This week’s Sumerian sign is a is a2-ĝal2, which means to be strong. As you can see, the word is written with a combination of two signs. The first, a2, means arm (which you may remember from last week). The second, ĝal2, means to exist or to have/put.
You might have noticed that there are a lot of Sumerian verbs that kinda function like adjectives. They don’t mean to do [something], but instead they mean to be [something]. For example, kalag means to be mighty. To make these verbs behave like adjectives, stick them after a noun and add -a at the end. So to say mighty man you’d say lu kalaga.
This might seem a little strange, since there aren’t many adjective-ish (no this is obviously not a formal linguistic term) verbs in English.
The most obvious example of an English verb that behaves like this is a commonly used slang word: suck.
Think about it. When we say “This sucks,” we’re not describing an action. We’re describing a characteristic. To suck (slang) really means to be really bad.
And this adjective-like verb can take an ending to become a proper adjective: -y. As in, “This is kind of sucky.”
So our languages aren’t all that different, really.
As always, the cuneiform comes from the Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary.
