Re: Origin of the Sumerian language

On Tue, 17 Jun 2003 22:16:29 +0000, Richard Wordingham
<richard.wordingham@...> wrote:

>--- In Nostratica@yahoogroups.com, Miguel Carrasquer <mcv@...>
>wrote:
>
>> The Sumerians were, as far as we know, the first people to device
>a writing
>> system for their language. It was emphatically *not* an alphabet.
>> Sumerian writing is logographic, as is well known.
>
>Isn't it partially a syllabary?

Later Sumerian and Akkadian writing is, to use the technical term,
logosyllabic.

Peter T. Daniels (of "The World's Writing Systems") has stated something to
the effect that writing systems are only be created "ex nihilo" for
languages that are largely monosyllabic (such as Sumerian, Old Chinese,
Mixe-Zoque). I would agree with that.


=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...