Hello! I was wondering you could help me with a translation into Sumerian?
I piece of writing I'm doing uses the word akhkharu in the source material for 'blood demon' or 'vampire' and I was wondering if you knew the symbol for it?
And how to properly translate with it for 'Queen of the Vampires' or 'Vampire Queen'. Nin akhkharu is what I've been able to find, but I'm not certain that's correct and cannot find the corresponding cuneiform.
These are the best pictures of the symbol that was used for akhkharu in the source, and I've been having trouble finding the same symbol. (There is also a chance that this shot is backwards, as the person reading the symbol is in the background and the symbol is in the foreground)
Hi! This is not Sumerian and not cuneiform. “Akhkharu” is a modern made-up word, invented circa 2008 by an occultist author, and does not conform to Sumerian phonetics or orthography at all. The symbol you’ve linked to here isn’t a cuneiform sign and doesn’t follow standards of cuneiform sign-shapes.
There is no concept of “vampire” in Sumerian literature or culture as far as I’ve ever found. (I’ve answered a previous ask here on how to potentially say “blood drinker” or other workarounds.) Any references to “Sumerian vampires” or such a thing are the invention of modern authors, not based in actual ancient Mesopotamian texts or cultural sources.
Thank you for reaching out and checking rather than further spreading this kind of misinformation - I appreciate it! If you’d like help with authentic Sumerian translations, please do message and let me know.
Could you please translate "bead merchant" or the word for "jewelry maker"? How would the word change for say a glass bead verses a precious stone bead? To follow that- what would lapis lazuli be called?
Thanks! Your help is very much appreciated
Silim! The word for “lapidary, jeweler” in Sumerian is zadimgal 𒈯𒃲, derived from zadim 𒈯 “stone-cutter” and in turn from za 𒍝 “stone” (including both precious and non-precious stones). Za is also the basic word for “bead”, though ellang 𒎎𒄵 is frequently used for small beads used in jewelry or other decoration - Halloran (2003) says ellang materials included “carnelian, lapis, gold, silver, copper and bronze”. So if you wanted to say “bead merchant”, I’d use tibira 𒅪 “merchant” to make tibiraellanga 𒅪𒎎𒄵𒂷 “merchant of beads”.
The issue with trying to translate “glass bead” is that, while evidence shows glassworking might have begun in Mesopotamia (or maybe Egypt), this was around 1600 BCE, after the primarily Sumerian-speaking period. Thus the word I know for “glass”, immana 𒅎𒈠𒈾, is a late borrowing from the Akkadian term immanakku - and the ePSD doesn’t list it as “glass” at all, instead meaning “pumice, pebble, a type of sand”. Another word, zu 𒅗, could mean “natural glass” (as in, from a volcanic, lightning, etc source) as well as “obsidian” and other meanings, but I can’t find evidence that zu glass was common enough to be used in beads. All that means that I’d use zadimgal for any type of jewelry-maker, since there’s no clear way to express a glass bead worker in Sumerian.
And “lapis lazuli” in Sumerian is zagin 𒍝𒆳, also derived from za. For a bunch more on lapis lazuli, its uses and symbolism in Sumerian times, check out my post on the topic!
Silim! Just a heads up that tumblr seems to be eating asks again 🙄 My notifs have now shown several asks received, but without an actual ask appear in the inbox (though the page seems to hold a “blank space” for the ask instead).
If you’ve asked a question recently (or ever!) and haven’t seen a reply, my recommendation is to try sending it again, or better yet use tumblr’s Messages feature to send me a DM. You can also try the reply feature on this post to ask if I’ve gotten any messages from you recently, and I’ll let you know if something seems to have been eaten.
Or, you can hop over to my twitch where I hold Sumerian Q&A streams every other Friday - including tonight in about 90 minutes! - and ask your question there.
Thanks for your patience with tumblr’s fickleness!
The oldest known instructions for the ancient art of embalming mummies were recently discovered on a medical papyrus from ancient Egypt.
How-to descriptions of the mummification process are exceptionally rare in the archaeological record — only two other such “manuals” are known. This newest example, found in an ancient scroll dating to around 1450 B.C., predates other mummification texts by more than 1,000 years. The guide contains many helpful suggestions, such as how to make herbal insect repellent and using red linen wrappings to reduce facial swelling.
Sofie Schiødt, a research assistant in the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies at the University of Copenhagen, discovered the embalming manual while translating a papyrus for her doctoral thesis, which will be published in 2022, university representatives said in a statement. Read more.
Hi! I once asked you a question and I absolutely loved your answer, so I am coming once again to you for some advice. Is there a word in cuneiform for loyalty/devotion? Or some line from a text/poem of this? I've found that this is a beautiful subject through human history, but I can't find anything about it with the (little) knowledge I have. Thank you so much!
Hello! The basic word in Sumerian I know for “loyal” is zid 𒍣, the same word as “proper, accurate, right”. It’s used, for example, in the Lament for Sumer and Urim: Enlille e-zid gulgullude, lu-zid turrede… “Enlil, in order to destroy the loyal households, in order to decimate the loyal men…” A more positive quote might be from Išme-Dagan X: Ngidru shumshum, aga-zid halla, mumahbi sasa “He assigns the scepters, and distributes the loyal crowns, and announces their exalted names.”
The other term is shudimma 𒋗𒉽𒉽𒈠 “loyal, prudent”, from the phrasal verb shu dim “to be loyal, be subservient” - specifically loyalty by a lesser person to a greater person. This is what appears, for example, in the proverb Nirngal kugzuam, ukur shu dimmam, shu ngar ngalla Arattaka “When the authorities are wise, and the poor are loyal, it is the effect of the blessing of Aratta.” I wouldn’t use shudimma for, say, loyalty to one’s friend, spouse, or other equal, however.
As for “devotion, devoted”, etc. all the examples I can find are just alternate translations of clearer terms. For example, this proverb includes dumu Utu kuggakam “a devotee of Utu is among the holy”, but dumu “devotee” actually just means “child”.
Hello, I’m a new follower of your blog because I recently became fascinated with the Sumerian language! I greatly appreciate all the translations you provide, it’s such a unique language. I was curious if using “aš šub ul” would be correct for saying “a fallen/falling star”. I only have Wikipedia to go off of I’m afraid lol thank you so much for your time and effort!!
Hi, and thanks for the kind words!
Unfortunately, I think your attempted translation is somewhat off the mark. Shub (šub) is the verb “to fall”, but ul is a “star” in the sense of a decorative star, like on a building or tapestry, not a star in the sky - which would be mul (see this post). And I’m not sure what ash (aš) would be here - it usually means “one”, as in the number, or, as an alternate reading, “need, wish” - so maybe you were going for a star you wish on?
A literal translation of “fallen star” would be mulshub, as shub can adjectivally mean “fallen” as well as “abandoned, neglected”. But instead I’d leave all these words aside, and use the pre-existing term antasurra, which means “meteor, falling star”, and is written 𒀯𒀭𒋫𒋩𒊏 in cuneiform. I hope that helps!
I might regret asking, hence anon, but would you be so kind as to give your interpretation of this, please?
𒃌 𒈣𒊭𒈝 𒌨
Hi! Without any context, a short stretch of cuneiform like this is pretty difficult to translate, but here’s my best shot.
𒃌 ngalga is “advice, consideration, planning”. I’d read 𒈣𒊭𒈝 as ma2-sha-lum - there’s a different sign combo, 𒈠𒁺𒈝 ma2-sha4-lum, that means “a drinking vessel”, but here we have a different sha sign. I don’t know of any phrases that use 𒈣𒊭 in combination. There’s another word, magilum 𒈣𒄄𒈝, that refers to a specific type of boat (e.g. here), so I’d hazard a guess that mashalum is “a Mashalum boat” (ma being “boat”).
𒌨 can have any of several readings, but is most often ur or tesh2. At the end of a phrase like this, I’d think it’s a verb - ur can mean “to tremble”, but the two nouns (“advice” and “Mashalum boat”) have no visible case endings and there’s no visible verb conjugation, which means ur couldn’t appear like that in a sensible sentence. Tesh2 is “to be ashamed, to bring together, unify”, but again getting the conjugation to look like this is difficult - maybe Ngalga[a] mashalum tesh “I unified the Mashalum boats in consideration”, with an implied locative on ngalga?
Alternatively, maybe this is a sentence fragment without a verb - just a string of nouns could be something like “advice, Mashalum boat, dog (ur)” or “advice, Mashalum boat, shame (tesh)”. But these wouldn’t really “mean” anything as there’s no verb to hold them together.
If you’re the anon asker, or have any additional thoughts/suggestions, please let me know if I landed anywhere close!
call me sentimental but every now and then i catch myself thinking about the people who lived thousands of years ago, and loved and grieved, the people whose graves i wrote about in a paper. i may not know your names. i will never know your names. but this morning i went outside and i poured some of my drink on the ground and i watched it seep into the soil and i thought of you.
hi! i've been interested in sumerian for years, and am still learning the basics of it as best as i can, and as specific as it is, is there any way to say or write "eternal rebirth through violence"? or something akin to it? thank you!
Hello! I’ve previously answered about “eternal”, which is dari, written 𒁕𒌷 in cuneiform, and about “rebirth”, for which I’d use namtud 𒉆𒌅, from tud “to be (re)born”. “Eternal rebirth” would therefore be namtuddari 𒉆𒌅𒁕𒌷.
“Violence” in Sumerian is azig 𒀉𒍣. To say “through violence”, I’d put it in the ablative case, literally “from violence” or “by means of violence”, becoming azigta 𒀉𒍣𒋫. Thus, the whole phrase would be namtuddari azigta, written 𒉆𒌅𒁕𒌷 𒀉𒍣𒋫 in cuneiform.
Your blog again has been so helpful in writing for DND!
May I ask, how colors work in Sumerian?
I'm guessing that they come after the word they modify.
So I wanted to say...
"Black Dragon" would it be something like "Ushum-Gig"?
And so on for these colors?
White Dragons Ushum-Babbar Red Dragons Ushum-Sa Green Dragons Ushum-Sig Blue Dragons Ushum-Nisig
Finally, may I also ask, if I wanted to poetically name one of them "He whose wings rouses/stirs up sandstorms" how might that be expressed in Sumerian?
Thank you SO much!!!
Hello, and thanks for the kind words!
Yes, colors, like other adjectives, follow and attach to the noun they modify. Here’s my post on color vocabulary - it looks like you’ve got all the “[color] dragon” terms correct! My one note is that the color space that in English we call “green” is split between sig and nisig in Sumerian, so I’d translate Ushum-sig as “yellow dragon(s)” or maybe “bright green dragon(s)”, since a darker/cooler-toned green dragon would also be Ushum-nisig.
As for the “He whose…” translation, that specific construction is very hard to convey in Sumerian - the pronoun ane “she/he/etc” doesn’t work well with modifiers like subordinate clauses, and I don’t know of any names constructed this way. As a full sentence, I’d say Ani ulu iblulu “His wings stir up sandstorms”, from a “wing”, ulu “sandstorm, south wind” and the present-tense form of lu “to stir up, mix”. (I’ve opted for a instead of pa, both of which mean “wing”, because pa generally implies a bird’s wing, covered in feathers.) You could make this into a noun phrase like Ani ulu iblulua “… that his wings stir up sandstorms”, but I don’t think it’d convey well as a name. Maybe something simpler like Aulu “Sandstorm-wings”? Or if you have any other translation requests or ideas, feel free to let me know!