Editing Sumerian language (section)

===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>