Hi James, I'm wondering about some phonetics stuff. I was reading some of the words around your blog, but the problem is that I don't know much about standard transliteration conventions in Sumerian! For example what sound exactly would a Sumerian have made of the letter r? English r, French r, a trilled/tapped r, or something else maybe? Thanks!
The answer is… we don’t know! Because most of our records of Sumerian phonology weren’t written by native Sumerian speakers, but by Akkadian speakers, our understanding of the sound system is colored/delimited by the Akkadian one. For now, unless and until we get a better ancient source on Sumerian phonology, you can pronounce the “r” sound however you’d like!
For more on the Sumerian sound system, check out this video of mine!