sumerian
sumerian — noun
1. a person who belonged to the ancient civilisation that lived in southern Mesopot
a person who belonged to the ancient civilisation that lived in southern Mesopotamia, in what is now southern Iraq, where one of the earliest known urban societies developed around 4000 BCE.
An ancient Sumerian would have lived in a city-state ruled by a local king.
indefinite article + Sumerian as countable noun
Iris read that the Sumerians were among the first people to develop a system of writing.
Sumerians as plural ethnic group
The museum guide showed the class a gold necklace made by a wealthy Sumerian around 2500 BCE.
Andrés asked whether ordinary Sumerians could read and write or if that skill was limited to scribes.
- Mesopotamian
broader term — Mesopotamia included Sumer as well as later civilisations such as Akkad and Babylon
用法筆記
Distinguish from sense 2: this sense refers to a person (countable noun), while sense 2 refers to the language (uncountable). The plural form Sumerians is very common.
常見錯誤
2. the language that was spoken and written in ancient Sumer, preserved in cuneifor
the language that was spoken and written in ancient Sumer, preserved in cuneiform inscriptions on clay tablets, which has no known connection to any other language family.
Professor Eleni has spent twenty years translating Sumerian religious texts from clay tablets.
collocation: Sumerian religious texts
Very few people in the world today can speak Sumerian, though many scholars can read it.
contrast: speak vs read Sumerian
Aarav learned that Sumerian does not belong to the same language family as Hebrew or Arabic.
The library has a copy of a Sumerian dictionary that lists over five thousand words.
用法筆記
Sumerian (the language) is uncountable — we say Sumerian is difficult, not a Sumerian is difficult. The definite article is optional: Sumerian was written in cuneiform or the Sumerian language was written in cuneiform are both correct.