Editing Sumer (section)

==Name==
{{multiple image|perrow=2|total_width=315|caption_align=center
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| header=Sumerians
| image1   = Head of Gudea (Metropolitan Museum of Art).jpg
| image2   = Saĝ-gíg (cuneiforms).jpg
| footer=Left: Sculpture of the head of Sumerian ruler [[Gudea]], {{circa|2150 BC}}. Right: [[cuneiform]] characters for {{Transliteration|sux|Saĝ-gíg}} ({{lang|sux|[[:wikt:𒊕|𒊕]]}} {{lang|sux|[[:wikt:𒈪|𒈪]]}}), "Black Headed Ones", the native designation for the Sumerians. The first is the pictographic character for "head" ([[File:Saĝ (linear script, head).jpg|14px]], later [[File:Saĝ (Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform, head).jpg|12px]]), the second the character for "night", and for "black" when pronounced ''gíg'' ([[File:Gíg (linear script, night-black).jpg|14px]], later [[File:Gíg (Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform, night-black).jpg|12px]]).<ref name="DAF"/><ref name="PUSD">{{cite web |title=The Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary: saĝgiga [humankind] |url=http://psd.museum.upenn.edu/epsd/epsd/e4703.html |website=psd.museum.upenn.edu}}</ref><ref name="IMD"/><ref name="GF"/>
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The term "Sumer" ({{langx|akk|𒋗𒈨𒊒|šumeru}})<ref>{{cite web |title=emeĝir [SUMERIAN] |url=http://psd.museum.upenn.edu/epsd/epsd/e1283.html |website=The Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology |access-date=14 July 2021}}</ref> comes from the [[Akkadian Empire|Akkadian]] name for the "Sumerians", the ancient non-[[Semitic languages|Semitic]]-speaking inhabitants of southern [[Mesopotamia]].<ref name="ANE29"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Black |first1=Jeremy A. |last2=George |first2=A. R. |last3=Postgate |first3=J. N. |last4=Breckwoldt |first4=Tina |title=A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian |date=2000 |publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag |isbn=978-3-447-04264-2 |page=384 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-qIuVCsRb98C&pg=PA384 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Miller |first1=Douglas B. |last2=Shipp |first2=R. Mark |title=An Akkadian Handbook: Paradigms, Helps, Glossary, Logograms, and Sign List |date=1996 |publisher=Eisenbrauns |isbn=978-0-931464-86-7 |page=68 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=27m3y6MNRzYC&pg=PA68 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Piotr Michalowski 2004, Pages 19-59">Piotr Michalowski, "Sumerian," ''The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages." Ed. Roger D. Woodard (2004, Cambridge University Press). Pages 19–59</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Roŭ |first=Georges |title=Ancient Iraq |publisher=Penguin Books |year=1993 |edition=3rd |location=London, England |pages=80–82}}</ref> In their inscriptions, the Sumerians called their land "Kengir", the "Country of the noble lords" ({{langx|sux|[[:wikt:𒆠|𒆠]][[:wikt:𒂗|𒂗]][[:wikt:𒄀|𒄀]]|ki-en-gi(-r)|'country" + "lords" + "noble'}}), and their language "Emegir" ({{langx|sux|𒅴𒂠|eme-g̃ir}} or {{lang|sux|𒅴𒄀}} {{Transliteration|sux|eme-gi<sub>15</sub>}}).<ref name="ANE29">"The area in question (the extreme south of Mesopotamia) may now be called Sumer, and its inhabitants Sumerians, although these names are only English approximations of the Akkadian designations; the Sumerians themselves called their land Kengir, their language Emegir, and themselves Sag-giga, "black-headed ones." in {{cite book|title=The Ancient Near East|author1=W. Hallo|author2=W. Simpson|publisher=New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich|year=1971|page=29}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Toorn |first1=Karel van der |last2=Becking |first2=Bob |last3=Horst |first3=Pieter Willem van der |title=Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible |date=1999 |publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing |isbn=978-0-8028-2491-2 |page=32 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yCkRz5pfxz0C&pg=PA32 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Edzard |first1=Dietz Otto |title=Sumerian Grammar |date=2003 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-474-0340-1 |page=1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HOx5DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA1 |language=en}}</ref>

The origin of the Sumerians is not known, but the people of Sumer referred to themselves as "Black-Headed Ones" or "Black-Headed People"<ref name="ANE29"/><ref>"The origin of the Sumerians is unknown; they described themselves as the 'black-headed people'" {{cite book |last1=Haywood |first1=John |title=The Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Civilizations |date=2005 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-0-14-101448-7 |page=28 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xtjtAAAAMAAJ |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Diakonoff |first1=I. M. |title=Early Antiquity |date=2013 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-14467-2 |page=72 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JU8pegs94uoC&pg=PA72 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Finer |first1=Samuel Edward |last2=Finer |first2=S. E. |title=The History of Government from the Earliest Times: Ancient monarchies and empires |date=1997 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-820664-4 |page=99 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aEziNfjinnMC&pg=PA99 |language=en}}</ref> ({{langx|sux|[[:wikt:𒊕|𒊕]][[:wikt:𒈪|𒈪]]|sag̃-gíg|'head" + "black'}}, or {{lang|sux|[[:wikt:𒊕|𒊕]][[:wikt:𒈪|𒈪]][[:wikt:𒂵|𒂵]]}}, {{Transliteration|sux|sag̃-gíg-ga}}, phonetically {{IPA|/saŋ ɡi ɡa/}}, {{small|[[literal translation|lit.]]}} "head" + "black" + relative marker).<ref name="DAF">{{cite book |last1=Foxvog |first1=Daniel A. |title=Elementary Sumerian Glossary |date=2016 |publisher=University of California at Berkeley |page=52 |url=https://cdli.ucla.edu/pubs/cdlp/cdlp0003_20160104.pdf}}</ref><ref name="PUSD"/><ref name="IMD">{{cite book |last1=Diakonoff |first1=I. M. |last2=D'I︠A︡konov |first2=Igor' Mik︠h︡aílovich |title=Early Antiquity |date=1991 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-14465-8 |page=72 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JSRAUIYENZoC&pg=PA72 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="GF">{{cite book |last1=Feuerstein |first1=Georg |last2=Kak |first2=Subhash |last3=Frawley |first3=David |date=2005 |title=The Search of the Cradle of Civilization: New Light on Ancient India |edition=Second Revised |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publishers |isbn=978-81-208-2037-1 |page=117 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wNlsRZh3rwgC&pg=PA117 |language=en}}</ref> For example, the Sumerian king [[Shulgi]] described himself as "the king of the four quarters, the pastor of the black-headed people".<ref>"I am the king of the four quarters, I am a shepherd, the pastor of the "black-headed people"" in {{cite book |last1=Liverani |first1=Mario |title=The Ancient Near East: History, Society and Economy |date=2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-75084-9 |page=167 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0d1JAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA167 |language=en}}</ref> The Akkadians also called the Sumerians "black-headed people", or {{lang|akk|ṣalmat-qaqqadi}}, in the Semitic Akkadian language.<ref name="PUSD"/><ref name="IMD" />

The Akkadians, the East Semitic-speaking people who later conquered the Sumerian [[city-state]]s, gave Sumer its main historical name, but the [[phonology|phonological]] development of the term {{lang|akk|šumerû}} is uncertain.<ref name="Nimrod">{{cite journal |author=van der Toorn |first1=K. |last2=van der Horst |first2=P. W. |date=January 1990 |title=Nimrod before and after the Bible |journal=The Harvard Theological Review |volume=83 |issue=1 |pages=1–29 |doi=10.1017/S0017816000005502 |s2cid=161371511}}</ref> Hebrew {{lang|he|שִׁנְעָר}} {{Transliteration|he|[[Shinar|Šinʿar]]}}, [[Egyptian language|Egyptian]] {{lang|egy|Sngr}}, and [[Hittite language|Hittite]] {{lang|hit|Šanhar(a)}}, all referring to southern Mesopotamia, could be western variants of ''Sumer''.<ref name="Nimrod" />