#sumerian syntax

Hello! There are a few words for "forever" in Sumerian. As a noun, I'd use dari 𒁕𒌷 or duri 𒁺𒌷, which would be put in the terminative case, darishe 𒁕𒌷𒊺, to give it an adverb function. The terminative case is often used to give a time meaning of "until" or "for the duration of", so darishe could also be translated "for forever" or "until forever". Another option is ulshe 𒌌𒊺, from ul "distant, remote (in time), ancient, enduring".

i was hoping you'd be down to check out if i have the cuneiform and meanings for this name for a character correct—

so the character's name is Igishaha Nuzida. His name being igishaha 𒅆𒂄𒀀 "(one with the) face (of a) pig" or simply "pig-face", named such because he is quite ugly and resembles a pig, and having the epithet of nuzida 𒉡𒍣𒀀 "(the) dishonest (one)", which he was given as a result of his reputation as a deceiver.

would this be correct? do epithets come before or after the name? i assume after since adjectives come after the noun and epithets are adjectival phrases.

thank you in advance!!!

Hello, and you’ve mostly got it! Igishaha 𒅆𒂄𒀀 would mean “face of a pig”, exactly as you said.

Nuzida would mean something like “not being honest” - it’s a nominalized verb phrase operating as an adjective or adverb. (It could also mean “unstrengthened” or “unreinforced”, as in the sides of a wall or levee.) Instead, I’d use lutumu, a beautiful Sumerian word that literally means “wind-person” - i.e., a person who speaks wind rather than truths. It thus means “dishonest person, liar, fraudster”, and is written 𒇽𒅎 in cuneiform.

Silim! I’ve made a post touching on Sumerian syntax before, but here’s a bit more detailed of a description.

The overall clause structure of Sumerian is SOV, which means the basic order of sentences is the Subject, then the Object (where there is one) and any other oblique material (adverbs, indirect objects, etc), then the Verb. The strictest part of this is that the main verb always comes last in the sentence.

Within a noun phrase, the order is pretty much always Noun-first, followed by adjectives, genitives and the like, then by three key elements in a specific order: a possessive pronoun, plural marker and/or case ending. Each of these is optional, but when they do appear, they always appear in that order. (This post has more on the ordering of these elements.)

As for more complex sentences, a lot of what would be called “subordinate clauses” in English are not treated as full clauses in Sumerian; instead, either nominalized verbs (fully conjugated verbs with -a attached) or participles (which are more restricted) are used. “Compound sentences”, which in English are connected by conjunctions like and or or, are often treated as multiple simple sentences in Sumerian.

Are there constraints on the order in which those morphemes can attach? Could you say dubsarurukmahzu?  Could you say dubsarzumahuruk?

A given noun in Sumerian takes morphemes in a specific order:

Noun + [adjectives, adjectival phrases, genitive phrases] + [demonstratives] [possessor] + [plural marker] + [case ending]

That said, you can reorder elements as long as they have another noun to attach to. In this case, you can rearrange so things are attached to the noun uru “city” rather than directly to dubsar.

To take your first example, dubsar-uruk-mah-zu is still acceptable, as both uruk and mah are occupying the [adjectives & phrases] slot. But putting mah closer to the head noun, as the “simpler” adjective and the one more “inherent” to the scribe, sounds a bit more natural (dubsarmahurukzu “your senior scribe of the city” vs. dubsarurukmahzu “your scribe of the city [who is] great”). If you instead moved mah inside the genitive phrase (which also forces the -k- genitive ending into an -a-; the genitive is complicated) you’d get dubsar-uru-mah-a-zu “your scribe of the great/powerful city”, which is grammatically correct but with a different meaning.

In the second example, once you’ve hit dubsar-zu- we’re at the [possessor] element, so only [plural] and/or [case] can follow; *dubsarzumahuruk is ungrammatical.

What are the ten cases?

Check out this post, where I go through the ten cases in a bit of detail!

Also thank you so much for writing this blog!  I only just discovered it and I know nothing about Sumerian but this is so fascinating to read!