Sumerian language
Also called: Sumerian · Topic: Bronze Age Civilisations: Mesopotamia, Egypt, China · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 1 "Writing and City Life"
Meaning
Sumerian is the first known language of Mesopotamia. By c. 2600 BCE it was being written in proper cuneiform, wedge-shaped signs pressed into clay. From c. 2400 BCE Akkadian slowly replaced it. Sumerian stopped being spoken c. 1800 BCE. But scribes kept teaching it in schools, so old texts stayed readable for centuries.
Example
Tablets written c. 2000 BCE could still be understood c. 650 BCE. Around then, the Assyrian king Assurbanipal (668–627 BCE) collected about 30,000 tablets for his library at Nineveh.
Don't confuse with
- Cuneiform: a script, not a language. It was first used for Sumerian and later for Akkadian.
- Akkadian language: a Semitic language that replaced Sumerian as the spoken tongue.
Related concepts
- Mesopotamian civilisation
- Fertile Crescent
- Sumerian civilisation
- Babylonia
- Akkadian language
- Aramaic