#sumerian children

[sumerianlanguage]

Silim!

I’m aware you’ve been asked a similar question in the past, but for the sake of (Sumerian!) grammatical/word-order correctness, I have a polite query:

How does one say, “child (born) of the prince/ss,” or “child (born) of Ereshkigal” in Sumerian (but not cuneiform, just transliterated English letters, plz)?

I figured the word-order would be something like the examples listed below:

Dumu-nun-tud-da, Dumu-nun-tu-da, Dumu-nun-dú-da (dumu ‘(noun) child, son, daughter, descendant’ + nun ‘(noun) prince/ss, noble, master/mistress’ + tud, tu, dú ‘(verb) to be born’ + -da, genitive)

Hi! You've found the right vocabulary, but are just a little off on the grammar.

For just a noun phrase like this, the simplest to do is dumu "child" + [name/noun] + genitive case ending -(a)(k) "of". Plugging in nun "prince", you'd get dumununa "child of the prince". Nun is usually used for a male prince; for "princess" I'd use egir, which is more specific, in dumuegira. "Child of Ereshkigal" would follow the same pattern, dumuEreshkigala. Note also that if the noun ends in a vowel, the final -a of the genitive ending disappears: dumuUtu "child of Utu".

If you want to use tud "be born", the set phrase structure is dumu + [name] + directive case ending -(e) + tud-da. "Child born of the prince" would thus be dumu nune tudda, "child born of the princess" would be dumu egire tudda, and "child born of Ereshkigal" is dumu Ereshkigale tudda. That final -e also disappears after a vowel, so dumu Utu tudda (as it appears in the Hymn to Nanše A line 85).

The interaction of verbs like tud with the different cases in Sumerian can be confusing. I hope that's clear, and let me know if I can clarify in any way!

[sumerianlanguage]

I do a lot of Dungeons & Dragons, and I have fairly regularly used the conceit that various cultures draw from various real-world historical cultures and languages.

There is a species in D&D called "dragonborn". I decided that Sumerian would be a reasonable source for this species (especially given some of the lore associated with this group as having had a major empire in the deep past), e.g. I use names from the Sumerian king list for dragonborn characters. (Dragonborn are humanoids who were created by or descended long ago from real dragons.)

But "dragonborn" is incredibly bland and generic and of course would not reflect their own name for themselves. So I found a Sumerian vocabulary list (transliterated not cuneiform), and found "ushu, ushud" for dragon, and a word for "slave", or "servant" or something like that, which seemed to be interpretable as "lower class born", with a -tud element in the last place. I was way out on a limb here, but I combined the two to make "ushutud", which is at least a lot more interesting than "dragonborn".

So the question is: What would you suggest for a Sumerian noun that has similar meanings and connotations as "dragonborn"?

Thanks!

Hello! I'm not sure what wordlist you're using but it's slightly off - the word I know for "dragon" is ushum or ushumgal ("great ushum"). (Ushu means "caterpillar" or "sunset, eveningtime" depending how it's written, and ushud would mean something like "prayer pasture").

Tud is a verb meaning "to be born" (along with other meanings), and it is used at the end of a few words meaning "born as..." - for example, an amaatud (or emedu) was a slave born (tud) to an enslaved mother (ama), in contrast to someone enslaved at a later point; while an urtud was a type of domestic slave or indentured servant, perhaps one who was born in debt (ur) and would work until the debt was paid off. I could see it being used for "born of...", but my first thought on seeing ushumtud would be that it's a "person enslaved due to having a dragon for a parent".

Instead, the more neutral (and frequently-used) way I'd express this uses dumu, the word for "child" or "descendant", as the root noun. My translation would be dumu-ushuma or dumu-ushumgala "descendant of dragon(s)".

Or a worldbuilding thought - dumu-ushumgala could work as the neutral-to-positive general term ("dragonborn"), while ushumtud can coexist as a derogatory term ("dragonspawn"?) Thanks for your question, and let me know if that works for you!

[sumerianlanguage]

Is there a way to say song/lullaby in Sumerian? Are there any significant/famous songs or lullabies from sumer? or mesopotamia in general?

Silim! Yes, the word for “lullaby” in Sumerian is ua, written

The most common word for “song” in Sumerian is shir, written

although sometimes you see ad, meaning “voice, sound,” also used for “song”

We do know of a number of songs in Sumerian, including one lullaby! It’s the Lullaby for Shulgi’s Son, the most famous part of which goes

Usa nganu, usa nganu,                Sleep come, sleep come,

Usa nganu ki dumunashe,           Sleep come to my son,

Usa kulu ki dumunashe.              Sleep run to my son.

Igi badbadani u kunib,                 Put sleep in his open eyes,

Igi gunani shuzu shuzu ngarbi.     Put your hand to his brilliant eyes.

U eme za malilikani                      And to his muttering tongue

Za maallili u nagule.                      May the muttering not break his sleep.

You can find a Sumerian version of the full lullaby here, and an English translation here. Unfortunately the later part of the lullaby is fragmentary, and, of course, we don’t know the lullaby’s tune.