Modern knowledge of Sumerian phonology is flawed and incomplete because of the lack of native speakers, the transmission through the filter of Akkadian phonology and the difficulties posed by the cuneiform script. As I.M. Diakonoff observes, "when we try to find out the morphophonological structure of the Sumerian language, we must constantly bear in mind that we are not dealing with a language directly but are reconstructing it from a very imperfect mnemonic writing system which had not been basically aimed at the rendering of morphophonemics".[1]
Consonants[]
Sumerian is conjectured to have at least the following consonants:
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m ⟨m⟩ | n ⟨n⟩ | ŋ ⟨g̃⟩ | |||
| Plosive | plain | p ⟨b⟩ | t ⟨d⟩ | k ⟨g⟩ | ʔ -[2] | |
| aspirated | pʰ ⟨p⟩ | tʰ ⟨t⟩ | kʰ ⟨k⟩ | |||
| Fricative | s ⟨s⟩ | ʃ ⟨š⟩ | x ⟨ḫ~h⟩ | h -[2] | ||
| Affricate | plain | t͡s ⟨z⟩ | ||||
| aspirated | t͡sʰ ⟨ř~dr⟩ | |||||
| Tap | ɾ ⟨r⟩ | |||||
| Liquid | l ⟨l⟩ | |||||
| Semivowel | j -[2] | |||||
- a simple distribution of six stop consonants, in three places of articulation distinguished by aspiration, though later stages may have featured voicing:
- p (voiceless aspirated bilabial plosive),
- t (voiceless aspirated alveolar plosive),
- k (voiceless aspirated velar plosive),
- As a rule, /p/, /t/ and /k/ did not occur word-finally.[3]
- b (voiced unaspirated bilabial plosive),
- d (voiced unaspirated alveolar plosive),
- g (voiced unaspirated velar plosive).
- a phoneme usually represented by /ř/ (sometimes written dr) that was probably a voiceless aspirated alveolar affricate. This phoneme later became /d/ or /r/ in northern and southern dialects, respectively.
- a simple distribution of three nasal consonants in similar distribution to the stops:
- m (bilabial nasal),
- n (alveolar nasal),
- g̃ (frequently printed ĝ due to typesetting constraints, increasingly transcribed as ŋ) /ŋ/ (likely a velar nasal, as in sing, it has also been argued to be a labiovelar nasal or a nasalized labiovelar).
- a set of three sibilants:
- s, likely a voiceless alveolar fricative,
- z, likely a voiceless unaspirated alveolar affricate, /t͡s/, as shown by Akkadian loans from /s/=[t͡s] to Sumerian /z/. In early Sumerian, this would have been the unaspirated counterpart to /ř/.
- š (generally described as a voiceless postalveolar fricative, /ʃ/, as in ship)
- ḫ (a velar fricative, /x/, sometimes written h)
- two liquid consonants:
- l (a lateral consonant)
- r (a rhotic consonant)
The existence of various other consonants has been hypothesized based on graphic alternations and loans, though none have found wide acceptance. For example, Diakonoff lists evidence for two l-sounds, two r-sounds, two h-sounds, and two g-sounds (excluding the velar nasal), and assumes a phonemic difference between consonants that are dropped word-finally (such as the g in zag > za3) and consonants that remain (such as the g in lag). Other "hidden" consonant phonemes that have been suggested include semivowels such as /j/ and /w/, and a glottal fricative /h/ or a glottal stop that could explain the absence of vowel contraction in some words[4]—though objections have been raised against that as well.[5] A recent descriptive grammar by Bram Jagersma includes /j/, /h/, and /ʔ/ as unwritten consonants, with the glottal stop even serving as the first-person pronominal prefix.
Very often, a word-final consonant was not expressed in writing – and was possibly omitted in pronunciation – so it surfaced only when followed by a vowel: for example the /k/ of the genitive case ending -ak does not appear in e2 lugal-la "the king's house", but it becomes obvious in e2 lugal-la-kam "(it) is the king's house" (compare liaison in French).
Vowels[]
The vowels that are clearly distinguished by the cuneiform script are /a/, /e/, /i/, and /u/. Various researchers have posited the existence of more vowel phonemes such as /o/ and even /ɛ/ and /ɔ/, which would have been concealed by the transmission through Akkadian, as that language does not distinguish them.[6][7] That would explain the seeming existence of numerous homophones in transliterated Sumerian, as well as some details of the phenomena mentioned in the next paragraph.[8] These hypotheses are not yet generally accepted.
There is some evidence for vowel harmony according to vowel height or advanced tongue root in the prefix i3/e- in inscriptions from pre-Sargonic Lagash,[6] and perhaps even more than one vowel harmony rule.[9][7] There also appear to be many cases of partial or complete assimilation of the vowel of certain prefixes and suffixes to one in the adjacent syllable reflected in writing in some of the later periods, and there is a noticeable, albeit not absolute, tendency for disyllabic stems to have the same vowel in both syllables.These patterns, too, are interpreted as evidence for a richer vowel inventory by some researchers.[6][7] What appears to be vowel contraction in hiatus (*/aa/, */ia/, */ua/ > a, */ae/ > a, */ue/ > u, etc.) is also very common.
Syllables could have any of the following structures: V, CV, VC, CVC. More complex syllables, if Sumerian had them, are not expressed as such by the cuneiform script.
References[]
- ↑ Diakonoff 1976:112
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Not usually transcribed
- ↑ [Keetman, J. 2007. "Gab es ein h im Sumerischen?" In: Babel und Bibel 3, p.21]
- ↑ Attinger, Pascal, 1993. Eléments de linguistique sumérienne. p. 212 [1] (Archive)
- ↑ [Keetman, J. 2007. "Gab es ein h im Sumerischen?" In: Babel und Bibel 3, passim]
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Smith, Eric J M. 2007. [-ATR] "Harmony and the Vowel Inventory of Sumerian". Journal of Cuneiform Studies, volume 57
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Keetman, J. 2013. "Die sumerische Wurzelharmonie". Babel und Bibel 7 p.109-154
- ↑ Zólyomi, Gábor. 2016. An introduction to the grammar of Sumerian. P. 12-13
- ↑ Keetman, J. 2009. "The limits of [ATR] vowel harmony in Sumerian and some remarks about the need of transparent data". Nouvelles Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires 2009, No. 65