hey, sorry if i'm asking too many questions over the past few days, i've recently gotten into learning about Sumerian and it's become my latest fixation! your blog is a massive help with learning!
i was hoping you'd be down to check out if i have the cuneiform and meanings for this name for a character correct—
so the character's name is Igishaha Nuzida. His name being igishaha 𒅆𒂄𒀀 "(one with the) face (of a) pig" or simply "pig-face", named such because he is quite ugly and resembles a pig, and having the epithet of nuzida 𒉡𒍣𒀀 "(the) dishonest (one)", which he was given as a result of his reputation as a deceiver.
would this be correct? do epithets come before or after the name? i assume after since adjectives come after the noun and epithets are adjectival phrases.
Hello, and you’ve mostly got it! Igishaha 𒅆𒂄𒀀 would mean “face of a pig”, exactly as you said.
Nuzida would mean something like “not being honest” - it’s a nominalized verb phrase operating as an adjective or adverb. (It could also mean “unstrengthened” or “unreinforced”, as in the sides of a wall or levee.) Instead, I’d use lutumu, a beautiful Sumerian word that literally means “wind-person” - i.e., a person who speaks wind rather than truths. It thus means “dishonest person, liar, fraudster”, and is written 𒇽𒅎 in cuneiform.
As for the ordering, “epithets” don’t operate as strictly in Sumerian as they do in a language like Greek, and both phrases here are nouns. I could see either igishaha lutumu “pig-face, the liar” or a reorder as lutumu igishahada “the liar with a pig’s face”. The only epithet with strict ordering in Sumerian (and ordering that breaks the noun-adjective rule) is kug “blessed, holy, shining”, which always comes before the name (usually of a deity) that it describes.
