate the Elamite and Akkadian sections of it, starting with the 37 signs he had deciphered for the Old Persian. Meanwhile, many more cuneiform texts were coming to light from archaeological excavations, mostly in the Semitic Akkadian language, which were duly deciphered.

By 1850, however, Edward Hincks came to suspect a non-Semitic origin for cuneiform. Semitic languages are structured according to consonantal forms, whereas cuneiform, when functioning phonetically, was a syllabary, binding consonants to particular vowels. Furthermore, no Semitic words could be found to explain the syllabic values given to particular signs.^[63] Julius Oppert suggested that a non-Semitic language had preceded Akkadian in Mesopotamia, and that speakers of this language had developed the cuneiform script.

In 1855 Rawlinson announced the discovery of non-Semitic inscriptions at the southern Babylonian sites of Nippur, Larsa, and Uruk.

In 1856, Hincks argued that the untranslated language was agglutinative in character. The language was called "Scythic" by some, and, confusingly, "Akkadian" by others. In 1869, Oppert proposed the name "Sumerian", based on the known title "King of Sumer and Akkad", reasoning that if Akkad signified the Semitic portion of the kingdom, Sumer might describe the non-Semitic annex.

Credit for being first to scientifically treat a bilingual Sumerian-Akkadian text belongs to Paul Haupt, who published Die sumerischen Familiengesetze (The Sumerian family laws) in 1879.^[64]

Ernest de Sarzec began excavating the Sumerian site of Tello (ancient Girsu, capital of the state of Lagash) in 1877, and published the first part of Découvertes en Chaldée with transcriptions of Sumerian tablets in 1884. The University of Pennsylvania began excavating Sumerian Nippur in 1888.

A Classified List of Sumerian Ideographs by R. Brünnow appeared in 1889.

The bewildering number and variety of phonetic values that signs could have in Sumerian led to a detour in understanding the language – a Paris-based orientalist, Joseph Halévy, argued from 1874 onward that Sumerian was not a natural language, but rather a secret code (a cryptolect), and for over a decade the leading Assyriologists battled over this issue. For a dozen years, starting in 1885, Friedrich Delitzsch accepted Halévy's arguments, not renouncing Halévy until 1897.^[65]

François Thureau-Dangin working at the Louvre in Paris also made significant contributions to deciphering Sumerian with publications from 1898 to 1938, such as his 1905 publication of Les inscriptions de Sumer et d'Akkad. Charles Fossey at the Collège de France in Paris was another prolific and reliable scholar. His pioneering Contribution au Dictionnaire sumérien–assyrien, Paris 1905–1907, turns out to provide the foundation for P. Anton Deimel's 1934 Sumerisch-Akkadisches Glossar (vol. III of Deimel's 4-volume Sumerisches Lexikon).

In 1908, Stephen Herbert Langdon summarized the rapid expansion in knowledge of Sumerian and Akkadian vocabulary in the pages of Babyloniaca, a journal edited by Charles Virolleaud, in an article "Sumerian-Assyrian Vocabularies", which reviewed a valuable new book on rare logograms by Bruno Meissner.^[66] Subsequent scholars have found Langdon's work, including his tablet transcriptions, to be not entirely reliable.

In 1944, the Sumerologist Samuel Noah Kramer provided a detailed and readable summary of the decipherment of Sumerian in his Sumerian Mythology.^[67]

Friedrich Delitzsch published a learned Sumerian dictionary and grammar in the form of his Sumerisches Glossar and Grundzüge der sumerischen Grammatik, both appearing in 1914. Delitzsch's student, Arno Poebel, published a grammar with the same title, Grundzüge der sumerischen Grammatik, in 1923, and for 50 years it would be the standard for students studying Sumerian. Poebel's grammar was finally superseded in 1984 on the publication of The Sumerian Language: An Introduction to its History and Grammatical Structure, by Marie-Louise Thomsen. While much of Thomsen's understanding of Sumerian grammar would later be rejected by most or all Sumerologists, Thomsen's grammar (often with express mention of the critiques put forward by Pascal Attinger in his 1993 Eléments de linguistique sumérienne: La construction de du₁₁/e/di 'dire') is the starting point of most recent academic discussions of Sumerian grammar.

More recent monograph-length grammars of Sumerian include Dietz-Otto Edzard's 2003 Sumerian Grammar and Bram Jagersma's 2010 A Descriptive Grammar of Sumerian (currently digital, but soon to be printed in revised form by Oxford University Press). Piotr Michalowski's essay (entitled, simply, "Sumerian") in the 2004 The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages has also been recognized as a good modern grammatical sketch.

There is relatively little consensus, even among reasonable Sumerologists, in comparison to the state of most modern or classical languages. Verbal morphology, in particular, is hotly disputed. In addition to the general grammars, there are many monographs and articles about particular areas of Sumerian grammar, without which a survey of the field could not be considered complete.

The primary institutional lexical effort in Sumerian is the Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary project, begun in 1974. In 2004, the PSD was released on the Web as the ePSD. The project is currently supervised by Steve Tinney. It has not been updated online since 2006, but Tinney and colleagues are working on a new edition of the ePSD, a working draft of which is available online.

Phonology

Assumed phonological or morphological forms will be between slashes //, with plain text used for the standard Assyriological transcription of Sumerian. Most of the following examples are unattested. Note also that, not unlike most other pre-modern orthographies, Sumerian cuneiform spelling is highly variable, so the transcriptions and the cuneiform examples will generally show only one or at most a few common graphic forms out of many that may actually occur.

Modern knowledge of Sumerian phonology is flawed and incomplete because of the lack of speakers, the transmission through the filter of Akkadian phonology and the difficulties posed by the cuneiform script. As I. M. Diakonoff observes, "when we try to find out the morphophonological structure of the Sumerian language, we must constantly bear in mind that we are not dealing with a language directly but are reconstructing it from a very imperfect mnemonic writing system which had not been basically aimed at the rendering of morphophonemics".^[68]

Consonants

Early Sumerian is conjectured to have had at least the consonants listed in the table below. The consonants in brackets are reconstructed by some scholars based on indirect evidence; if they existed, they were lost around the Ur III period in the late 3rd millennium BC.

• a simple distribution of six stop consonants in three places of articulation, originally distinguished by aspiration. In the late 3rd millennium BC, the unaspirated stops are thought to have become voiced in most positions (although not word-finally):^[69]
  • p (voiceless aspirated bilabial plosive),
  • t (voiceless aspirated alveolar plosive),
  • k (voiceless aspirated velar plosive),
    • As a rule, /p/, /t/ and /k/ did not occur word-finally.^[70]
  • b (voiced unaspirated bilabial plosive), later voiced;
  • d (voiced unaspirated alveolar plosive), later voiced;
  • g (voiced unaspirated velar plosive), later voiced.
• a phoneme usually represented by <ř> (sometimes written dr), which became /d/ or /r/ in northern and southern dialects, respectively, after the Old Akkadian period. It was first reconstructed as a voiced alveolar tap /ɾ/, but Bram Jagersma argues that it was a voiceless aspirated alveolar affricate because of its reflection in loanwords in Akkadian, among other reasons,^[69] and this view is accepted by Zólyomi (2017: 28).
• a simple distribution of three nasal consonants in similar distribution to the stops:
  • m (bilabial nasal),
  • n (alveolar nasal),
  • g̃ (frequently printed ĝ due to typesetting constraints, increasingly transcribed as ŋ) /ŋ/ (likely a velar nasal, as in sing, it has also been argued to be a labiovelar nasal [ŋʷ] or a nasalized labiovelar^[71]).
• a set of three sibilants:
  • s, likely a voiceless alveolar fricative,
  • z, likely a voiceless unaspirated alveolar affricate, /t͡s/, as shown by Akkadian loans from /s/=[t͡s] to Sumerian /z/. In early Sumerian, this would have been the unaspirated counterpart to <ř>.^[72] Like the stop series /b/, /d/ and /g/, it is thought to have become voiced /dz/ in some positions in the late 3rd millennium.^[73]
  • š (generally described as a voiceless postalveolar fricative, /ʃ/, as in ship)
• ḫ (a velar fricative, /x/, sometimes written <h>)
• two liquid consonants:
  • l (a lateral consonant)
  • r (a rhotic consonant), which Jagersma argues was realized as a tap [ɾ] because of various evidence suggesting its phonetic similarity to /t/ and /d/.^[74]

The existence of various other consonants has been hypothesized based on graphic alternations and loans, though none have found wide acceptance. For example, Diakonoff lists evidence for two lateral phonemes, two rhotics, two back fricatives, and two g-sounds (excluding the velar nasal), and assumes a phonemic difference between consonants that are dropped word-finally (such as the g in 𒍠 zag > za₃) and consonants that remain (such as the g in 𒆷𒀝 lag). Other "hidden" consonant phonemes that have been suggested include semivowels such as /j/ and /w/,^[75] and a glottal fricative /h/ or a glottal stop that could explain the absence of vowel contraction in some words^[76]—though objections have been raised against that as well.^[77] A recent descriptive grammar by Bram Jagersma includes /j/, /h/, and /ʔ/ as unwritten consonants, with the glottal stop even serving as the first-person pronominal prefix. However, these unwritten consonants had been lost by the Ur III period according to Jagersma.^[78]

Very often, a word-final consonant was not expressed in writing—and was possibly omitted in pronunciation—so it surfaced only when followed by a vowel: for example the /k/ of the genitive case ending -ak does not appear in 𒂍𒈗𒆷 e₂ lugal-la "the king's house", but it becomes obvious in 𒂍𒈗𒆷𒄰 e₂ lugal-la-kam "(it) is the king's house" (compare liaison in French). Jagersma believes that the lack of expression of word-final consonants was originally mostly a graphic convention,^[79] but that in the late 3rd millennium voiceless aspirated stops and affricates (/pʰ/, /tʰ/, /kʰ/ and /tsʰ/ were, indeed, gradually lost in syllable-final position, as were the unaspirated stops /d/ and /g/.^[80]

Vowels

The vowels that are clearly distinguished by the cuneiform script are /a/, /e/, /i/, and /u/. Various researchers have posited the existence of more vowel phonemes such as /o/ and even /ɛ/ and /ɔ/, which would have been concealed by the transmission through Akkadian, as that language does not distinguish them.^[81][82] That would explain the seeming existence of numerous homophones in transliterated Sumerian, as well as some details of the phenomena mentioned in the next paragraph.^[83] These hypotheses are not yet generally accepted.^[71] Phonemic vowel length has also been posited by some scholars based on vowel length in Sumerian loanwords in Akkadian and occasional so-called plene spellings with extra vowel signs.^[84][85]

During the Old Sumerian period, the southern dialects (Lagash, Umma, Ur and Uruk),^[86] which also provide the overwhelming majority of material from that stage, exhibited a vowel harmony rule based on vowel height or advanced tongue root.^[81] Essentially, morphemes containing /e/ alternated between [e] in front of syllables containing open vowels and [i] in front of syllables containing close vowels; e.g. 𒂊𒁽 e-kaš₄ "he runs", but 𒉌𒁺 i₃-du he goes". Jagersma explains some absences of such an alternation with the fact that the unaffected vowels were long or stressed.^[86] In addition, some have argued for a second vowel harmony rule.^[87][82]

There also appear to be many cases of partial or complete assimilation of the vowel of certain prefixes and suffixes to one in the adjacent syllable reflected in writing in some of the later periods, and there is a noticeable, albeit not absolute, tendency for disyllabic stems to have the same vowel in both syllables.^[88] These patterns, too, are interpreted as evidence for a richer vowel inventory by some researchers.^[81][82] For example, we find forms like 𒂵𒁽 ga-kaš₄ "let me run", but, from the Neo-Sumerian period onwards, occasional spellings like 𒄘𒁺 gu₂-du "let me go". According to Jagersma, these assimilations are limited to open syllables^[89] and, as with vowel harmony, Jagersma interprets their absence as the result of vowel length or of stress in at least some cases.^[89] There is evidence of various cases of elision of vowels, apparently in unstressed syllables; in particular an initial vowel in a word of more than two syllables seems to have been elided in many cases.^[89] What appears to be vowel contraction in hiatus (*/aa/, */ia/, */ua/ > a, */ae/ > a, */ie/ > i or e, */ue/ > u or e, etc.) is also very common.^[90]

Syllables could have any of the following structures: V, CV, VC, CVC. More complex syllables, if Sumerian had them, are not expressed as such by the cuneiform script.

Stress

Sumerian stress is usually presumed to have been dynamic, since it seems to have caused vowel elisions on many occasions. Opinions vary on its placement. The adaptation of Akkadian words of Sumerian origin seems to suggest that Sumerian stress tended to be on the last syllable of the word, at least in its citation form.^[91][92] The treatment of forms with enclitics is less clear. Many cases of apheresis in forms with enclitics have been interpreted as entailing that the same rule was true of the phonological word on many occasions, i.e. that the stress could be shifted onto the enclitics; however, the fact that many of these same enclitics have allomorphs with apocopated final vowels (e.g. /‑še/ ~ /-š/) suggests that they were, on the contrary, unstressed when these allomorphs arose.^[91]

Orthography

Sumerian writing expressed pronunciation only roughly. It was often morphophonemic, so much of the allomorphic variation could be ignored.^[93] Especially in earlier Sumerian, coda consonants were often ignored in spelling; e.g. /mung̃areš/ 'they put it here' could be written 𒈬𒃻𒌷 mu-g̃ar-re₂. The use of VC signs for that purpose, producing more elaborate spellings such as 𒈬𒌦𒃻𒌷𒌍 mu-un-g̃ar-re₂-eš₃, became more common only in the Neo-Sumerian and especially in the Old Babylonian period.^[94] Conversely, an intervocalic consonant, especially at the end of a morpheme followed by a vowel-initial morpheme, was usually "repeated" by the use of a CV sign for the same consonant; e.g. 𒊬 sar 'write' - 𒊬𒊏 sar-ra 'written'. This results in orthographic gemination that is usually reflected in Sumerological transliteration, but does not actually designate any phonological phenomenon such as length.^[95] In fact, as noted above, many consonants seem to have been elided unless followed by a vowel at various stages in the history of Sumerian, so when the following consonant appears in front of a vowel, it can be said to be expressed only by the next sign. For example, 𒊮 šag₄ "heart" may also be transliterated as ša₃, and accordingly 𒊮𒂵 šag₄-ga "in the heart" can also be interpreted as ša₃-ga.

Of course, when a CVC sound sequence is expressed by a sequence of signs with the sound values CV-VC, that does not necessarily indicate a long vowel or a sequence of identical vowels either. To mark such a thing, so-called "plene" writings with an additional vowel sign repeating the preceding vowel were used, although that never came to be done systematically. A typical plene writing involved a sequence such as (C)V-V(-VC/CV), e.g. 𒂼𒀀 ama-a for /amaa/ < {ama-e} 'the mother (ergative case)').^[96]

Sumerian texts vary in the degree to which they use logograms or opt for syllabic (phonetic) spellings instead: e.g. the word 𒃻 g̃ar "put" may also be written phonetically as 𒂷𒅈 g̃a₂-ar. They also vary in the degree to which allomorphic variation was expressed: 𒅎𒄄𒌍 im-gi₄-eš or 𒅎𒄄𒅖 im-gi₄-iš for "they returned". While early Sumerian writing was highly logographic, there was a tendency towards more phonetic spelling in the Neo-Sumerian period.^[97] Consistent syllabic spelling was employed when writing down the Emesal dialect (since the usual logograms would have been read in Emegir by default), for the purpose of teaching the language and often in recording incantations.^[98]

Grammar

Ever since its decipherment, research of Sumerian has been made difficult not only by the lack of any native speakers, but also by the relative sparseness of linguistic data, the apparent lack of a closely related language, and the features of the writing system. Typologically, Sumerian is classified as an agglutinative, ergative (consistently so in its nominal morphology and split ergative in its verbal morphology), and subject-object-verb language.^[99]

Nominal morphology

Noun phrases

The Sumerian noun is typically a one or two-syllable root (𒅆 igi "eye", 𒂍 e₂ "house, household", 𒎏 nin "lady"), although there are also some roots with three syllables like 𒆠𒇴 šakanka "market". There are two grammatical genders, which have been variously called animate and inanimate,^{[100][101][102][103]} human and non-human,^[104][105] or personal/person and impersonal/non-person.^[106][107] Their assignment is semantically predictable: the first gender includes humans, gods and, in some instances, the word for "statue", while the second one includes animals, plants, non-living objects, abstract concepts and collective plural nouns. Since the second gender includes animals, the use of the terms animate and inanimate is somewhat misleading^[106] and conventional,^[101] but since it is most common in the literature, it will be maintained in this article.

The adjectives and other modifiers follow the noun (𒈗𒈤 lugal maḫ "great king"). The noun itself is not inflected; rather, grammatical markers attach to the noun phrase as a whole, in a certain order. Typically, that order would be:

An example may be:^[108]

The possessive, plural and case markers are traditionally referred to as "suffixes", but have recently also been described as enclitics^[109] or postpositions.^[110]

The plural marker proper is (𒂊)𒉈 /-(e)ne/. It is used only with nouns of the animate gender and its use is optional. It is generally omitted when other parts of the clause indicate the plurality of the referent.^[111] Thus, it is not used if the noun is modified by a numeral. It is also not used when the verb form in the clause indicates the number of the noun. This is generally the case when the noun phrase is in the absolutive case: e.g. lu₂ ba-zaḫ₃-zaḫ₃-eš 𒇽𒁀𒀄𒀄𒌍 "the men ran away", 𒇽𒈬𒂊𒆪𒁉𒌍 lu₂ mu-e-dab₅-be₂-eš "I caught the men". The plural marker is not used when referring to a collective, because a collective is treated as inanimate; e.g. 𒀳 engar "farmer" with no plural marker may refer to "(the group of) farmers".^[111]

As the following example shows, the marker is appended to the end of the phrase, even after a relative clause:^[111]

Likewise, the plural marker is usually (albeit not always) added only once when a whole series of coordinated nouns have plural reference:^[111]

Another way in which a kind of plurality is expressed is by means of reduplication of the noun: 𒀭𒀭 dig̃ir-dig̃ir "gods", 𒌈𒌈 ib₂-ib₂ "hips". However, this construction is usually considered to have a more specialized meaning, variously interpreted as totality ("all the gods", "both of my hips")^[112] or distribution/separateness ("each of the gods taken separately").^[113][114] An especially frequently occurring reduplicated word, 𒆳𒆳 kur-kur "foreign lands", may have simply plural meaning,^[113] and in very late usage, the meaning of the reduplication in general might be simple plurality.^[112]

At least a few adjectives (notably 𒃲 gal "great" and 𒌉 tur "small") are also reduplicated when the noun they modify has plural reference: 𒀀𒃲𒃲 a gal-gal "the great waters".^[115] This is sometimes interpreted as an expression of simple plurality,^[116] while a minority view is that the meaning of these forms is not purely plural, but rather the same as that of noun reduplication.^[114]

Two other ways of expressing plurality are characteristic only of very late Sumerian usage and have made their way into Sumerograms used in writing Akkadian and other languages. One is used with inanimate nouns and consists of the modification of the noun with the adjective 𒄭𒀀 ḫi-a "various" (lit. "mixed"), e.g. 𒇻𒄭𒀀 udu ḫi-a "sheep".^[117] The other is adding the 3rd person plural form of the enclitic copula 𒈨𒌍 -me-eš to a noun (𒈗𒈨𒌍 lugal-me-eš "kings", originally "they (who) are kings").^[118]

The generally recognized case markers are:

The final vowels of most of the above markers are subject to loss if they are attached to vowel-final words.

More endings are recognized by some researchers; e.g. Bram Jagersma notes a separate adverbiative case in 𒂠/𒌍 eš₂/eš "in the manner of", e.g. 𒆰𒂠 numun-eš₂ 'as seeds', 'in the manner of seeds', and a second locative in 𒉈/𒉌 -ne/ne₂ used mostly with non-finite verb forms (see the Syntax section).^[127] In addition, there are the enclitic particles 𒈾𒀭𒈾 na-an-na meaning "without"^[128] and (𒀀)𒅗𒉆 (-a)-ka-nam -/akanam/ (in earlier Sumerian) or (𒀀)𒆤𒌍 (-a)-ke₄-eš₂ -/akeš/ "because of" (in later Sumerian).^[129]

Additional spatial or temporal meanings can be expressed by genitive phrases like "at the head of" = "above", "at the face of" = "in front of", "at the outer side of" = "because of" etc.:

The embedded structure of the noun phrase can be further illustrated with the following phrase:

Here, the first genitive morpheme (-a(k)) subordinates 𒋠 siki "wool" to 𒇻 udu "sheep", and the second subordinates 𒇻𒋠 udu siki-(a)k "sheep of wool" (or "woolly sheep") to 𒉺𒇻 sipad "shepherd".^[130]

Pronouns

The attested personal pronouns are:

The stem vowels of 𒂷(𒂊) g̃e₂₆(-e) and 𒂊 ze₂ are assimilated to a following case suffix containing /a/ and then have the forms 𒂷 g̃a- and 𒍝 za-; e.g. 𒍝𒊏 za-ra 'to you (sg.)'.

As far as demonstrative pronouns are concerned, Sumerian most commonly uses the enclitic 𒁉 -bi to express the meaning "this". There are rare instances of other demonstrative enclitics such as 𒂊 -e "this", 𒊺 -še "that" and 𒊑 -re "that", where perhaps the third denoted something further away than the second.^[138] The independent demonstrative pronouns are 𒉈𒂗/𒉈𒂊 ne-e(n) "this (thing)" and 𒄯 ur₅ "that (thing)";^[139] -ne(n) might also be used as another enclitic.^[140] "Now" is 𒉌𒉈𒋧 i₃-ne-še₃. For "then" and "there", the declined noun phrases 𒌓𒁀 ud-ba "at that time" and 𒆠𒁀 ki-ba "at that place" are used; "so" is 𒄯𒁶 ur₅-gin₇, lit. "like that".^[141]

The interrogative pronouns are 𒀀𒁀 a-ba "who" and 𒀀𒈾 a-na "what" (also used as "whoever" and "whatever" when introducing dependent clauses). The stem for "where" is 𒈨 me-^[142] (used in the locative, terminative and ablative to express "where", "whither" and "whence", respectively^{[143][144][145]}) . "When" is 𒇷/𒂗 en₃/en,^[142] but also the stem 𒈨(𒂊)𒈾 me-(e)-na is attested for "when" (in the emphatic form me-na-am₃ and in the terminative me-na-še₃ "until when?", "how long?").^[146] "How" and "why" are expressed by 𒀀𒈾𒀸 a-na-aš (lit. "what for?") and 𒀀𒁶 a-gin₇ "how" (an equative case form, perhaps "like what?").^[142] The expected form 𒀀𒈾𒁶 a-na-gin₇ is used in Old Babylonian.^[144]

An indefinite pronoun is 𒈾𒈨 na-me "any", which is only attested in attributive function until Old Babylonian,^[147] but may also stand alone in the sense "anyone, anything" in late texts.^[148] It can be added to nouns to produce further expressions with pronominal meaning such as 𒇽𒈾𒈨 lu₂ na-me "anyone", 𒃻𒈾𒈨 nig̃₂ na-me "anything", 𒆠𒈾𒈨 ki na-me "anywhere", 𒌓𒈾𒈨 ud₄ na-me "ever, any time". The nouns 𒇽 lu₂ "man" and 𒃻 nig̃₂ "thing" are also used for "someone, anyone" and "something, anything".^[149] With negation, all of these expressions naturally acquire the meanings "nobody", "nothing", "nowhere" and "never".^[150]

The reflexive pronoun is 𒅎(𒋼) ni₂(-te) "self", which generally occurs with possessive pronouns attached: 𒅎𒈬 ni₂-g̃u₁₀ "my-self", etc. The longer form appears in the third person animate (𒅎𒋼𒉌 ni₂-te-ni "him/herself", 𒅎𒋼𒉈𒉈 ni₂-te-ne-ne "themselves").^[151]

Adjectives

It is controversial whether Sumerian has adjectives at all, since nearly all stems with adjectival meaning are also attested as verb stems and may be conjugated as verbs: 𒈤 maḫ "great" > 𒎏𒀠𒈤 nin al-maḫ "the lady is great".^[152][153] According to Jagersma, there is a distinction in that the few true adjectives cannot be negated, and a few stems are different depending on the part of speech: 𒃲 gal "big", but 𒄖𒌌 gu-ul "be big".^[154] Forms with the nominalizing suffix /-a/ have a restrictive meaning: 𒂍𒉋 e₂ gibil "a new house", but 𒂍𒉋𒆷 e₂ gibil-la "the new house (as contrasted with the old one)", "a/the newer (kind of) house" or "the newest house".^[155]

A few adjectives, like 𒃲 gal "big" and 𒌉 tur "small" appear to "agree in number" with a preceding noun in the plural by reduplication; with some other adjectives, the meaning seems to be "each of them ADJ". The colour term 𒌓(𒌓) bar₆-bar₆ / babbar "white" appears to have always been reduplicated, and the same may be true of 𒈪 gig₂ (actually giggig) "black".^[115]

To express adverbial function, the enclitic 𒁉 -bi can be added to an adjectival stem: 𒉋𒁉 gibil-bi "newly". Jagersma interprets this as a deadjectival noun with a possessive clitic in the directive case: {gibil.∅.bi-e}, lit. "at its newness".^[q] Another way of expressing more or less the same function is with the adverbiative ending 𒂠 -eš₂, e.g. 𒍣𒉈𒂠 zid-de₃eš₂ "rightly", "in the right way".^[156]

To express the comparative or superlative degree, various constructions with the word 𒋛𒀀 dirig "exceed"/"excess" are used: X + locative + dirig-ga "which exceeds (all) X", dirig + X + genitive + terminative "exceeding X", lit. "to the excess of X".^[157]

Numerals

Sumerian has a combination decimal and sexagesimal system (for example, 600 is 'ten sixties'), so that the Sumerian lexical numeral system is sexagesimal with 10 as a subbase.^[158] The cardinal numerals and ways of forming composite numbers are as follows:

Ordinal numerals are formed with the suffix 𒄰𒈠 -kam-ma in Old Sumerian and 𒄰(𒈠) -kam(-ma) (with the final vowel still surfacing in front of enclitics) in subsequent periods.^[168] However, a cardinal numeral may also have ordinal meaning sometimes.^[169]

The syntax of numerals has some peculiarities. Besides just being placed after a noun like other modifiers (𒌉𒐈 dumu eš₅ "three children" - which may, however, also be written 𒐈𒌉 3 dumu), the numeral may be reinforced by the copula (𒌉𒐈𒀀𒀭 dumu eš₅-am₃). If a possessive pronoun is added after the numeral, the construction has definite meaning: 𒌉𒐈𒀀𒁉 dumu eš₅-a-bi: "the three children" (lit. "children - the three of them"). The numerals 𒈫 min "two" and 𒐈 eš₅ "three" are supplied with a nominalizer in this construction.^[169]

Fractions are formed with the phrase 𒅆...N...𒅅 igi-N-g̃al₂ : "one-Nth"; where 𒅅 g̃al₂ may be omitted. "One-half", however, is 𒋗𒊒𒀀 šu-ru-a, later 𒋗𒊑𒀀 šu-ri-a. Another way of expressing fractions was originally limited to weight measures, specifically fractions of the mina (𒈠𒈾 ma-na): 𒑚 šuššana "one-third" (literarlly "two-sixths"), 𒑛 šanabi "two-thirds" (the former two words are of Akkadian origins), 𒑜 gig̃usila or 𒇲𒌋𒂆 la₂ gig̃₄ u "five-sixths" (literally "ten shekels split off (from the mina)" or "(a mina) minus ten shekels", respectively), 𒂆 gig̃₄ "one-sixtieth", lit. "a shekel" (since a shekel is one-sixtieth of a mina). Smaller fractions are formed by combining these: e.g. one-fifth is 𒌋𒁹𒁹𒂆 "12×1/60 = 1/5", and two-fifths are 𒑚𒇹𒂆 "2/3 + (4 × 1/60) = 5/15 + 1/15 = 6/15 = 2/5".^[170]

Verbal morphology

General

The Sumerian finite verb distinguishes a number of moods and agrees (more or less consistently) with the subject and the object in person, number and gender. The verb chain may also incorporate pronominal references to the verb's other modifiers, which has also traditionally been described as "agreement", although, in fact, such a reference and the presence of an actual modifier in the clause need not co-occur: not only 𒂍𒂠𒌈𒌈𒅆𒁺𒌦 e₂-še₃ ib₂-ši-du-un "I'm going to the house", but also 𒂍𒂠𒉌𒁺𒌦 e₂-še₃ i₃-du-un "I'm going to the house" and simply 𒌈𒅆𒁺𒌦 ib₂-ši-du-un "I'm going to it" are possible.^[110]

The Sumerian verb also makes a binary distinction according to a category that some regard as tense (past vs present-future), others as aspect (perfective vs imperfective), and that will be designated as TA (tense/aspect) in the following. The two members of the opposition entail different conjugation patterns and, at least for many verbs, different stems; they are theory-neutrally referred to with the Akkadian grammatical terms for the two respective forms – ḫamṭu (quick) and marû (slow, fat). Finally, opinions differ on whether the verb has a passive or a middle voice and how it is expressed.

The verbal root is almost always a monosyllable and, together with various affixes, forms a so-called verbal chain which is described as a sequence of about 15 slots, though the precise models differ.^[171] The finite verb has both prefixes and suffixes, while the non-finite verb may only have suffixes. Broadly, the prefixes have been divided in three groups that occur in the following order: modal prefixes, "conjugation prefixes", and pronominal and dimensional prefixes.^[172] The suffixes are a future or imperfective marker /-ed-/, pronominal suffixes, and an /-a/ ending that nominalizes the whole verb chain. The overall structure can be summarized as follows:

Examples using most of the above slots may be:

More than one pairing of a pronominal prefix and a dimensional prefix may occur within the verb chain. If so, the pairings are placed in a specific order, which is shown the section Pronominal and Dimensional Prefixes below. The "conjugation prefixes" appear to be mutually exclusive to a great extent, since the "finite" prefixes /i/~/e/ or /a/ do not appear before [mu-], /ba/- and the sequence -/b/+/i/-, nor does the realization [mu] appear before /ba-/ or /b-i/. However, it is commonly assumed that the spellings im-, im-ma- and im-mi- are equivalent to /i/- + -/mu/-, /i/- + -/mu/- + -/ba/- and /i/- + -/mu/- + -/bi/-, respectively. According to Jagersma, the reason for the restrictions is that the "finite" prefixes /i/~/e/- or /a/- have been elided prehistorically in open syllables, in front of prefixes of the shape CV (consonant-vowel). The exception is the position in front of the locative prefix -/ni/-, the second person dative 𒊏 /-r-a/ and the second person directive 𒊑 /-r-i/, where the dominant dialect of the Old Babylonian period retains them.^[173]

Modal prefixes

The modal prefixes express modality. Some of them are generally combined with certain TAs; in other cases, the meaning of a modal prefix can depend on the TA.

• /Ø-/ is the prefix of the simple indicative mood; in other words, the indicative is unmarked.
• 𒉡 nu- and 𒆷 la-, 𒇷 li- (𒉌 li₂- in Ur III spelling) have negative meaning and can be translated as "not". The allomorphs /la-/ and /li-/ are used before the "conjugation prefixes" 𒁀 ba- and 𒉈 bi₂-, respectively. A following vowel /i/ or /e/ is contracted with the preceding /u/ of nu- with compensatory lengthening (which is often graphically unexpressed): compare 𒉌𒁺 i₂-du "he is walking", but /nu-i-du/ > /nuː-du/ 𒉡𒅇𒁺 nu(-u₃)-du "he isn't walking". If followed by a consonant, on the other hand, the vowel of nu- appears to have been assimilated to the vowel of the following syllable, because it occasionally appears written as 𒈾 /na-/ in front of a syllable containing /a/.^[174]
• 𒄩 ḫa- has either precative/optative meaning ("let him do X", "may you do X") or affirmative meaning ("he does this indeed"), partly depending on the type of verb. If the verbal form denotes a transitive action, precative meaning is expressed with the marû form, and affirmative with the ḫamṭu form. In contrast, if the verbal form is intransitive or stative, the TA used is always ḫamṭu.^[175] In open syllables, the prefix merges with a following conjugation prefix i₃- into 𒃶 ḫe₂-. Beginning in the later Old Akkadian period, the spelling also shows assimilation of the vowel of the prefix to 𒃶 ḫe₂- in front of a syllable containing /e/ and to 𒄷 ḫu- in front of a syllable containing /u/. Finally, Ur III spelling has a tendency to generalize the variant 𒃶 ḫe₂-.^[176]
• 𒂵 ga- has cohortative meaning and can be translated as "let me/us do X" or "I/you will do X". Occasional phonetic spellings show that its vowel is assimilated to following vowels, producing the allomorphs written 𒄄 gi₄- and 𒄘 gu₂-. It is only used with ḫamṭu stems,^[177] but nevertheless uses personal prefixes to express objects, which is otherwise characteristic of the marû conjugation: 𒂵𒉌𒌈𒃻 ga-ni-ib₂-g̃ar "let me put it there!".^[178] The plural number of the subject was not specially marked until the Old Babylonian period,^[178] during which the 1st person plural suffix began to be added: 𒂵𒉌𒌈𒃻𒊑𒂗𒉈𒂗 ga-ni-ib₂-g̃ar-re-en-de-en "let us put it there!".^[179]
• 𒅇 u₃- is a prospective "after/when/if" and is also used as a mild imperative "Please do X". It is only used with ḫamṭu forms.^[177] In open syllables, the vowel of the prefix is assimilated to i₃- and a- in front of syllables containing these vowels. The prefix acquires an additional /l/ when located immediately before the stem, resulting in the allomorph 𒅇𒌌 u₃-ul-.^[180]
• 𒈾 na- expresses a negative wish ("May he not do it!") or affirmative meaning ("he does it indeed"), depending on the TA of verb: it expresses negative meaning with the marû TA and affirmative /na-/ with the ḫamṭu TA.^[181]
• 𒁀𒊏 ba-ra- has emphatic negative meaning ("He certainly doesn't/won't do it")^[182] or prohibitative meaning ("Don't do it!").^[183] It is combined with the marû TA if the verb denies an action (always present or future), and with the ḫamṭu TA if it denies a state (past, present or future) or an action (always in the past).^[182] According to Edzard, the prohibitative meaning requires it to be combined with the marû TA if the action is transitive.^[184]
• 𒉡𒍑 nu-uš- is a rare prefix that has been interpreted as having "frustrative" meaning, i.e. as expressing an unrealizable wish ("If only he would do it!").
• 𒅆 ši-, earlier 𒂠 še₃-, is a rare prefix, with unclear and disputed meaning, which has been variously described as affirmative ("he does it indeed"),^[185] contrapunctive ("correspondingly", "on his part"^[186]), as "reconfirming something that already ha(s) been stated or ha(s) occurred",^[187] or as "so", "therefore"^[188]). In Southern Old Sumerian, the vowel alternated between /e/ before open vowels and /i/ before close ones in accordance with the vowel harmony rule of that dialect; later, it displays assimilation of the vowel in an open syllable,^[185] depending on the vowel of the following syllable, to /ša-/ (𒊭 ša-/ 𒁺 ša₄-) and (first attested in Old Babylonian) to 𒋗 /šu-/.^[187]

Although the modal prefixes are traditionally grouped together in one slot in the verbal chain, their behaviour suggests a certain difference in status: only nu- and ḫa- exhibit morphophonemic evidence of co-occurring with a following finite "conjugation prefix", while the others do not and hence seem to be mutually exclusive with it. For this reason, Jagersma separates the first two as "proclitics" and groups the others together with the finite prefix as (non-proclitic) "preformatives".^[189]

"Conjugation prefixes"

The meaning, structure, identity and even the number of "conjugation prefixes" have always been a subject of disagreements. The term "conjugation prefix" simply alludes to the fact that a finite verb must (nearly) always contain one of them. Proposed explanations of their use usually revolve around the subtleties of spatial grammar, information structure (focus^[190]), verb valency, and, most recently, voice.^[191] The following description primarily follows the analysis of Jagersma (2010), largely seconded by Zólyomi (2018), in its specifics; nonetheless, most of the interpretations in it are held widely, if not universally.

• 𒉌 i₃- (Southern Old Sumerian variant: 𒂊 e- in front of open vowels), sometimes described as a finite prefix^[192], appears to have a neutral finite meaning.^[193][194] As mentioned above, it generally does not occur in front of a prefix or prefix sequence of the shape CV except, in Old Babylonian Sumerian, in front of the locative prefix 𒉌 /ni/, the second person dative 𒊏 /-r-a/ and the second person directive 𒊑 /-r-i/.^[193]
• 𒀀 a-, with the variant 𒀠 al- used in front of the stem^[193][195], the other finite prefix, is rare in most Sumerian texts outside of the imperative form,^[193] but when it occurs, it usually has stative meaning.^[196] It is common in the Northern Old Sumerian dialect, where it can also have a passive meaning.^[197][196] According to Jagersma, it was used in the South as well during the Old Sumerian period, but only in subordinate clauses, where it regularly characterized both marû and stative ḫamṭu verbs; in the Neo-Sumerian period, only the pre-stem form al- was still used and it no longer occurred with marû forms.^[198][r] Like i₃-, it does not occur in front of a CV sequence except, in Old Babylonian Sumerian, in front of the locative prefix 𒉌 /ni/, the second person dative 𒊏 /-r-a/ and the second person directive 𒊑 /-r-i/.^[193]
• 𒈬 mu- is most commonly considered to be a ventive prefix^[199], expressing movement towards the speaker or proximity to the speaker; in particular, it is an obligatory part of the 1st person dative form 𒈠 ma- (mu- + -a-).^[200] However, many of its occurrences appear to express more subtle and abstract nuances or general senses, which different scholars have sought to pinpoint. Some of these have been derived from "abstract nearness to the speaker" or "involvement of the speaker".^[201] It has been suggested, variously, that mu- may be adding nuances of topicality, foregrounding of the event as something essential to the message with a focus on a person^[202], prototypical transitivity with its close association with "control, agency, and animacy"^[203], telicity as such^[204] or that it is attracted by personal dative prefixes in general, as is the Akkadian ventive.^[204]
• 𒅎 im- and 𒀀𒀭am₃- are widely seen as being formally related to mu-^[205] and as also having ventive meaning^[206]; according to Jagersma, they consist of an allomorph of mu-, namely -/m/-, and the preceding prefixes 𒉌 i₃- and 𒀀 a-. In his analysis, these combinations occur in front of a CV sequence, where the vowel -u- of mu- is lost, whereas the historically preceding finite prefix is preserved: */i-mu-ši-g̃en/ > 𒅎𒅆𒁺 im-ši-g̃en "he came for it". The vowel of the finite prefix is lengthened immediately before the stem */i-mu-g̃en/ > 𒉌𒅎𒁺 i₃-im-g̃en "he came".^[207]
• The vowel of mu- is not elided in front of the locative prefix 𒉌 -ni-, the second person dative 𒊏 /-r-a/ and the second person directive 𒊑 /-r-i/. It may, however, be assimilated to the vowel of the following syllable, producing two allomorphs:^[208]
  • 𒈪 mi- in the sequences 𒈪𒉌 mi-ni- and 𒈪𒊑 mi-ri-.^[209]
  • 𒈠 ma- in the sequence 𒈠𒊏 ma-ra-.
• 𒉈 bi₂- (Old Sumerian Lagaš spelling: 𒁉 bi- or be₂-; Old Sumerian Ur spelling: 𒉿 be₆-) is usually seen as a sequence of the personal prefix -/b/-^[210][211] and the directive prefix -/i/- or -/e/-.^[210][212]
• 𒁀 ba- can be analysed as a sequence of the personal prefix /b/- and the dative prefix /a/^[213][214] and accordingly have the meaning "for it", "to it"^[213][215], but also a number of other meanings have been observed. It has also been argued that, in spite of its origin as b-a-, /ba-/ now occupies a slot of its own before the first pronominal prefix and the dimensional prefixes.^{[216][217][s]} The various non-dative meanings of ba- are subsumed by Jagersma under the overarching function of a middle voice marker.^[220][221] As a middle voice marker, ba- can express:
  • a reflexive indirect object (to do something "for oneself"); with motion verbs this may entail separation and movement "away" from the centre of attention towards a distant goal;^[222][223]
  • a change of state;^[224]
  • the passive voice^[221] (the latter not in Northern Sumerian).^[224]
• 𒅎𒈪 im-mi- (Southern Old Sumerian 𒉌𒈪 i₃-mi or 𒂊𒈨 e-me-) and 𒅎𒈠 im-ma- (Southern Old Sumerian 𒂊𒈠 e-ma-) are often analysed as sequences of 𒅎 im- and the following prefixes 𒉈 bi₂- (Southern Old Sumerian: 𒁉 bi- or be₂) and 𒁀 ba-, respectively, where the consonant /b/ has undergone assimilation to the preceding /m/.^[225][226]
• 𒀀𒀭𒈪 am₃-mi- and 𒀀𒀭𒈠 am₃-ma- are the result of the same assimilation, but with a preceding 𒀀𒀭am₃-.

The rare prefix /-nga-/ means 'also', 'equally' (often written without the initial /n/, especially in earlier periods). It is of crucial importance for the ordering of the "conjugation prefixes", because it is usually placed between the conjugation prefix i₃- and the pronominal prefix, e.g. 𒅔𒂵𒀭𒍪 in-ga-an-zu 'he, too, knows it', but it precedes the conjugation prefix mu-: 𒈾𒂵𒈬𒍪 na-ga-mu-zu 'he also understood it'.^[227] This suggests that these two conjugation prefixes must belong to different slots.^[228]

Although a conjugation prefix is almost always present, Sumerian until the Old Babylonian period allows a finite verb to begin directly with the locative prefix /-ni-/, the second person singular dative /-r-a-/, or the second person directive /-r-i-/ (see below), because the prefixes i₃-/e- and a- are apparently elided in front of them.^[229]

Pronominal and dimensional prefixes

The dimensional prefixes of the verb chain basically correspond to, and often repeat, the case markers of the noun phrase. Like the case markers of the noun phrase, the first dimensional prefix is normally attached to a "head" – a pronominal prefix. The other place where a pronominal prefix can be placed is immediately before the stem, where it can have a different allomorph and expresses the absolutive or the ergative participant (the transitive subject, the intransitive subject or the direct object), depending on the TA and other factors, as explained below.

Pronominal prefixes

The forms of the pronominal prefixes are the following:^[230]

Confusingly, the subject and object prefixes (/-n-/, /-b-/, /-e-/, /-V-/) are not commonly spelled out in early texts, as both coda consonants and vowel length are often ignored in them. The "full" spellings do become more usual during the Third Dynasty of Ur (in the Neo-Sumerian period) and especially during the Old Babylonian period. Thus, in earlier texts, one finds 𒈬𒀝 mu-ak and 𒉌𒀝 i₃-ak (𒂊𒀝 e-ak in Southern Sumerian) instead of 𒈬𒌦𒀝 mu-un-ak and 𒅔𒀝 in-ak for {mu-n-ak} and {i-n-ak} "he/she made", and also 𒈬𒀝 mu-ak instead of Neo-Sumerian 𒈬(𒅇)𒀝 mu(-u₃)-ak or Old Babylonian 𒈬𒂊𒀝 mu-e-ak "you made". Vowel length never came to be expressed systematically, so the 1st person prefix was often graphically -∅- during the entire existence of Sumerian.

Dimensional prefixes

The generally recognized dimensional prefixes are shown in the table below; if several occur within the same verb complex, they are placed in the order they are listed in.

The comitative prefix -da- can, in addition, express the meaning "to be able to".^[240] The directive has the meaning "on(to)" when the verb is combined with a noun in the locative case.^[241] The directive does not co-occur with the locative, and the ablative does not co-occur with the terminative.^[242]

A major exception from the general system of personal and dimensional prefixes is the very frequent prefix 𒉌 -ni- "(in) there", which corresponds to a noun phrase in the locative, but doesn't seem to be preceded by any pronominal prefix and had demonstrative meaning by itself. This prefix is not to be confused with the homophonic sequence -ni- which corresponds to an animate noun phrase in the directive. In the latter case, ni is analysed as a combination of pronominal /-n-/ and directive /-i-/ (roughly: "at him/her", "on him/her", etc.), whereas in the former, ni is unanalysable.^[243]

An example of a verb chain where several dimensional slots are occupied can be:

While the meanings of the prefixes are generally the same as those of the corresponding nominal case markers, there are some differences:

• The prefixes, unlike noun phrases in the corresponding cases, normally refer only to participants with a strong relationship to the action or state expressed by the verb (e.g. a temporal meaning like since X may be expressed by means of a noun phrase with a -ta case marker, but that normally wouldn't be cross-referenced with a -ta prefix on the verb).^[244]
• The use of dimensional prefixes is sometimes more closely connected to special meanings of specific verbs and to lexical idiosyncrasies. For instance, the verb 𒇯𒁺 ed₃ has the meaning "go up" with the directive prefix, but "go down" with the ablative one, the verb 𒊓 sa₁₀ means "sell" with the ablative prefix and "buy" with the terminative, the verb 𒌓𒁺 e₃ always has the ablative prefix, and the phrasal verb 𒅗 ... 𒄄 inim ... gi₄ "answer" (lit. "return a word") always includes the locative.^[244]

Further, at the systemic level, there are some asymmetries between the nominal case markers and the verbal dimensional prefixes: they partly make different distinctions, and the nominal case marking is influenced by animacy. Because of these mismatches, different meanings are expressed by combinations of matching or non-matching noun cases and verb prefixes.^[243] The combinations may be summarised as follows:^{[245][246][125][247]}

Combinations of personal and dimensional prefixes and other issues

When the dimensional prefix is dative /-a-/, the personal prefix of the 1st person appears to be absent, but the 1st person reference is expressed by the choice of the ventive conjugation prefix /mu-/. The sequence that expresses the 1st person dative is then: /mu-/ + /-a-/ → 𒈠 ma-.^{[248][249][250]} When the intended meaning is that of the directive /-i-/~/-e-/ ("on me", "in contact with me", etc.), it seems that the ventive conjugation prefix 𒈬 mu- alone serves to express it.^[248][249]

Two special phenomena occur if there is no absolutive–ergative pronominal prefix in the pre-stem position.

1. The sequences 𒉌 /-ni-/ (locative {-ni-} and personal + directive {-n-i-}) and 𒉈 /bi-/ (personal + directive {b-i-}) acquire the forms /-n-/ and /-b-/ (coinciding with the absolutive–ergative pronominal prefixes) before the stem if there isn't already an absolutive–ergative pronominal prefix in pre-stem position. This is typically the case when the verb is used intransitively.^[251][252] For example, the normal appearance of -ni- is seen in:

• {mu-ni-n-kur} "he brought in – caused [something or someone] to go in – there" > /muninkur/, written 𒈬𒉌𒆭 mu-ni-kur₉ in early texts, later 𒈬𒉌𒅔𒆭 mu-ni-in-kur₉.

In contrast, in an intransitive form, we find a syncopated realization:

• {mu-ni-kur} "he went in there" > /muːnkur/, written 𒈬𒆭 mu-kur₉ in early texts, later 𒈬𒌦𒆭 mu-un-kur₉.

The preceding vowel undergoes compensatory lengthening, which is sometimes indicated by its doubling in the spelling:

• {i-ni-kur} > i₃-in-kur₉ 𒉌𒅔𒆭 "he went in".

Likewise, the normal realisation of bi- is seen in:

• {i-b-i-n-si} > bi₂-in-si 𒉈𒅔𒋛 "he loaded (it) on it".

This is to be contrasted with the syncopated version in an intransitive form:

• {i-b-i-si} > i₃-ib₂-si 𒉌𒌈𒋛 "(it) was loaded on it".^[253]

The same phonological pattern is claimed to account for the alternation between the forms of the ventive prefix. The standard appearance is seen in:

{i-mu-n-ak} > mu-un-ak 𒈬𒌦𒀝 "he did it".

In an intransitive form, however, we find:

{i-mu-g̃en} > i₃-im-g̃en 𒉌𒅎𒁺 "he came".^[252]

2. A superficially similar, but distinct phenomenon is that if there isn't already an absolutive–ergative pronominal prefix in pre-stem position, the personal prefix of the directive participant does not receive the dimensional prefix -/i/~/e/- at all and is moved to the pre-stem position. For example, the normal position of the directive participant is seen in:

• {b-i-n-ak} bi₂-in-ak 𒉈𒅔𒀝 "he applied (it) to it" (said of oil).

In contrast, in an intransitive form, we find:

• {ba-b-ak} ba-ab-ak 𒁀𒀊𒀝 "it was applied to it".

In the same way, the normal position is seen in:

• {b-i-n-us} bi₂-in-us₂ 𒉈𒅔𒍑 ≈ "he adjoined (it) to it".

This can be contrasted with an intransitive form:

• {i-b-us} ib₂-us₂ 𒌈𒍑 ≈ "(it) was adjoined to it".^[254]

Another deviation from the main scheme is that in some cases, an expected personal prefix is absent.

• If there are several dimensional prefixes in the verb chain, only the first one can have an explicit head and only the first one can refer to an animate noun.^[255]
• The personal prefix -b- isn't used after the ventive "conjugation prefix" mu-: instead of expected *𒈬𒌒𒅆𒁺 mu-ub-ši-g̃en, the meaning "he came for it" is expressed by 𒅎𒅆𒁺 im-ši-g̃en. Similarly, instead of *𒈬𒌒𒂷𒂷 mu-ub-g̃a₂-g̃a₂ for "he is placing it", we find 𒅎𒂷𒂷 im-g̃a₂-g̃a₂.^[256] Alternatively, some have argued that such forms might contain an assimilated sequence -/mb/- > -/mm/- > -/m/- as in im-mi- and im-ma-.^[257]
• The personal prefix -b- isn't used after the "conjugation prefix" ba-, either, but only if -b- is the head of a dimensional prefix: thus 𒁀𒀊𒄄𒄄 ba-ab-gi₄-gi₄ "he will return it (for himself)" is possible, but not *𒁀𒀊𒅆𒌈𒄄𒄄 ba-ab-ši-ib₂-gi₄-gi₄ "he will return it to it (for himself)".^[258]
• For another case of absence of -b-, see the footnote on -b- as a marker of the transitive object in the table in the section on Pronominal agreement in conjugation.

Pronominal suffixes

The pronominal suffixes are as follows:

The initial vowel in all of the above suffixes can be assimilated to the vowel of the verb root; more specifically, it can become /u/ or /i/ if the vowel of the verb root is /u/ or /i/, respectively. It can also undergo contraction with an immediately preceding vowel.^[259] Pre-Ur III texts also spell the first- and second-person suffix /-en/ as /-e/, making it coincide with the third person in the marû form.

Pronominal agreement with subjects and direct objects

Sumerian verbal agreement follows a nominative–accusative pattern in the 1st and 2nd persons of the marû tense-aspect, but an ergative–absolutive pattern in most other forms of the indicative mood. The general principle is that in ḫamṭu TA, the transitive subject is expressed by the prefix, and the direct object by the suffix, and in the marû TA it is the other way round.^[ab] As for the intransitive subject, it is expressed, in both TAs, by the suffixes and is thus treated like the object in ḫamṭu and like the subject in marû. An exception is that its third person is expressed, not only in ḫamṭu but also in marû, by the suffixes used for the object in the ḫamṭu TA). A major exception from this generalization are the plural forms – in them, the transitive subject is expressed not only by the prefix (as in the singular), but also by the suffix.

Note that the prefixes of the plural are identical to those of the singular – /-V-/, /-e-/, /-n-/, /-b-/ – as opposed to the special plural forms -me-, -e-ne- (/-re-?), -ne- found in non-pre-stem position.

The use of the personal affixes in conjugation can be summarized as follows:^[260]

Examples for TA and pronominal agreement: (ḫamṭu is rendered with past tense, marû with present):

• {i-gub-en} (𒉌𒁺𒁉𒂗): "I stood" or "I stand"
• {i-n-gub-en} (𒅔𒁺𒁉𒂗): "he placed me" or "I place him"
• {i-sug-enden} (𒉌𒁻𒂗𒉈𒂗): "we stood/stand"
• {i-n-dim-enden} (𒅔𒁶𒂗𒉈𒂗): "he created us" or "we create him"
• {mu-V-dim-enden} (𒈬𒁶𒂗𒉈𒂗): "we created [someone or something]"
• {i-b-gub-e} (𒌈𒁺𒁉) "he places it"
• {i-b-dim-ene} (𒌈𒁶𒈨𒉈): "they create it"
• {i-n-dim-eš} (𒅔𒁶𒈨𒌍): "they created [someone or something]" or "he created them"
• {i-sug-eš} (𒉌𒁻𒄀𒌍): "they stood" or "they stand".

Stem

The verbal stem itself can also express grammatical distinctions within the categories of number and tense-aspect.

1. With respect to number, plurality can be expressed by complete reduplication of the ḫamṭu stem (e.g. 𒆭𒆭 kur₉-kur₉ "enter (pl.)" or by a suppletive stem (e.g. 𒁺 gub "stand (sing.)" - 𒁻 sug₂ "stand (pl.)".^[ai] The traditional view is that both of these morphological means express plurality of the absolutive participant in Sumerian.^[268][269] However, it has often been pointed out that complete reduplication of the verb in Sumerian can also express "plurality of the action itself",^[270] intensity or iterativity,^[75] and that it is not obligatory in the presence of plural participants, but rather seems to expressly emphasize the plurality.^[268][269] According to some researchers^{[271][272][273]}, the predominant meaning of the suppletive plural stem is, indeed, plurality of the most affected participants, whereas the predominant meaning of complete reduplication is plurality of events (because they occur at multiple times or locations). However, even with suppletive plural stems, the singular may occur with a plural participant, presumably because the event is perceived is a single one.^[274]

2. With respect to tense-aspect marking, verbs are divided in four types; ḫamṭu is always the unmarked TA.

• The stems of the 1st type, regular verbs, do not express TA at all according to most scholars, or, according to M. Yoshikawa and others, express marû TA by adding an (assimilating) /-e-/ as in 𒁺𒁉 gub-be₂ or 𒁺𒁍 gub-bu vs 𒁺 gub "stand". This /-e-/ would, however, nowhere be distinguishable from the first vowel of the pronominal suffixes except for intransitive marû 3rd person singular).
• The 2nd type expresses marû by partial reduplication of the stem, e.g. 𒆭 kur₉ vs 𒆭𒆭 ku₄-ku₄ "enter".^[aj] Usually, as in this example, this marû reduplication follows the pattern C₁V₁-C₁V₁ (C₁ = 1st consonant of the root, V = 1st vowel of the root). In a few cases, the template is instead C₁V₁C₁C₂V₁.^[275]
• The 3rd type expresses marû by adding a consonant, e.g. te vs teg̃₄ "approach" (both written 𒋼). A number of scholars do not recognise the existence of such a class or consider it dubious.^[ak]
• The 4th type uses a suppletive stem, e.g. 𒅗 dug₄ vs 𒂊 e "do, say". Thus, as many as four different suppletive stems can exist, as in the admittedly extreme case of the verb "to go": 𒁺 g̃en ("to go", ḫamṭu sing.), 𒁺 du (marû sing.), (𒂊)𒁻 (e-)re₇ (ḫamṭu plur.), 𒁻 sub₂ (marû plur.).^[al]

The modal or imperfective suffix -/ed/

Before the pronominal suffixes, a suffix -/ed/ or -/d/ can be inserted (the /d/ is only realized if other vowels follow, in which case the /e/ in turn may be elided): e.g. 𒉌𒀄(𒂊)𒉈𒂗 i₃-zaḫ₃(-e)-de₃-en {i-zaḫ-ed-en} "I will/must escape", 𒉌𒀄𒂊 i₃-zaḫ₃-e {i-zaḫ-ed} "he will/must escape". This suffix is considered to account for occurrences of -e in the third-person singular marû of intransitive forms by those who do not accept Yoshikawa's theory that -e itself is a marû stem formant.^[281] The status of the suffix is somewhat controversial. Some view it as having a primarily modal meaning of "must" or "can"^[282] or future meaning.^[283] Others believe that it primarily signals simply the imperfective status of a verb form, i.e. a marû form, although its presence is obligatory only in intransitive marû forms and in non-finite forms. In intransitive forms, it thus distinguishes marû from ḫamṭu^[284]; for instance, in the above example, 𒉌𒀄𒂗 i₃-zaḫ₃-en alone, without -/ed/-, could have been interpreted as a ḫamṭu form "I escaped".

The vowel /e/ of this suffix undergoes the same allophonic changes as the initial /e/ of the person suffixes. It is regularly assimilated to /u/ in front of stems containing the vowel /u/ and a following labial consonant, /r/ or /l/, e.g. 𒋧𒈬𒁕 šum₂-mu(-d) (< {šum-ed}). It is also assimilated and contracted with immediately preceding vowels, e.g. 𒄄 gi₄-gi₄ /gi-gi-i(d)/ < {gi-gi-ed} "which will/should return". The verb 𒁺 du "go" never takes the suffix.^[285]

Use of tense-aspect forms

The use of the tense-aspect forms has the following patterns according to Jagersma:^[286]

• ḫamṭu is used to express completed (perfective) actions in the past, but also states (past or present) and timeless truths. It is also used in conditional clauses with the conjunction 𒋗𒃻𒌉𒇲𒁉 tukumbi 'if'.
• marû is used to express actions in the present and future, but also non-complete (imperfective) actions in the past (like the English past progressive tense), and, rarely, actions in the past that are still relevant or operative (like the English present perfect tense). It is also used in conditional clauses with the conjunction 𒌓𒁕 ud-da 'if'.

The imperative mood

The imperative mood construction is produced with a ḫamṭu stem, but using the marû agreement pattern, by turning all prefixes into suffixes.^[287] In the plural, the second person plural ending is attached in a form that differs slightly from the indicative: it is /-(n)zen/, with the /-n-/ appearing only after vowels. The stem is singular even in the plural imperative.^[288] Compare the following indicative-imperative pairs:

This may be compared with the French pair vous le lui donnez, but donnez-le-lui!^[250]

In addition, the prefix 𒉌 i₃- is replaced by /-a/: 𒉌𒁺 i₃-g̃en "he went", but 𒁺𒈾 g̃en-na "go!", 𒉌𒈾𒀊𒁉 i₃-na-ab-be2 "he will say it to him", but dug₄-ga-na(-ab) 'say it to him!'.^[287] The ventive prefix mu-, if not followed by others, has the form 𒌝 -um in the imperative: 𒁺𒌝 ře₆-um 'bring it here!'^[289]

Participles

Sumerian participles can function both as verbal adjectives and as verbal nouns. As verbal adjectives, they can describe any participant involved in the action or state expressed by the verb: for instance, 𒋧𒈠 šum₂-ma may mean either "(which was) given (to someone)", "who was given (something)" or "who gave".^[290] As verbal nouns, they denote the action or state itself, so 𒋧𒈠 šum₂-ma may also mean '(the act of) giving' or 'the fact that X gave Y'.^[290] Participles are formed in the following ways.

• The bare ḫamṭu stem can function as a participle. It usually expresses timeless truths: 𒋧 šum₂ may be a person who regularly/constantly gives, something regularly given, or the regular act of giving.^[291]
• Another way to form participles is by means of the nominalizing suffix -/a/, which also converts finite verbs into relative clauses: 𒋧𒈠 šum₂-ma "given",^[292] 𒈬𒈾𒀭𒋧𒈠 {mu-na-n-šum-a} "which he gave to him", "who gave (something) to him", etc. The verb form constructed in this way characterizes an entity with a specific action or state in the past or a state in the present (𒋾𒆷 til₃-la "alive").^[293] According to Jagersma, the stem used in this form is normally ḫamṭu.^[294] The verbs 𒌇 tuku "have" and 𒍪 zu "know" usually omit the ending -/a/, as does the verb 𒀝 ak "do".^[295]
• The marû stem can be combined with the suffix /-ed/ to form another participle, which often has a future and modal meaning similar to the Latin gerundive, e.g. 𒁶𒈨 dim₂-me(-d) "which will/should be made". Adding a locative-terminative marker /-e/ after the /-ed/ yields a form with a meaning similar to the Latin ad + gerund (acc.) construction: 𒁶(𒈨)𒉈 dim₂(-me)-de₃ = "(in order) to make".^[296] A similar meaning can be expressed by adding the locative marker: 𒁶(𒈨)𒁕 dim₂(-me)-da = "(for it) to be made". The main difference is that in the construction with -(ed)-e, the subject of the intended action is the same as the subject of the main clause, while it is different in the construction with -(ed)-a.^[297] The analysis of this participle is controversial along the same lines as that of the meaning of the suffix -ed in finite forms (see above). Some Sumerologists describe its meaning as primarily modal and distinguish it from a separate imperfective participle that consists of the marû stem alone, e.g. 𒁶𒈨 dim₂-me 'which is/was making', 𒄄𒄄 gi₄-gi₄ "returning".^[298] Others believe that it this is also the normal marû participle and that it has, in addition, the imperfective meanings "which is/was cutting" and "which is/was being cut".^[299] Besides the allomorphy of the suffix -/ed/ already treated above, the verb 𒅗 dug₄ "do, say" has a suppletive participial stem in this form: 𒁲 di(-d).^[285]
• The marû stem can also occur with the suffix -/a/.^[300] Nonetheless, according to Jagersma, this form is rare outside the combination with a following possessive pronominal marker to express temporal meaning, as explained in the Syntax section: e.g. 𒁶(𒈨)𒁕𒉌 dim₂(-me)-da-ni 'when he makes'.^[294]

Copula verb

The copula verb /me/ "to be" is mostly used in an enclitic form. Its conjugation is as follows:

In addition, the initial vowel of the form -am₃ is reduced to /-m/ after enclitics ending in a vowel: 𒂍𒈬𒌝 e₂-g̃u₁₀-um "it is my house". Like other final consonants, the -m may not be expressed in early spelling.^[301]

These enclitic forms are used instead of a simple sequence of finite prefix, root and personal suffix *i₃-me-en, *i-me etc. For more complex forms, the independent copula form is used: 𒉌𒈨𒀀 i₃-me-a "that he is", 𒉡𒅇𒈨𒂗 nu-u₃-me-en "I am not". Unlike the enclitic, it typically uses the normal stem 𒈨 -me- in the 3rd person singular (𒁀𒊏𒈨 ba-ra-me "should not be"), except for the form prefixed with ḫa-, which is 𒃶𒅎 ḫe₃-em or 𒃶𒀀𒀭 ḫe₃-am₃.^[302]

For a negative equivalent of the copula, it seems that the word 𒉡 nu "not" alone instead of *nu-um is used predicatively (e.g. 𒍏𒉡 urud nu "it is not copper"^[303]) although the form 𒉡(𒌦)𒂵𒀀𒀭 nu-(un)-ga-am₃ "it is also not ..." is attested.^[302] A different word is used to express existence or being present/located somewhere: 𒅅 g̃al₂.^[304]

A peculiar feature of the copula is that it seems to form a relative clause without the nominalizing suffix /-a/ and thus uses the finite form: thus, instead of 𒉌𒈨𒀀 i₃-me-a, simply 𒀀𒀭 -am₃ is used: 𒆬𒃻𒂵𒊏𒉌𒅎𒈠𒀭𒋧 kug₂ nig̃₂-gur₁₁-ra-ni-im ma-an-šum₂ "he gave me silver (which) was his property", which appears to say "The silver was his property, he gave it to me". In the negative, the full form 𒉡𒈨𒀀 nu-me-a "which is not" is used, and likewise in non-relative functions.^[305]

Passive voice

A passive can be formed in several different ways in Sumerian.^[306]

1. By simply eliminating the agent of a transitive verb and the corresponding agreement marker: † {engar-e e i-n-řu} "the farmer built the house" > {e i-řu} "the house was built". As a dynamic passive, in reference to the event itself, this construction is obsolete in ḫamṭu by the time of the earliest records. However, it is still used with modal prefixes and in marû: e.g. {e ḫa-i-řu} "May the house be built!" Moreover, it continues to be used as a stative passive in Southern Sumerian, so {e i-řu} can mean "the house is built (i.e. complete)".
2. With the prefix 𒁀 ba-, e.g. {e ba-řu}. This is only found in Southern Sumerian according to Jagersma and expresses only a dynamic passive, i.e. it refers to the event itself: "The house was (came to be) built".^[am]
3. With the prefix {a-}, e.g. {e al-řu}. This is only found in Northern Sumerian and can have both a stative and a dynamic sense: "The house is built (complete)" or "The house was (came to be) built".

The agent is never expressed in the passive clause in Sumerian.^[307]

Causative construction

Sumerian doesn't have dedicated causative morphology. Causativity is expressed syntactically in two ways, depending on the transitivity of the verb. An intransitive verb is made transitive and thus acquires causative meaning merely by adding an ergative participant and the appropriate agreement marker: {gud i-gub} "the ox stood" - {engar-e gud i-n-gub} "the farmer made the ox stand". A transitive verb is made causative by placing the ergative participant in the directive: {engar-e gud-e u b-i-n-gu} "the farmer made the ox eat grass". For animates, as usual, the directive case marker is replaced by the dative one: {engar-e dumu-ra ninda i-n-i-n-gu} "the farmer made the child eat bread". A further example can be {dig̃ir-e engar-ra gud i-n-i-n-gub}: "the god made the farmer make the ox stand". The causative constructions can in turn be passivized using the prefix ba-: {gud ba-gub} "the ox was caused to stand", {gud-e u ba-b-gu} "the ox was caused to eat grass" (lit. "grass was caused to be eaten by the ox"), {dumu-ra ninda ba-n-gu} "the child was caused to eat bread".^[308]

Syntax

General features

The basic word order is subject–object–verb; verb finality is only violated in rare instances, in poetry. The moving of a constituent towards the beginning of the phrase may be a way to highlight it,^[309] as may the addition of the copula to it. Modifiers (adjectives, genitive phrases etc.) are normally placed after the noun: 𒂍𒉋 e₂ gibil "a new house" 𒂍𒈗𒆷 e₂ lugal-la "the house of the owner". However, the so-called anticipatory genitive (𒂍𒀀𒈗𒉈 e₂-a lugal-bi "the owner of the house", lit. "of the house, its owner") is common and may signal the possessor's topicality.^[309] There are no adpositions, but noun phrases in a certain case may resemble prepositions and have a similar function:

• 𒊮...𒀀𒅗 šag₄ X-a-ka, lit. "in the heart of X" = "inside/among X".
• 𒅆 ... 𒀀𒂠 igi X-a-še₃, lit. "for the eyes of X" = "in front of X".
• 𒂕...𒀀𒅗 eg̃er X-a-ka, lit. "at the back of X" = "behind/after X".
• 𒀀𒅗...𒀀𒅗 X ugu₂ X-a-ka, lit. "on the skull of X" = "on top of X"
• 𒁇...𒀀𒅗 bar X-a-ka, lit. "outside of X" = "because of X" (in Old Sumerian).
• 𒈬 ... 𒀀𒂠 mu X-a-še₃, lit. "for the name of X" = "because of X" (in Neo-Sumerian).^[310]

Subordinate clauses

There are various ways to express subordination, some of which have already been hinted at. Many of them include the nominalization of a verb with the suffix -/a/. Alone, the resulting clause usually functions as a relative clause, corresponding to an English clause with "which ...", as in the following example:

The nominalized clause can also be a complement clause, corresponding to an English clause with "that ...", e.g. e₂ in-řu₂-a (in-zu) "(he knows) that he built the house". Like a noun, it can be followed by case morphemes. In the locative case (with added 𒀀 -a), it means "when" (e₂ in-řu₂-a-a "when he built the house"), although this is more common in Old Sumerian. In the ablative case (with added 𒋫 -ta), it means "after" or "since" (e₂ in-řu₂-a-ta "after he built the house"); the particle 𒊑 -ri may express the same meaning as 𒋫 -ta.^[311] In the terminative case (with added 𒂠 -še₃), it has a meaning close to "before" (e₂ nu-řu₂-a-še₃ "while he had not yet built the house") or "as to the fact that". In the equative case (with added 𒁶 -gin₇), it can mean "as (if)", "as (when)", "when" or "because" (e₂ in-řu₂-a-gin₇ "as he built the house"). It can also host the enclitics -/akanam/ and -/akeš/ "because" (e₂ in-řu₂-a-ka-nam "because he built the house"). More surprisingly, it can add both the genitive and the locative morpheme (e₂ nu-řu₂-a-(a-)ka) with a meaning close to "when", possibly "as soon as".^[312]

The nominalized clause can directly modify a noun expressing time such as 𒌓 ud "day, time", 𒈬 mu "year" and 𒌗 itid "month", and this in turn can then stand in the locative and ablative in the same meanings as the clauses themselves: ud e₂ in-řu₂-a-a/ta "when/after he built the house".^[313] In this case, the particle -bi sometimes precedes the case morpheme: ud e₂ in-řu₂-a-ba; the basic meaning is still of "when".^[314] It can also be included in the various "prepositional constructions" mentioned above: bar e₂ in-řu₂-a-ka "because he built the house" (in Old Sumerian), mu X-a-še₃ "because he built the house" (in Neo-Sumerian), eg̃er e₂ in-řu₂-a-ka "after he built the house", .^[312] The structure is shown more clearly in the following example:

Participles can function in a very similar way to the nominalized clauses and be combined with the same kinds of adjuncts. One peculiarity is that, unlike nominalized clauses, they may also express the agent as a possessor, in the genitive case: 𒂍𒆕𒀀𒈗𒆷 e₂ řu₂-a lugal-la "the house built by the king". However, when the head noun (e₂) is specified as here, a more common construction uses the ergative: 𒂍𒈗𒂊𒆕𒀀 e₂ lugal-e řu₂-a.^[315]

A special subordinating construction with the temporal meaning of an English when-clause is the so-called pronominal conjugation, which contains a verb nominalized with -/a/ and following possessive pronouns. In the third person, the form appears to end in the possessive pronoun: 𒆭𒊏𒉌 kur₉-ra-ni "when he entered", lit. "his entering". A newer interpretation is that the last syllable in such examples is actually to be read -ne, i.e. 3rd person possessive -ni plus directive -e "at his entering". In contrast, in the 1st and 2nd persons, we find this apparent -ni attached to 1st and 2nd person pronouns: 𒍣𒂵𒈬𒉌 zig₃-ga-g̃u-ni "as I rose"). This leads Jagersma to interpret the -ni as an otherwise obsolete locative ending: lit. 'at my rising').^[316]

Subordinating conjunctions such as 𒌓𒁕 ud-da "when, if", 𒋗𒃻𒌉𒇲𒁉 tukum-bi "if" and 𒂗𒈾 en-na "until" also exist.^[317]

Coordination

Coordinating conjunctions are rarely used. The most common way to express the sense of "and" is by simple juxtaposition. Nominal phrases may be conjoined, perhaps emphatically, by adding 𒁉 -bi to the second one: 𒀭𒂗𒆤𒀭𒎏𒆤𒉌 en-lil₂ nin-lil₂-bi "both Enlil and Ninlil"; sometimes the enclitic is further reinforced by 𒁕 -da "with". More surprisingly, 𒋫 -ta "from" is also sometimes used in the sense of "and".^[318] The word 𒅇 u₃ "and" was borrowed from Akkadian in the Old Akkadian period and occurs mostly in relatively colloquial texts;^[319] Old Babylonian Sumerian also borrowed from Akkadian the enclitic 𒈠 -ma "and".^[320] There is no conjunction "or" and its sense can also be expressed by simple juxtaposition; a more explicit and emphatic alternative is the repetition of 𒃶𒅎 ḫe₂-em, "let it be": 𒇻𒃶𒅎𒈧𒃶𒅎 udu ḫe₂-em maš ḫe₂-em "(be it) a sheep or a goat".^[321]

Other issues

A quotative particle -/(e)še/ or -/ši/ "saying", variously spelt 𒂠 -eše₂, 𒅆 -ši or 𒀪𒊺 -e-še, has been identified.^[322]

Highlighting uses of the copula somewhat similar to English cleft constructions are present: 𒈗𒀀𒀭𒉌𒁺 lugal-am₃ i₃-g̃en₃ "It is the king who came", 𒀀𒈾𒀸𒀀𒀭𒉌𒁺 a-na-aš-am₃ i₃-g̃en₃ "Why is it that he came?", 𒉌𒁺𒀀𒀭 i₃-g̃en₃-am₃ "It is the case that he came".^[323]

Yes/no-interrogative sentences appear to have been marked only by intonation and possibly by resulting lengthening of final vowels, but where a declarative would have used a copula, a yes/no-interrogative omits it.^[324] There is no wh-movement: wh-questions generally have the same word order as declaratives.^[325]

A specific problem of Sumerian syntax is posed by the numerous so-called "compound verbs", which are in fact not compounds^[326] but phrasal combinations akin to English phrasal verbs: they usually involve a noun immediately before the verb, forming a lexical/idiomatic unit^[327] (e.g. 𒋗...𒋾 šu...ti, lit. "hand-approach" = "receive"; 𒅆...𒂃 igi...du₈, lit. "eye-open" = "see", 𒆠...𒉘 ki ... ag̃₂, lit. "to measure out ... a place" = "to love"). Some of them are claimed to have a special agreement pattern that they share with causative constructions: their logical object, like the causee, receives, in the verb, the directive prefix, but in the noun, the dative suffix if animate and the directive if inanimate.^[243]

Word formation

Derivation by affixation is largely non-existent.^[328][329] An exception may be a few nouns ending in /-u/ denoting the object of a corresponding verb: 𒊬𒊒 sar-ru "document" < 𒊬 sar "write".^[330] Compounding, on the other hand, is common in nouns. Compounds are normally left-headed. The dependent may be:

• Another noun: 𒂍 e₂ "house" + 𒈬 muḫaldim "cook" > 𒂍𒈬 e₂-muḫaldim "kitchen"
• An adjective: 𒌨 ur "dog" + 𒈤maḫ "great" > 𒌨𒈤 ur-maḫ "lion"
• A participle (consisting of the bare verb stem): 𒃻 nig̃₂ "thing" + 𒁀 ba "give(n)" > 𒃻𒁀 nig̃₂-ba "present",
• A participle with a dependent word: 𒃻 nig̃₂ "thing" + 𒍣 zi "breath" + 𒅅 g̃al₂ "be there" > 𒃻𒍣𒅅 nig̃₂-zi-g̃al₂ "living thing"

An older obsolete pattern was right-headed instead:

• 𒂍 e₂ "house" + 𒊮 šag₄ "heart" > 𒂍𒊮 e₂-šag₄ "innermost part of a house"
• 𒃲 gal "big" + 𒈜 nar "musician" > 𒃲𒈜 gal-nar "chief musician"

A participle may be the head of the compound, preceded by a dependent:

• 𒁾 dub "clay tablet" + 𒊬 sar "write" > 𒁾𒊬 dub-sar "scribe"
• 𒋗 šu "hand" + 𒋳 tag "touch" > 𒋗𒋳 šu-tag "decoration" (corresponding to the phrasal verb 𒋗...𒋳 šu...tag "decorate")

There are a few cases of nominalized finite verbs, too: 𒁀𒍗 ba-uš₄ "(who) has died" > "dead"

Abstract nouns are formed as compounds headed by the word 𒉆 nam- "fate, status": 𒌉 dumu "child" > 𒉆𒌉 nam-dumu "childhood", 𒋻 tar "cut, decide" > 𒉆𒋻 nam-tar "fate".^[331][332] Nouns that express the object of an action or an object possessing a characteristic are formed as compounds headed by the word 𒃻 nig̃₂ "thing": 𒅥 gu₄ "eat" > 𒃻𒅥 nig̃₂-gu₄ "food", 𒄭 "good, sweet" > 𒃻𒄭 nig̃₂-dug "something sweet". The meaning may also be abstract: 𒋛...𒁲 si...sa₂ "straighten, put in order" > nig̃₂-si-sa₂ "justice".^[333]

Apparent coordinative compounds also exist, e.g. 𒀭𒆠 an-ki "the universe", lit. "heaven and earth".^[334]

A noun can be formed from an adjective by conversion: for example, 𒂼 dag̃al "wide" also means "width".^[335]

On verbs acquiring the properties of adjectives and nouns (agent nouns and action nouns), see the section on Participles above.

Dialects

The standard variety of Sumerian was Emegir (𒅴𒂠: eme-gir₁₅). A notable variety or sociolect was Emesal (𒅴𒊩: eme-sal), possibly to be interpreted as "fine tongue" or "high-pitched voice".^[336] Other terms for dialects or registers were eme-galam "high tongue", eme-si-sa "straight tongue", eme-te-na "oblique[?] tongue", etc.^[337]

Emesal is used exclusively by female characters in some literary texts (that may be compared to the female languages or language varieties that exist or have existed in some cultures, such as among the Chukchis and the Garifuna). In addition, it is dominant in certain genres of cult songs such as the hymns sung by Gala priests.^[338] The special features of Emesal are mostly phonological (for example, m is often used instead of g̃ [i.e. /ŋ/, as in 𒈨 me instead of standard 𒂷 g̃e₂₆ for "I"), but words different from the standard language are also used (𒂵𒊭𒀭 ga-ša-an rather than standard 𒎏 nin, "lady").^[339]

Bram Jagersma believes that he can distinguish two regional dialects of Sumerian - the Southern Sumerian that eventually formed the basis for the common standard of the Neo-Sumerian (Ur III) period and Northern Sumerian as seen in texts from Nippur, Adab and Isin (although eventually texts in the standard variety begin to be produced in that area as well). The differences that he finds between the two varieties are:

• In Southern Sumerian, the conjugation prefix 𒉌 /i-/ alternated with 𒂊 /e-/ in accordance with vowel harmony during the Old Sumerian period, while Northern Sumerian only had /i-/. Later Southern Sumerian generalized /i-/ as well.
• In Southern Sumerian, the conjugation prefix expressing the passive was 𒁀 ba-, while in Northern Sumerian, it was 𒀀 a-.
• In Southern Sumerian after the Old Akkadian period, the conjugation prefix 𒀀 a-, which had originally existed in both dialects, disappears entirely apart from the variant 𒀠 al-, which only appears in subordinate clauses.
• In Southern Sumerian, the Old Sumerian phoneme ř merged with r, while in Northern Sumerian, it merged with d.

Furthermore, the standard Neo-Sumerian variety of Ur III period and the dominant Sumerian variety of the Old Babylonian period also reflect different regional dialects:

• Neo-Sumerian elides the conjugation prefixes 𒉌 /i/- and 𒀀 /a/- in front of the prefixes 𒉌-/ni/-, 𒊏 -/ra/- and 𒊑 -/ri/-, while Old Babylonian Sumerian retains them.
• The original sequence 𒈬𒂊 mu-e-, consisting of the ventive conjugation prefix 𒈬 mu- and the 2nd person prefix 𒂊 -e-, is contracted into 𒈬 /muː/ in the Ur III standard, but into 𒈨 /meː/ in the most common Old Babylonian variety.^[340]

Interference from Akkadian

In the Old Babylonian period and after it, the Sumerian used by scribes was influenced by their mother tongue, Akkadian, and various deviations from its original structure occur in texts or copies of texts from these times. The following effects have been found in the Old Babylonian period:^[17]

• confusion of the animate and inanimate gender (use of the directive -e instead of the dative -ra with animate nouns, especially after the genitive -/(a)k/, is attested as early as the Ur III period);
• confusion of the locative case (-a) and the directive case (-e);
• occasional use of the ergative/directive ending -e instead of the genitive case marker -a(k);
• treatment of the prefix sequences 𒉈 b-i- and 𒉌 n-i-, which originally could mark the causee in transitive verbs, as causative markers even with intransitive verbs;
• use of terminative 𒂠-še₃ instead of locative -a to express the meaning "into";
• dropping of final -/m/ in the copula -am₃ and sometimes its replacement with /e/.

For Middle Babylonian and later texts, even more deviations have been noted:^[32]

• use of the ablative 𒋫 -ta instead of the locative -a;
• use of 𒆤 -ke₄, originally expressing a sequence of the genitive marker -ak and the ergative marker -e, simply as a marker of the genitive, equivalent to -a(k) alone;
• omission of the ergative marker -e and apparent loss of the notion of an ergative case;
• omission of the genitive marker -a(k).^[32]
• use of infrequent words, sometimes inappropriately, apparently extracted from lexical lists.^[33]

Syllabary

The table below shows signs used for simple syllables of the form CV or VC. As used for the Sumerian language, the cuneiform script was in principle capable of distinguishing at least 16 consonants,^[341][342] transliterated as

as well as four vowel qualities, a, e, i, u.

Sample text

Inscription by Entemena of Lagaš

This text was inscribed on a small clay cone c. 2400 BC. It recounts the beginning of a war between the city-states of Lagaš and Umma during the Early Dynastic III period, one of the earliest border conflicts recorded. (RIME 1.09.05.01)^[343]

See also

• List of languages by first written accounts
• Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary
• Sumerian literature

References

Notes

Citations