Editing Sumerian language (section)

==Dialects==
The standard variety of Sumerian was {{Transliteration|sux|Emegir}} ({{lang|sux|{{cuneiform|4|𒅴𒂠}}}}: {{Transliteration|sux|eme-gir<sub>15</sub>}}). A notable variety or sociolect was {{Transliteration|sux|Emesal}} ({{lang|sux|{{cuneiform|4|[[:wikt:𒅴𒊩|𒅴𒊩]]}}}}: {{Transliteration|sux|eme-sal}}), possibly to be interpreted as "fine tongue" or "high-pitched voice".{{sfn|Rubio|2007|p=1369}} Other apparent terms for [[Register (sociolinguistics)|registers]] or dialects were ''eme-galam'' "high tongue", ''eme-si-sa<sub>2</sub>'' "straight tongue", ''eme-te-na<sub>2</sub>'' "oblique[?] tongue",<ref>{{cite book|author=Sylvain Auroux|title=History of the Language Sciences|volume= 1|year=2000|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JqxnjTKaQvQC&pg=PA2|page=2|publisher=Walter de Gruyter |isbn=978-3-11-019400-5}}</ref> ''emesukudda'', ''emesuha'', ''emesidi''<ref name="Prince1919">{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/592740 | jstor=592740 | last1=Prince | first1=J. Dyneley | title=Phonetic Relations in Sumerian | journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society | year=1919 | volume=39 | pages=265–279 | doi=10.2307/592740 | access-date=2023-05-09 }}</ref><ref>Delitzsch (1914: 20-21)</ref> and ''emeku''.<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/592549.pdf | jstor=592549 | last1=Prince | first1=J. Dyneley | title=The Vocabulary of Sumerian | journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society | year=1904 | volume=25 | pages=49–67 | doi=10.2307/592549 }}</ref> Recently, a regional differentiation into a Northern and a Southern Sumerian dialect area has been posited.<ref name=north_vs_south/>

=== Emesal ===
''Emesal'' is used exclusively by female characters in some literary texts. In addition, it is dominant in certain genres of cult songs such as the hymns sung by [[Gala (priests)|Gala]] priests.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hartmann|first=Henrike|title=Die Musik der Sumerischen Kultur|year=1960|page=138}}</ref><ref>Whittaker, Gordon. "Linguistic Anthropology and the Study of Emesal as (a) Women's Language". in S. Parpola and R. M. Whiting (eds). ''Sex and gender in the ancient Near East: proceedings of the 47th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Helsinki, July 2–6, 2001''. Helsinki, Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project, 2002.</ref><ref>Garcia-Ventura, A. (2017). Emesal studies today: a preliminary assessment. In L. Feliu, F. Karahashi and G. Rubio (eds.): ''The First Ninety Years. A Sumerian Celebration in Honor of Miguel Civil, SANER 12'', De Gruyter, Boston / Berlin, pp. 145-158.</ref> It has been argued that it might have been a female language variety of the kind that exists or has existed in some cultures, such as among the [[Chukchi language|Chukchis]] and the [[Garifuna language#Gender differences|Garifuna]]. Alternatively, it has been contended that it must have been originally a regional dialect, since instances of apparent Emesal-like forms are attested in the area of late 3rd millennium Lagash,<ref>Foxvog (2016: 158)</ref> and some loanwords into Akkadian appear to come from Emesal rather than Emegir.<ref>Jagersma (2010: 8-9)</ref> Apart from such isolated glosses, Emesal is first attested in writing in the early Old Babylonian period.<ref>Thomsen (2001: 294)</ref> It is typically written with syllable signs rather than logograms. A text is often not written consistently in Emesal, but contains apparent Emegir forms as well.

The special features of ''Emesal'' are mostly phonological and lexical. In terms of phonology, the following are some of the most common sound correspondences:<ref>Foxvog (2016: 158), Thomsen (2001: 286-294)</ref>
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Emegir sound
!Emesal sound
!Emegir example
!Emesal example
!Meaning
|-
|''g̃'' ({{IPA|/ŋ/}})
|''m{{Efn|However, occasionally the opposite correspondence occurs: Emegir 𒅗 ''inim'' "word" - Emesal 𒂊𒉈𒉘 ''e-ne-eg̃''<sub>3</sub>}}''
|𒂷 '''''g̃'''e<sub>26</sub>'' 
|𒈨 '''''m'''e''
|"I" 
|-
|''d''
|''z''
|𒇻 ''u'''d'''u''
|𒂊𒍢 ''e-'''z'''e<sub>2</sub>''
|"sheep"
|-
|''g''
|''b''
|𒅆 ''i'''g'''i'' 
|𒄿𒉈 ''i-'''b'''i<sub>2</sub>''
|"eye"
|-
|''i''
|''u''
|𒉺𒇻 ''s'''i'''pad'' 
|𒁻𒁀 ''s'''u'''<sub>8</sub>-ba''
|"shepherd" 
|}
There are also specifically Emesal lexemes that do not seem to be cognate with their Emegir counterparts, for example:
{| class="wikitable"
!Emegir
!Emesal
!
|-
|𒎏 ''nin''
|𒂵𒊭𒀭 ''ga-ša-an'', later spelling ''𒃽 gašan''
|"lady"
|-
|𒀀𒈾 ''a-na'' 
|𒋫 ''ta''
|"what"
|-
|''𒁺 tum<sub>2</sub>''
|''𒅕 ir''
|"bring"
|}
In grammar, both the cohortative prefix 𒂵 ''ga-'' and the precative prefix 𒄩 ''ḫa-'' are replaced by the morpheme 𒁕 ''da-'' (with the allomorphs 𒉈 ''de<sub>3</sub>''- and 𒂅 ''du<sub>5</sub>''- conditioned by context in the same way as that of the corresponding Emegir prefixes).<ref>Thomsen (2001: 200, 204)</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Rubio|year=2007|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gaktTQ8vq28C&pg=PA1370|title=Morphology of Asia and Africa|page=1370|publisher=Eisenbrauns |isbn=978-1-57506-109-2}}</ref>

=== Southern and Northern Sumerian ===
Bram Jagersma<ref>Jagersma (2010: 7, see also p. 549 on Fara).</ref> and Gábor Zólyomi<ref name="Zólyomi 2017: 19">Zólyomi (2017: 19)</ref> distinguish two regional dialects of Sumerian: the Southern Sumerian dialect of [[Lagash]], [[Umma]], [[Ur]] and [[Uruk]], which eventually formed the basis for the common standard of the Neo-Sumerian (Ur III) period, and the Northern Sumerian dialect as seen in texts from [[Nippur]], [[Adab (city)|Adab]], [[Isin]] and [[Shuruppak]] (although eventually texts in the standard variety begin to be produced in that area as well). The differences that he finds between the two varieties are:
* In Southern Sumerian, the conjugation prefix 𒉌 /i/- alternated with 𒂊 /e/- in accordance with vowel harmony during the Old Sumerian period, while Northern Sumerian only had /i/-. Later Southern Sumerian generalized /i/- as well.
* In Southern Sumerian, the conjugation prefix expressing the passive was 𒁀 ''ba-'', while in Northern Sumerian, it was 𒀀 ''a-''.
* In Southern Sumerian after the Old Akkadian period, the conjugation prefix 𒀀 ''a-'', which had originally existed in both dialects, disappears entirely apart from the variant 𒀠 ''al-'', which only appears in subordinate clauses.
* In Southern Sumerian, the Old Sumerian phoneme ''ř'' merged with ''r'', while in Northern Sumerian, it merged with ''d''.

=== Old Babylonian Sumerian ===
The dominant Sumerian variety of the Old Babylonian period, in turn, reflected a different regional dialect from the standard Neo-Sumerian of the Ur III period:
* Neo-Sumerian elides the conjugation prefixes 𒉌 /i/- and 𒀀 /a/- in front of the prefixes 𒉌-/ni/-, 𒊏 -/ra/- and 𒊑 -/ri/-, while Old Babylonian Sumerian retains them.
* The original sequence 𒈬𒂊 ''mu-e-'', consisting of the ventive conjugation prefix 𒈬 ''mu-'' and the 2nd person prefix 𒂊 ''-e-'', is contracted into 𒈬 /muː/ in the Ur III standard, but into 𒈨 /meː/ in the most common Old Babylonian variety.<ref>Jagersma 2010: 7</ref>
* In general, Old Babylonian Sumerian preserved many features of Northern Sumerian, in contrast to the decidedly Southern character of the Ur III standard. This is doubtlessly connected to the fact that the centre of power in Babylonia moved to the north.<ref name="Zólyomi 2017: 19"/> In particular, it uses spellings that show that its reflex of the Old Sumerian ''ř'' phoneme is /d/.<ref>Sallaberger 2023: 37</ref>