Lieberman Stephen J. The Sumerian Loanwords in Old-Babylonian Akkadian: Volume 1: Prolegomena and Evidence

Scholars Press, 1977. — 642 p. — (Harvard Semitic series 22).Sumerian is a language with no demonstrated cognates. Akkadian, on the other hand, has a number of cognate languages; it was the principal Semitic language in use in Mesopotamia before its replacement by Aramaic in the first millennium B.C.E. The study of Akkadian words borrowed from Sumerian is significant for a number of reasons. Perhaps the most important of these reasons is a consequence of ambiguities in the writing system used to represent Sumerian, a system which leaves the modern student of Sumerian with many unsolved and some insoluble problems. With the aid of the loanwords into Akkadian, we can hope to approach more solid ground, for our present understanding of Akkadian is considerably better anchored than knowledge of Sumerian will ever be. From the firmer base of Akkadian, we can gain a better perspective on some aspects of the Sumerian language. With the help of the loanwords, one can, perhaps, reconstruct more precisely the way that Sumerian was pronounced and, with critical acumen, apply this knowledge to the understanding of Sumerian poetry. This understanding will allow one to tackle more successfully complex questions such as what the canons of Sumerian poetry were, and certain of the ambiguities inherent in the cuneiform system of writing used to record Sumerian literature can, perchance, be resolved.