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CHAPTERII.
The Origin and Principal Characteristics
of Sumerian Writing'.
§ 19. The inventors of the Sumerian script began by making pic- Pictographs.
tures of objects arranged one above the other in perpendicular columns
to form sentences. As they progressed, for convenience the tablet or
object inscribed was turned to the left ninety degrees so as to enable the
scribe to write from left to right. vVhen this evolution took place the
pictographs seem to have remained in their original positions so that
they were really written lying on their left sides. This mayexplain why
so few of the signs have retained even a slight resemblance to their origin-
al forms. The following signs can still be iden ti fied 2. ~~ r, a star.
1. The fundamental work on this subject is THUREAU-DANGIN,Reehel'ches srtr
l'origine de l'Ecriture eunéiforme, 1898. Not much advance has been made on
his work. Notice however the following additions. No. 10 ma, the gunified form
~ occurs often, TSA. 42, obv. II; DP. 105, obv. I; also Blau, A. rey. No. 46,
the sign is balag (identified by the author himself). No. 92 perhaps ggf. No. 210,
was used by the Semites in the early period for &.~+as well as .&.~~fH·
No. 261 = sudul, Br. 10875, v. SAK. 82 n. el. 262 gig is used for dugud (263) in
Gud. Cyl. A 4, 17 and Ur-Bau Sto 3, 6. No. 265 read su.lug. No. 285 = usan,
Br. 8189. No. 286, the sign inserted appears to be e:I§J, v. DE GENOUILLAC,
TSA. LX¿Y, and no. 12, rey. III. No. 448 = 1JI5=J yin in the sense of si1Jlu,
but e:UJg in the sense of uku crown. No. 451 used for m Gud. B 6, 52, and
Cyl. A 16, 8. A great many new forms of known signs and several unidentified
forms have been found. No. 4 is not the gunified form of no. 3, see p. 57 n. 3.
2. The original forms are not given here; for most cases they may be found
in ltEC. In a few cases I have cited the texts. The importance of this subject
for linguistic purposes is sligbt and has been greatly and ingeniously exaggerated.