Sumerian language

Sumerian is an ancient language of southern MesopotamiaMesopotamiaA historical region associated with the Tigris and Euphrates, home to many societies and civilisations.Glossary · Click to read the explanation, in present-day IraqIraqIraq is a modern country encompassing much of ancient MesopotamiaGlossary · Click to read the explanation. Clear cuneiformCuneiformWriting with wedge-shaped signs, developed from Mesopotamian recording traditions and used for several languages from the third millennium BCE.Glossary · Click to read the explanation texts attest it from the third millennium BCE. It is a language isolate, with no established relationship to another language, unlike AkkadianAkkadianAn ancient East Semitic language written in cuneiform in Mesopotamia.Glossary · Click to read the explanation, which belongs to the Semitic family. ^[1][2]

Its spoken use declined over time, but it remained a language of learning, literature and ritualRitualAn organised or distinguished practice meaningful to a community; it may leave traces, but its form alone does not reveal an associated doctrine.Glossary · Click to read the explanation. The pictured tablet from the second–first centuries BCE illustrates this: a Sumerian lament with Akkadian translations accompanying many lines. The witness shows the continued learning of an ancient language many centuries after its everyday use. ^[3]