Editing Sumerian language (section)

===== Gender =====
The two genders have been variously called [[Animacy|animate and inanimate]],<ref>Thomsen (2001: 49)</ref><ref name="Rubio">Rubio (2007: 1329)</ref><ref>Civil (2020: 43)</ref><ref>Michalowski 2008</ref> [[animacy|human and non-human]],<ref>Jagersma (2010: 101-102)</ref><ref>Zólyomi (2017: 15)</ref> or personal/person and impersonal/non-person.<ref name="Foxvog">Foxvog (2016: 22)</ref><ref>Edzard (2003: 29)</ref> Their assignment is semantically predictable: the first gender includes humans and gods, while the second one includes animals, plants, non-living objects, abstract concepts, and groups of humans. Since the second gender includes animals, the use of the terms animate and inanimate is somewhat misleading<ref name="Foxvog" /> and conventional,<ref name="Rubio" /> but it is most common in the literature, so it will be maintained in this article.

There are some minor deviations from the gender assignment rules, for example:

* The word for {{lang|sux|𒀩|italic=no}} {{lang|sux-latn|alan}} "statue" may be treated as animate.
* Words for slaves such as {{lang|sux|𒊩𒆳|italic=no}} {{lang|sux-latn|geme<sub>2</sub>}} "slave woman" and {{lang|sux|𒊕|italic=no}} {{lang|sux-latn|sag̃}} "head", used in its secondary sense of "slave", may be treated as inanimate.<ref>Jagersma (2010: 102-105)</ref>
* In [[fable]]-like contexts, which occur frequently in Sumerian proverbs, animals are usually treated as animate.<ref>Hayes 2000: 49-50</ref>