sumerian
sumerian — 名詞
1. a person who belonged to the ancient civilisation that lived in southern Mesopot
蘇美人
古代美索不達米亞南部的居民
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.
一位古代蘇美人生活在由當地國王統治的城邦中。
indefinite article + Sumerian as countable noun
Iris read that the Sumerians were among the first people to develop a system of writing.
Iris 讀到，蘇美人是最早發展出書寫系統的民族之一。
Sumerians as plural ethnic group
The museum guide showed the class a gold necklace made by a wealthy Sumerian around 2500 BCE.
博物館導覽員向全班展示了一條約西元前2500年由富裕蘇美人製作的金項鍊。
Andrés asked whether ordinary Sumerians could read and write or if that skill was limited to scribes.
Andrés 想知道普通蘇美人是否能夠讀寫，還是這項技能只限於抄寫員。
- 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
蘇美語
無已知親屬語言的古老文字
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.
Eleni 教授花了二十年的時間翻譯泥板上的蘇美語宗教文獻。
collocation: Sumerian religious texts
Very few people in the world today can speak Sumerian, though many scholars can read it.
現今世界上很少有人能說蘇美語，不過許多學者能夠閱讀它。
contrast: speak vs read Sumerian
Aarav learned that Sumerian does not belong to the same language family as Hebrew or Arabic.
Aarav 得知，蘇美語與希伯來語或阿拉伯語並不屬於同一個語系。
The library has a copy of a Sumerian dictionary that lists over five thousand words.
圖書館裡有一本收錄超過五千個單詞的蘇美語詞典複本。
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.