Emegir and Emesal
Oct 1, 2008 15:41:24 GMT -5
Post by ummia-inim-gina on Oct 1, 2008 15:41:24 GMT -5
I have been trying read into the differences between the Emegir and Emesal dialects of Sumerian (It seems that most of the Sumerian vocabulary I have picked up falls under Emegir) While searching google I came across this article found at Theology.edu:
The Nature of the Sumerian Language
Sumerian apparently was divided into two dialects known as Emegir and Emesal; the language as a whole, they referred to as Emeku, meaning, "the people’s language".
Emesal was "the women’s language" while Emegir was "the men’s language". We think men and women have trouble communicating now! How about if we spoke mutually intelligible dialects?
Sumerian is not alone among languages in dividing the language used by men and women or between upper and lower classes. For instance, in modern Japanese, there is a whole class of pronouns which are reserved for use by the emperor.
What are the differences between Emegir and Emesal?
1. Phonological: Emesal is more conservative, perhaps representing an earlier stage of the language. For example:
En - lord (Emegir)
Umun - lord (Emesal)
En is possibly derived from Umun, as follows (in the development of the language over a long period): Umun > Emen > En. There is not always this sort of relationship between the two dialects, however.
2. Lexically
Dug - good (Emegir)
Zeb - good (Emesal)
Nin - queen (Emegir)
Gashan - queen (Emesal)
Written Sumerian was not an attempt to reproduce speech. It was not originally designed to render the spoken language in permanent form. Instead, it was intended as a mnemonic device -- a method for jogging the memory.
So, for instance, if the scribe wanted to remember to say "He built the temple." he would merely write "Build Temple".
As a result, it makes it very difficult to understand Sumerian, particularly the oldest texts. The later texts, written as Sumerian became a dead language are much easier to read because the language was written less as a mnemonic device and more as a reproduction of speech.
Another problem with the early texts is that the signs were not always written in the proper, but rather in whatever order was prettiest or best fit the space available. Once again this practice changed as the language died.
Sumerian is an ergative, agglutinative language. English, by way of contrast, is a nominative-accusative language. That is, English uses a nominative case for the subject of a transitive verb or intransitive verb and an accusative case for the direct object.
Sumerian is an ergative language. That is,
1. The subject of a transitive verb is put in the ergative case.
2. The subject of an intransitive verb and the direct object of a transitive verb both get put into the absolute case.
Example:
Lugal.e e.0 munandu
The king a house he builds
Lugal.0 i.gin
The king does good
Isolating Language
Analytic
Example: Chinese
Each morpheme is expressed by a separate word.
Inflecting Language
Combination
Verbs contain within themselves number, gender, and person.
Example: Hebrew, Akkadian, Latin
eqtol - "I will kill"
yiqtol - "he will kill"
tiqtol - "you (m.s.) will kill"
Agglutinative
Fusion
Examples: Sumerian, Turkish
Separate morphemes are combined in one word.
namtilanishe -- "For his long life"
I'm wondering if their interpretation of "the men’s language" and "the women’s language" is correct? This just seems bizarre and impractical to me. Their Japanese example isn't very comparable because it is believable that royalty could use a different dialect then commoners because of the separation of interaction between the two classes. A son using different speech then the mother who raised him seems a little harder to believe to me.
The Nature of the Sumerian Language
Sumerian apparently was divided into two dialects known as Emegir and Emesal; the language as a whole, they referred to as Emeku, meaning, "the people’s language".
Emesal was "the women’s language" while Emegir was "the men’s language". We think men and women have trouble communicating now! How about if we spoke mutually intelligible dialects?
Sumerian is not alone among languages in dividing the language used by men and women or between upper and lower classes. For instance, in modern Japanese, there is a whole class of pronouns which are reserved for use by the emperor.
What are the differences between Emegir and Emesal?
1. Phonological: Emesal is more conservative, perhaps representing an earlier stage of the language. For example:
En - lord (Emegir)
Umun - lord (Emesal)
En is possibly derived from Umun, as follows (in the development of the language over a long period): Umun > Emen > En. There is not always this sort of relationship between the two dialects, however.
2. Lexically
Dug - good (Emegir)
Zeb - good (Emesal)
Nin - queen (Emegir)
Gashan - queen (Emesal)
Written Sumerian was not an attempt to reproduce speech. It was not originally designed to render the spoken language in permanent form. Instead, it was intended as a mnemonic device -- a method for jogging the memory.
So, for instance, if the scribe wanted to remember to say "He built the temple." he would merely write "Build Temple".
As a result, it makes it very difficult to understand Sumerian, particularly the oldest texts. The later texts, written as Sumerian became a dead language are much easier to read because the language was written less as a mnemonic device and more as a reproduction of speech.
Another problem with the early texts is that the signs were not always written in the proper, but rather in whatever order was prettiest or best fit the space available. Once again this practice changed as the language died.
Sumerian is an ergative, agglutinative language. English, by way of contrast, is a nominative-accusative language. That is, English uses a nominative case for the subject of a transitive verb or intransitive verb and an accusative case for the direct object.
Sumerian is an ergative language. That is,
1. The subject of a transitive verb is put in the ergative case.
2. The subject of an intransitive verb and the direct object of a transitive verb both get put into the absolute case.
Example:
Lugal.e e.0 munandu
The king a house he builds
Lugal.0 i.gin
The king does good
Isolating Language
Analytic
Example: Chinese
Each morpheme is expressed by a separate word.
Inflecting Language
Combination
Verbs contain within themselves number, gender, and person.
Example: Hebrew, Akkadian, Latin
eqtol - "I will kill"
yiqtol - "he will kill"
tiqtol - "you (m.s.) will kill"
Agglutinative
Fusion
Examples: Sumerian, Turkish
Separate morphemes are combined in one word.
namtilanishe -- "For his long life"
I'm wondering if their interpretation of "the men’s language" and "the women’s language" is correct? This just seems bizarre and impractical to me. Their Japanese example isn't very comparable because it is believable that royalty could use a different dialect then commoners because of the separation of interaction between the two classes. A son using different speech then the mother who raised him seems a little harder to believe to me.