Sumerian language
| Sumerian | |
|---|---|
| ð’…´ð’‚ eme-gir15 | |
 | |
| Native to | Sumer and Akkad |
| Region | Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) |
| Era | Attested from c. 2900 BC. Went out of vernacular use around 1700 BC; used as a classical language until about 100 AD. |
| Dialects |
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| Cuneiform | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | sux |
| ISO 639-3 | sux |
| Glottolog | sume1241 |
Sumerian (Sumerian: 𒅴𒂠, romanized: eme-gir15, lit. 'native language') was the language of ancient Sumer. It is the oldest attested language, dating back to at least 3100 BC, perhaps earlier. It is a local language isolate, thus unrelated to any other known language, that was spoken exclusively in ancient Mesopotamia, in the area that is now modern-day Iraq.
Sumerian is read from left to right, from the top; however early inscriptions were read top to bottom from the right.
Akkadian, a Semitic language, gradually replaced Sumerian as the primary spoken language in the area c. 2000 BC (the exact date is debated), but Sumerian continued to be used as a sacred, ceremonial, literary, and scientific language in Akkadian-speaking Mesopotamian states, such as Assyria and Babylonia, until the 1st century AD. Thereafter, it seems to have fallen into obscurity until the 19th century, when Assyriologists began deciphering the cuneiform inscriptions and excavated tablets that had been left by its speakers.
In spite of its extinction, Sumerian exerted a significant influence on the languages of the area. The cuneiform script, originally used for Sumerian, was widely adopted by numerous regional languages such as its fellow Mesopotamian Akkadian, as well as Elamite, Eblaite, Amorite, Hittite, Hurrian, Luwian, Aramaic and Urartian; it similarly inspired the Old Persian alphabet which was used to write the eponymous language. The influence was perhaps the greatest on Akkadian, whose grammar and vocabulary were significantly influenced by Sumerian, and vice versa.