Sumerian

Phonetic and Morphological Features

Spoken Sumerian is a very simple language in initial structure and pronounciation. This section will give a basic overview of Sumerian sounds and the formation of simple words. Knowledge of the International Phonetic Alphabet will be useful in learning the sounds.

Consonants

Sumerian comprises of fourteen phonemic consonants:

• /b/ Initial consonant sound in 'bike' (Voiced Bilabial Plosive)
• /m/ Initial consonant sound in 'map' (Boiced Bilabial Nasal)
• /d/ Initial consonant sound in 'dam' (Voiced Alveolar Plosive)
• /t/ Initial consonant sound in 'tank' (Voiceless Alveolar Plosive)
• /s/ Initial consonant sound in 'stick' (Voiceless Alveolar Fricative)
• /z/ Initial consonant sound in 'zoo' (Voiced Alveolar Fricative)
• /sh/ Final consonant sound in 'dash' (Voiceless Postalveolar Fricative)
• /j/ Final consonant sound in 'sing' (Voiced Palatal Nasal)
• /r/ Final consonant sound in 'car' (Voiced Alveolar Approximant)
• /l/ Initial consonant sound in 'light' (Voiced Alveolar Latteral Approximate)
• /n/ Initial/Final consonant sound in "noun" (Voiced Alveolar Nasal)
• /k/ Initial consonant sound in 'cat' (Voiceless Velar Plosive)
• /g/ Initial consonant sound in 'gun' (Voiced Velar Plosive)
• /x/ Final consonant sound in Scottish 'Loch' (Voiceless Uvular Plosive)

Vowels

Sumerian has only four phonemic vowels, with plenty of allophonic variation (see below) between speakers.

• /i/ As in 'hip' (Close Front Lax Unrounded)
• /e/ As in 'peg' (Close-mid front Unrounded)
• /u/ As in 'pull' (Close back lax)
• /a/ As in 'father' (Open-mid back unrounded)

Allophonic Variation

Allophonic variation in spoken Sumerian is tied exclusivly to the production of vowel sounds. The seperate allophonic variants are all considered the same distinct sound in the spoken language and are treated equal to that base phoneme that they replace. Variation exists solely within the individual speaker and is not strongly tied to regional or social differences. The fllowing chart can help distinguish allophonic variations:

• /e/ is considered allophonic with all Close-mid Front and Central vowels, rounded or unrounded, as well as the central vowel (schwa).
• /u/ is allophonic with the Close-mid back rounded vowel.
• /a/ is allophonic with all Open and Open-mid vowels.

Syllabic Structure and Word Formation

Simple morphological structures in Sumerian are listed using Consonant (C), and Vowel (V):

• V
• VC
• CV
• VCV
• CVC
• CVCVC

In the production of a compound word where the intial word ends in a vowel and the final word begins in a word one of two approaches is taken according to the vowels used.

1. If the vowels are the same (Including allophones) then the vowel becomes lengthened in pronounciation.
2. If the vowels are different (and not allophones) then they are combined to form a dipthong.

When more then one morpheme come together to form a word-phrase assimilation of simmililar consonats takes place between the adjoining morphemes. Take the Sumerian term for Volcano "anu", which is comprised of the morphemes an(Earth) and nu (Fire), where the commonly shared n sound is assimilated into one short n sound.

Semantical features and Lexograph

Stress:

Spoken Sumerian stress is placed on the secondary morpheme within a compound word, and upon the initial syllable in proper nouns. In this process the word 'emegir', the name for the language to it's speakers, is pronounced with stress on 'gir'. With proper nouns, however, the placed on the initial syllable, or the vowel and final conconant of the initial syllable to be precise. In this way personal names can be distinguished from regular nouns. When using the word 'emegir' as a personal name the stress would lie on 'me'.