Derek Writes Fantasy
  • Home
  • My Work
  • About
  • BLOG
  • Featured Short Story
  • Sample Excerpts by Derek

Great Moments in Fantasy
My concise thoughts about great excerpts from Fantasy Literature . . .

SOME ASTOUNDING FACTS ABOUT SUMERIAN LANGUAGE

4/30/2021

0 Comments

 
Sumerian is an oddball of ancient languages. It might never have been deciphered if not for a happy circumstance I’ll mention below. Other languages important to the history of mythology and religion largely fall into two categories: Into-European (Sanskrit, Old Persian, Greek, Latin) and Semitic (Akkadian, Amorite, Eblaite, Phoenician, Ugaritic, Arabic, Hebrew). But Samuel Noah Kramer says of Sumerian that it “stands alone and unrelated to any known language living or dead” (Sumerian Mythology, 1961, Harper and Row). How did we decipher it, then, and why was it worth the trouble? As to how, we are very fortunate that the Akkadian speaking peoples who followed the Sumerians revered the language and wrote interlinear texts with Akkadian translations of Sumerian compositions. As to why, the answer is simple and profound: the great myths and religious concepts of Mesopotamia, so foundational to numerous later cultures, were born in ancient Sumer.
Picture
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    I'm a fantasy fan and I'll bet you are too. I also am in the early stages of building a fantasy world and writing stories and novels. It will be a world like Mesopotamia and my goal is to create something immersive like the best fantasy worlds out there.

    Archives

    April 2021

    Categories

    All
    A Song Of Ice And Fire
    Character Motivation
    Cuneiform
    David Gemmell
    Dyrk Ashton
    Epic Fantasy
    Everyman Hero
    George R.R. Martin
    Mesopotamian
    Paternus Trilogy
    Progress Report
    Realism In Fantasy
    Religion In Fantasy
    Sumerian
    Wonder
    Writing

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • My Work
  • About
  • BLOG
  • Featured Short Story
  • Sample Excerpts by Derek