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HISTORICAL OUTLINE 3
§ 2. The pronunciation sumer is known to us only by the Semitic
loan-word swneru. The Semites designated this language as the lisan
sumeri, or language of Sumer, and tbeir own language as akkadü or
Akkadian. So for instance a date promulgated by Samsuditalla as the
official Sumerian date formula for the year has a Semitic translation,
called akkadü-sa, 'its Semi tic rendering' '. An interlinear text con­
taining Sumerian lines and a Semitic translation under each line has
the note [saplis) akkada elis su[mera), 'bel-ow the Akkadian (Semiticj,
above the Sumerian ' 2. In ZA. IV, 434, BEZOLD published a tablet deal­
ing with geographical and racial terms. Line six should probably be
restored, eme-K U nig-si'g-ga eme [akkadi (ki)], which is there translated
by lisan sumeri tamsil akkadi = Sumerian is the counterpart of Akka­
dian. BEZOLD in Florilegium J.l1elchior de Vogüé, 53-8, has discussed
the question a new, but with impossible conclusions concerning some of
the texts.
The usage of the two words sumerü and akkadü appears clearly in
an inscription of Asurbanipal, who describing his early education says :
" Among the craftsmen 1 busied myself (?); the counsel and wisdom of
the heavens with the wise masters ('1) 1 solved. 1 read the dreadful
mysteries which should not be revealed ('1). To translate into Akkadian
the skilfully made tablets which were obscure in Sumerian 1 was
restless ('1)3." Here the word sumeru is ideographically expressed by
the Sumerian eme- KV which seems to be a late /orm invented by the
Semites. eme-KV has not been success/ully interpreted. In thosetexts
where it occurs 4 the /or1n o/ KV gives no clue as to which 01 the three
original signs E, lET, ~ is intended. eme o/ course means (speech,
1. OLZ. 1905, 270.
2. K. 14013 in BEZOLD, Catalogue o/ the Kouyunjik Collee/ion, p. 1354. eL
also K 3233 inúnsu akkada munu, "re,eat it seven times in Akkadian".
3. LEHMANN, Samas-sum-ukin, Tal. XXXIV, 14-17; ina PU¿WT' umman¡
"sutabulaku puru88[-ma milik (7) same itti ¡'ub;} li'uti 16upatal' igiare idgul'uti sa
la isu pit pani 17 aStasi kammu naklu sa sumel'i [EME-KU] ?ullulu akkadü ana
sutesuri astu lji (7) claku.
4. The citations will be found in MElSSNER, SAL 530.
Sumerian
as a
language.