More about the structure of Sumerian language is perhaps relevant as many contemporary thinkers and researchers would say it contains the very essence of their psyche. We do know something of their language and its structure though there is no surviving descendant form of it today. Even Latin still has vestiges in modern languages spoken in various places in the world though no one speaks the original language, at least not conversationally. They had only one word for gender which would have translated roughly as human, though the same word also meant statue, and god.
Latin or Sumerian? Sumerian. Latin is more like our own language than Sumerian was. The later forms of cuneiform, which were even carried on by cultures after the Sumerian, like the Akkadians, would have read something like a rebus does today. Pictograms coupled with phonetic modifications.
What’s a rebus? It’s basically pictures with linguistic cues and modifications of the word.
Eye c u with pictures. Ah, excellent example.
Like charades. Yes, or like math in a way.
Eye sea ewe? Ah, another good example.
Used in games or game shows sometimes.
Just as their language had no future tense, it had no suffixes. It is sort of viewed as a puzzle in today’s world, but originally it would have been simple literacy. In Sumerian things can stand off, but nothing can be standoffish. Things can be green, but not greenish. You can be kind but not kindly. You can go, but you will never be going, not in Sumerian language and thinking. Almost as if they intuited the illusory nature of time, no?
I would love to see someone try to translate German or Hindi into a rebus. Hindi rebus would be way too complex for most people. In fact, their spiritual artwork is a form of rebus, codified in it’s symbolism and structure, and many just see it as unintelligible.
We would be more present moment focused if our language was restricted to it.
The past tense would perhaps just refer to memory or recorded data, rather than rumination. Most of their recorded works and mythology suggests a people very little disposed to any sort of rumination.
Ah, they did have the ability to distinguish between the human and the non-human, which is really a key element of self awareness, or so it’s commonly thought today. Much of this information is still debated today though.
Well, they may have had concepts but just not a word/sign for the concept. Indeed, I struggle to imagine a reason for them to adopt more strictly expressive features when their languages was perfectly functional.
To deceive. Yes. Deception does become easier in an expressive language. Their own methods for dealing with other peoples were rather more direct than how we handle things today.
Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.
Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~