Editing Sumerian language (section)

==Writing system==
{{See also|Cuneiform}}
{{Unreferenced section|date=May 2022}}

===Development===
[[File:Letter Luenna Louvre AO4238.jpg|thumb|Letter sent by the high-priest Lu'enna to the king of [[Lagash]] (maybe [[Urukagina]]), informing him of his son's death in combat, {{circa|2400&nbsp;BC}}, found in [[Girsu|Telloh]] (ancient Girsu)]]
[[File:Vase Entemena Louvre AO2674 (script) circa 2400 BCE.jpg|thumb|Vase of [[Entemena]], king of [[Lagash]], with dedication. Louvre AO2674, {{circa|2400&nbsp;BC}}]]

[[Proto-cuneiform|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,<ref>
{{cite journal |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/paleo_0153-9345_1980_num_6_1_4262 |title=Problems of absolute chronology in protohistoric Mesopotamia |date=1980 |doi=10.3406/paleo.1980.4262 |access-date=2024-05-31 |last1=Wright |first1=Henry T. |journal=Paléorient |volume=6 |pages=93–98 }}
</ref><ref>
{{cite web |url=https://isac.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/uploads/shared/docs/oip99.pdf |title=Inscriptions From Tell Abu Salabikh |access-date=2024-05-31 }}
</ref> 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#Logogrammatical systems|logosyllabic script]] comprising several hundred signs. Rosengarten (1967) lists 468 signs used in Sumerian (pre-[[Sargon of Akkad|Sargonian]]) [[Lagash]].

The cuneiform script was adapted to [[Akkadian language|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.<ref>Edzard, Dietz Otto, "Wann ist Sumerisch als gesprochene Sprache ausgestorben?", Acta Sumerologica 22, pp. 53–70, 2000</ref>

===Transliteration===
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 ''dirig'', 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 transliteration against the actual tablet, to see if any signs, especially broken or damaged signs, should be represented differently.

Our knowledge of the readings of Sumerian signs is based, to a great extent, on lexical lists made for Akkadian speakers, where they are expressed by means of syllabic signs. The established readings were originally based on lexical lists from the [[Neo-Babylonian|Neo-Babylonian Period]], which were found in the 19th century; in the 20th century, earlier lists from the [[Old Babylonian Period]] were published and some researchers in the 21st century have switched to using readings from them.<ref>Sallaberger (2023: 28-29), Attinger (2009: 38-39); Mittermayer, C./P. Attinger (2006): ''Altbabylonische Zeichenliste der sumerisch-literarischen Texte''. OBO Sonderband. Freiburg/Göttingen; Attinger 2019 (Lexique sumérien-français)</ref>{{efn|For words occurring in this article, proposed revised readings based on Old Babylonian lexical lists are ''ambar'' > ''abbar'', ''banšur'' > ''bansur'', ''daḫ'' > ''taḫ'', ''diš'' > ''deš'', ''eden'' > ''edin'', ''gig<sub>2</sub>'' > ''geg<sub>2</sub>'', ''imin'' > ''umun<sub>7</sub>'', ''inim'' > ''enim'', ''lagaš'' > ''lagas'', ''nig̃in'' > ''nig̃en'', ''ninda'' > ''inda'', ''sa<sub>4</sub>'' > ''še<sub>21</sub>'',  ''ugu<sub>2</sub>'' > ''<sup>a</sup>agu<sub>2</sub>'', and ''zaḫ<sub>3</sub>'' > ''saḫ<sub>7</sub>''.}} There is also variation in the degree to which so-called "Auslauts" or "amissable consonants" (morpheme-final consonants that stopped being pronounced at one point or another in the history of Sumerian) are reflected in the transliterations.<ref>Foxvog (2016: 15), Hayes (2000: 29-30)</ref> This article generally used the versions with expressed Auslauts.