The Sumerian language

Sumerian, the oldest language of ancient Mesopotamia, was spoken in the third millennium BC. Written on clay tablets in cuneiform characters Sumerian epics, myths, hymns and historiographic inscriptions as well as almost countless administrative texts have been preserved until today.

Unfortunately, our understanding of Sumerian is insufficient, not only owing to the great age of the texts, but also because it is not related to any other known language, ancient or mo-dern; moreover, the ideographic nature of the early cuneiform writing makes it difficult to understand the grammatical structure.

This volume contains an outline on the history of the Sumerian language and a description of its grammar with discussions of earlier studies and theories. Numerous quotations from Sumerian texts illustrate the use of the grammatical forms and charts exemplify the complex construction of verbal forms. Originally published in 1984, it has become the standard grammar of Sumerian. It is now republished with a supplementary bibliography of literature on Sumerian language and grammar published since then.