the conventions for specifying it vary. Sumerian consonants are unequal in their
distribution, some being more restricted than they are in English (e.g. /p/ and /t/ do
not occur at the end of a word), others being less so (e.g. /gˆ/ can occur at the beginning
of a word).WORD CLASSES
Words can be divided into two broad categories, referred to as content and function.
Content words – that is nouns, verbs, adjectives and manner adverbs – have a highly
identifiable meaning, can be morphologically complex, and dominate dictionaries;
function words are fewer in number, have a more grammatical role, tend to be short
and simple, and discussion of their usage dominates grammars. Function words can
also be divided into various classes, in particular pronouns (words that substitute for a
noun, like, for example, thisin read thisrather than read the chapter), determiners
(words that qualify a noun and often have a similar pronominal form, like thisin read
this chapter), numbers, conjunctions, interjections, and those types of adverb not
concerned with manner. A further contrast between function and content words is
more specific to Sumerian and reflects cuneiform’s origin in listing items rather than
representing the complexities of language: Sumerian function words are written
phonographically, while the bases of its content words are typically written logo-
graphically.
Function wordsSumerian has various types of pronoun: personal and reflexive pronouns, as well as
demonstratives, interrogatives, indefinites and a nominal relative. There is consider-
able overlap between the last three because one of the interrogative pronouns (/ana/
“what?”) plays a central role in forming other words. As in English, the nominal relative
(whose function is best explained by an example: read whatyou want) is formed simply
by conversion from the interrogative. However, in the indefinites /ana/ (reduced to
/na/) combines with forms of the verb me(“to be”): /name/ (< /na/ + /me/ = “what” +
“is,” i.e. “any”) and /nigˆnam/ (< /nigˆ/ + /na/ + /m/ = “thing” + “what” + “is,” i.e. “any-
thing”). Such interrogative-based indefinites are common in other languages, one
example being the French expression quoi que ce soit(“whatever that might be,” i.e.
“anything”).
Interrogative /ana/ also combines with a particular set of bound morphemes
(termed case markers, functional equivalents to English prepositions) to form
interrogative adverbs, such as /anasˇ/ (/ana/ + /sˇ/ = “what?” + “to,” i.e. “why?”). The
other types of function adverb in Sumerian include modals (like /igen/ “truly”),
conjunctives (/ganam/ “moreover”) and temporals (/adal/ “now”).
In its interrogative pronouns, and elsewhere in its grammar, Sumerian distinguishes
gender, /ana/ being “what?” and /aba/ “who?” The contours of this grammatical
distinction broadly follow those of the (super)natural world, contrasting inanimates
and animals with other types of animate (people and deities). This distinction is
common in other languages but no satisfactory terms have yet been agreed to express
it, proposals including neutral versus common (i.e. feminine and masculine), imper-
sonal versus personal, and non-human versus human (adopted here). Surprisingly the
–– Graham Cunningham ––