Sumerian language †

Open the encyclopedia PDF (in Russian)

Volume 16. Ancient Relict Languages of the Near East
(The file will be loaded and then opened in a new window or tab on the relevant page)

Genealogy

Isolate

Geography

Main country: Iraq (show on the map)

Area maps from the encyclopedia (in Russian)

Map designer: Yuri Koryakov

Identifiers

Glottolog: sume1241
Grambank: sume1241
ISO-639-3: sux

Features

Phonemic structure

[A‑2]	Vowel height degrees	Close and open [A‑2‑1]
[A‑5]	Presence of length degrees	Present [A‑5‑1]
[A‑6]	Number of length degrees	Two [A‑6‑1]
[A‑7]	Presence of vowel opposition in labialization	Absent [A‑7‑2]
[A‑9]	Presence of vowel opposition in nasalization	Absent [A‑9‑2]
[A‑13]	Diphthongs and triphthongs	No diphthongs and triphthongs [A‑13‑1]
[A‑15]	Inventory of obstruents by laryngeal features	Opposition by aspiration [A‑15‑2]
[A‑16]	Inventory of obstruents by manner of articulation	Plosives, affricates and fricatives [A‑16‑3]
[A‑17]	Inventory of obstruents by place of articulation	Labial, coronal, velar/uvular and laryngeal [A‑17‑4]
[A‑18]	Inventory of labial obstruents by place of articulation	Only bilabial [A‑18‑1]
[A‑19]	Inventory of coronal obstruents by place of articulation	Dental and alveolar [A‑19‑6]
[A‑20]	Inventory of guttural obstruents by place of articulation	Velar [A‑20‑1]
[A‑21]	Inventory of postuvular obstruents by place of articulation	Only glottal [A‑21‑2]
[A‑22]	Additional articulatory oppositions of obstruents	Absent [A‑22‑1]
[A‑23]	Inventory of sonorants by manner of articulation	Nasal, liquid, vibrant and glide [A‑23‑6]
[A‑24]	Inventory of sonorants by place of articulation	Labial, coronal, dorsal and guttural [A‑24‑17]
[A‑25]	Additional articulatory oppositions of sonorants	Absent [A‑25‑1]

Prosodic phenomena

[B‑16]	Target of vowel harmony	Affix [B‑16‑3]
[B‑17]	Feature of vowel harmony	Height [B‑17‑3]
[B‑18]	Trigger of vowel harmony	First vowel of root [B‑18‑3]

Syllable

No filled features for this language.

Phonologic structure and phenomena

No filled features for this language.

Morphological type of language

[E‑1]	Type of language by type of morpheme combination in a word	Agglutinative with some fusional features [E‑1‑2]
[E‑4]	Type of language by degree of morpheme cohesion	Synthetic [E‑4‑5]

Nominal classifications

[F‑1]	Number of agreement classes	No agreement classes [F‑1‑1]
[F‑7]	Nouns classifying categories	Animacy/inanimacy [F‑7‑3]
[F‑9]	Expression of animacy/inanimacy	Lexical and morphological [F‑9‑6]

Number

[G‑1]	Number in nouns	Singular and plural [G‑1‑1]
[G‑4]	Agreement in number	Predicative [G‑4‑2]

Case meanings

[H‑1]	Number of noun cases	Eight-twelve [H‑1‑3]
[H‑4]	Case marking of possessive relations	Genitive [H‑4‑1]
[H‑5]	Other means of expressing possessive relations	Possessive pronouns [H‑5‑4]
[H‑6]	Means of expressing spatial relations	Noun affixes and verbal affixes [H‑6‑8]
[H‑8]	Case marking of animate and inanimate nouns	Same [H‑8‑1]

Verbal categories

[I‑1]	Voice forms expression	Category of voice is absent [I‑1‑1]
[I‑5]	Tense forms	General [I‑5‑6]
[I‑8]	Syncretic expression of several verb meanings	Absent [I‑8‑1]
[I‑10]	Transitivity marker	Absent [I‑10‑1]

Deictic categories

[J‑8]	Expression of negation	Negative affixes [J‑8‑1]
[J‑9]	Negation marker position	Preposition [J‑9‑3]

Parts of speech and inflection

[K‑2]	Articles	No articles [K‑2‑1]
[K‑8]	Verb agreement types	Subject and subject-object [K‑8‑4]
[K‑15]	Attributive agreement types	No attributive agreement [K‑15‑1]
[K‑16]	Inflectional categories of noun	Number and case [K‑16‑7]
[K‑17]	Cumulative expression of several categories in noun	Absent [K‑17‑1]
[K‑18]	Inflection means	Affixes [K‑18‑2]
[K‑19]	Word form model	Prefixal-suffixal [K‑19‑1]

Word formation

[L‑1]	Word formation means	Conversion, reduplication and compounding [L‑1‑18]
[L‑2]	Derivation affixes	Prefixes and suffixes [L‑2‑3]
[L‑3]	Stems relations in stem compounding	Apposition and subordination [L‑3‑5]

Simple sentence

[M‑1]	Morphosyntactic alignment	Ergative [M‑1‑5]
[M‑3]	Dominant word order	SOV [M‑3‑2]
[M‑4]	Order of nouns and its modifier	Modifier follows noun [M‑4‑2]
[M‑5]	Pro-drop	Possible [M‑5‑1]

Complex sentence

[N‑4]	Compound sentence types	Subordination and compounding [N‑4‑4]
[N‑5]	Compound sentence syndesis and asyndeton	Both syndesis and asyndeton possible [N‑5‑3]

Unfilled features

The encyclopedia contains no information

[A-1] Number of degrees of vowel height
[A-3] Opposition in openness/closedness for vowel height degrees
[A-4] Degrees of vowel backness
[A-11] Vowel opposition in pharyngealization
[A-12] Vowel opposition in ATR
[A-26] Inventory of fricatives by place of articulation
[B-1] Basic prosodic unit
[B-2] Prosodic unit carrier
[B-3] Character of prosodic unit by its choice
[B-4] Stress type (quality characteristics)
[B-5] Stress fixedness
[B-6] Fixed stress types
[B-7] Stress pattern in inflection
[B-8] Strictly fixed stress type (by position in a word)
[B-9] Limited stress carriers
[B-10] Tonema types
[B-11] Number of level tones
[B-12] Level tone types
[B-13] Number of contour tone levels
[B-14] Contour tonema types
[B-15] Length character
[B-19] Other suprasegmental phenomena
[B-20] Types of phonation
[C-1] Syllable onset
[C-2] Syllable coda
[C-3] Consonant clusters in syllable
[D-1] Restrictions on the phonemic structure in the initial position
[D-2] Types of restrictions on the phonemic structure in the initial position
[D-3] Restrictions on the phonemic structure in the final position
[D-4] Types of restrictions on the phonemic structure in the final position
[D-5] Variants of characteristics of the syllabic structure of words
[D-6] Differences between content and function words
[D-7] Types of differences between content and function words
[D-8] Differences between native and borrowed words
[D-9] Types of differences between native and borrowed words
[D-10] Differences between roots and affixes
[D-11] Types of differences between roots and affixes
[D-12] Functional type of alternations
[D-13] Type of altenations
[E-2] Fusional type features
[E-3] Agglutinative type features
[F-5] Attributive agreement in gender
[F-6] Agreement of cardinal numerals in gender
[F-8] Opposition by person/non-person
[G-2] Single number marking
[G-3] Honorific forms in pronouns and verbs
[G-5] Form of a noun in numeral phrases
[G-6] Numeral system
[H-2] Subject and object marking
[H-3] Case of nominal predicate
[H-7] Dependent nouns in possessive constructions
[H-9] Secondary cases
[I-9] Marking of person in present tense verbs
[J-1] Pronominal words
[J-2] Expression of deictic categories
[J-3] Function words expressing spatial orientation of action
[J-4] Content words expressing spatial orientation of action
[J-5] Morphological expression of (in)definiteness
[J-6] Words expressing (in)definiteness
[J-7] Grammatical ways to express politeness
[K-1] Personal pronouns inflection
[K-7] Number of conjugation types
[K-9] Agreement categories expressed in participle
[K-10] Tense expressed by participle
[K-11] Adverb grammar categories
[K-12] Agreement categories expressed in adjective
[K-13] Cumulative expression of several categories in adjective
[K-14] Attribute agreement of adjectives
[M-2] Word order fixedness
[N-1] Clauses order in compound sentence
[N-2] Dependent clause distinctions in complex sentences
[N-3] Dependent clause predicate

Feature is not applicable to this language

[A-8] Vowel opposition in labialization
[A-10] Vowel opposition in nasalization
[A-14] Types of diphthongs
[F-2] Morphological expression of agreement classes
[F-3] Syntactic expression of agreement classes
[F-4] Other means of expressing agreement classes
[I-2] Voice stacking in the same verb form
[I-3] Double voice forms
[I-4] Voice forms coincidence
[I-6] Aspect and tense expression
[I-7] Expression of tense categories
[K-3] Indefinite article and numeral 'one'
[K-4] Article place
[K-5] Position of article in noun phrase
[K-6] Grammar categories of article