Download Ebook - The Knowledge Den

CHAPTER III.
The Phonetic Elements of Sumerian and Sound-Changes '.
§ 31. The script evolved by the Sumerians has the capacity
of writing but four vowel sounds, low back a, high back ü with
labial rounding, mid-palatal e and front palatal L. It is probable that,
when a separate vowel sign was employed for any of these vowels,
1. The principal works upon Ihis subject are, LENomIANT,Etudes Accadiennc8,
seconde série, pp. 25-63; SAYCE, Aceadian PhonoloDY, Philological Society's
Transactions, 1877-9, pp. 123-142; PAULHAUPT, Akkadisch-Sumeri8che Ke¡;[8chrift­
Tabte, p. 134 and numerous notes by the same author in other works; HOMMEL,
Die Sumcro-akkadi8che Sprache, Zeitschrift für Keilsehriftforschung, l, 161-8;
LEHMANN,Samas-sum-uhin, pp. 131-160; PRINCE,Materialsjor a Sumerian Lemicon,
§IV; FOSSEY,Le8 Permutations des Con8onnes en Sumérien, Hilprecht Anniversary
Vol. 105-120, also BALL, ibid., 33-59. The student must be emphaticalIy warned concerning
a great deal that has been written upon sound-change in Sumerian. vVith
sufficient ingenuity phoneticians have been able to prove sound-changes which
are incorrecto Many signs have several sounds, due to synonymous roots only, as
for instance ~ = du and ru, synonymns for banu, to build; it is needless to
assume a process el > l' to explain this phenomenon. Oeeasionally seholars in
ignorance of the forms of the signs in the early period and confused by the fact
. that some signs with different sounds and meanings have coalesced into a single
sign, have attempted to explain the multiplicity of sounds attaehed to signs of this
kind by sound-ehange. The sign + for example has two major values bar L
and + mas confused under one sign + in the later script. By assuming b> m
and r > s we might arrive at the absurd result that bar = mas. ~T = [jan and
har, represents two signs •
[jan = kar by sound-ehange
[jan and ~ kar;
would be ridiculous.
obviously any attempt to explain
The scribes, themselves, are frequently
to blame, since they occasionally attribute meanings to one Sumerian word
which· belong to another word simply because both Sumerian words happen to be
written with the same signo
GRAM. SU:lr. 3
Vowels.