Cuneiform Hand-Me-Downs - how Sumerian outlived its speakers

My favorite example of how odd Cuneiform became as it was passed from civilization to civilization. Thanks, rampant Sumerianization!

Cuneiform languages took Sumerian very seriously, even after it was long dead. That’s how Akkadian and Hittite ended up with these strange Sumerograms and Akkadograms.

Learn how scribes kept around Sumerian spellings for their own native words, creating bizarre hybrid linguistic creatures that saddled Cuneiform with the linguistic baggage of every language that passed it on.

Still have any interest in learning the world’s oldest writing system? Or just a bit relieved you didn't grow up with Cuneiform?

CREDITS

Knowledge:
ANA LUGAL(-i) as "for the king" in Hittite Cuneiform is from page 29 of Theo van den Hout’s _The Elements of Hittite_.

For “hassus" as the Hittite reading of LUGAL, see the lemma "hassu-" on pages 240-241 of Jaan Puhvel’s _Hittite Etymological Dictionary: Vol 3_.

“A-ap-pa" and "EGIR-pa" are Hittite for "backwards" in Anja Busse’s "Hittite scribal habits: Sumerograms and phonetic complements in Hittite cuneiform”, page 91 of _Scribes as Agents of Language Change_.

Forms for Akkadian "mu-ul" and "ka-ka-bu" are given in H. Hunger’s _Astrological Reports to Assyrian Kings_ (1992).

CC images:
MUL (logograph), Zachariel
Seal of Tarkummuwa, Walters Art Museum
Statue of Gudea, PierreSelim
Hittite statue, Cleveland Museum of Art, Daderot
Sumerian Cuneiform from the ePSD:
http://psd.museum.upenn.edu/epsd/nepsd-frame.html

Music:
Naraina and Jalandhar, Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

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