hi! so, i read that the sumerian word for lion is "urmah", and i'm a little confused why the word for dog would be used in that? is ur more a general "animal" prefix that just happens to mean "dog" on its own, or is there a specific reason the sumerians called so many animals dogs? (besides them being dog people, of course)
Hi there! Ur 𒌨 in Sumerian does mean “dog”, but can also mean “carnivorous animal” in general, and it’s used as the base of the names of a bunch of other animals, including:
urbarra 𒌨𒁇𒊏 “wolf” (“outside dog”)
urmah 𒌨𒈤 or urgula 𒌨𒄖𒆷 “lion” (both meaning “great dog”)
urdib 𒌨𒁳 or urnim 𒌨𒉏 “lion cub” ( “early dog”)
ura 𒌨𒀀 “otter” (“water dog”)
urki 𒌨𒆠 “badger” (“earth dog”)
uridim 𒌨𒅂 “wild dog, rabid dog” (“wild dog”)
urbigu 𒌨𒁉𒅥 “jackal” (“eating-everything dog”)
urbigu 𒌨𒁉𒅥𒄷 “vulture” (“jackal bird”)
urshub 𒌨𒍤𒆸 “tiger, cheetah” (“dog (in the) rushes”)
urshubkuda 𒌨𒍤𒆸𒋻𒁕 “leopard” (“dog (in the) cut-short rushes”)
…plus, of course, words like urtur 𒌨𒌉 “puppy”, urgir 𒌨𒆪 “watchdog”, and ursaga “pampered dog”, whose exact cuneiform I can’t find, but which I just had to include.
As to why the Sumerians used a (commonly encountered) animal as the basis for the names of other animals, all I can say is that a lot of languages do this! It’s especially true in languages that use extensive compounding, like Sumerian and German — a number of German animal names are based on Tier “animal”, including Stinktier (“stink animal”, skunk), Gürteltier (“belt animal”, armadillo), Schnabeltier (“beak animal”, platypus), and Faultier (“lazy animal”, sloth).
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