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Sumerian and Akkadian and Cuneiform | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| aloysius Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6182 days ago 226 posts - 291 votes  Speaks: Swedish*, English, German Studies: French, Greek, Italian, Russian | Message 9 of 49 08 September 2011 at 9:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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Just wanted you to know - I'm reading as well and with great interest, although I'm a long way from embarking upon such a project myself. I read the book by Ola Wikander on dead languages and it sparked an interest, but I very much doubt I ever gonna reach further back than Latin and Greek.
The clay thing is definitely an added spice in the age of ipads and kindles. Looking forward to reading about your progress! //aloysius 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Hampie Diglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 6601 days ago 625 posts - 1009 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Latin, German, Mandarin | Message 10 of 49 15 September 2011 at 7:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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Okay, so, today I’ve installed an Akkadian keyboard layout. This means I can write out those pesky diacritics and
odd sounds. Ṭāḍā! Lōōk wḫāṭ I cān wrīṭē! So, Akkadian adjectives don’t behave like Latin ones. That made me sad. Latin seems easy compared to this… So, some words base a ‹hidden› vowel somewhere, and you have to learn that by heart if you would want to use the language actively or just realise it when you’re reading texts. The king who united the Baylonian empire and made the Hammurapi codex laws (which all are basically ‹if a man does this, insert something, he shall be killed›), my teacher said, liked to call himself the noble king. Noble king in Akkadian is šarrum gitmālum. Let’s look at it in the other cases and numbers as well: singular, then plural nom. šarrum gitmālum šarrū gitmālūtum ack. šarram gitmālām šarrī gitmālūtim gen šarrim gitmālim šarrī gitmālūtim As you can see, in the plural number, the accusative and the genitive collide: this is called the oblique case. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5204 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 11 of 49 15 September 2011 at 8:09pm | IP Logged | ||
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I would love to see Akkadian text typed out in "virtual cuneiform". That would rock! (pun intended)
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| Hampie Diglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 6601 days ago 625 posts - 1009 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Latin, German, Mandarin | Message 12 of 49 15 September 2011 at 8:22pm | IP Logged | ||
Easy task, but, you’d have to install a Unicode font that can display them. Here’s the first law on the Hammurapi stele: http://oracc.museum.upenn.ed u/knp/cuneiformrevealed/textstoread/law1/ 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Alexander86 Tetraglot Senior Member United Kingdom alanguagediary.blogs Joined 4923 days ago 224 posts - 323 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German, Catalan Studies: Swedish | Message 13 of 49 15 September 2011 at 8:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hej! Just thought I'd leave a note to say keep up the good work! It's excellent to read
about someone doing this kind of language. I mean Latin is one thing... But Akkadian! Ace! It reminds me of the Old Church Slavonic blog on here. I think I would only ever learn Old Norse.. hmm... Learning Akkadian is cool =) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Steelinho Newbie Japan Joined 4934 days ago 6 posts - 6 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Afrikaans, German, Spanish | Message 14 of 49 16 September 2011 at 4:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've only just stumbled onto this log and I'm really intrigued to see how you fare. Seems
to me like a fascinating language and I've love to see you succeed. Good luck! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Hampie Diglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 6601 days ago 625 posts - 1009 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Latin, German, Mandarin | Message 15 of 49 16 September 2011 at 4:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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Today I learned that possession is a damned hard thing in Akkadian. There’s three ways, at least, to show
possession. Wardum ilim, warad ilim, and wardum ša ilim. All meaning the god’s servant, or the servant of god. They all have some stylistic variation to them, but, come on? The most common way is to use the ‹construct› form, which is a shorter case-ending-less form of a word, that, just to be cute and evil, is not identical to the regular form with the ending cut of, thus: wardum, slave, becomes warad. Oh, may Ištar have mercy upon my soul :P. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Hampie Diglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 6601 days ago 625 posts - 1009 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Latin, German, Mandarin | Message 16 of 49 22 September 2011 at 3:41am | IP Logged | ||
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Today I learned the horrors of the Semitiv triconsonantal root. For some reason the John Doe of roots that were
chosen was… PRS! PRS means, or well, has the meaning of ‹to divide› in some way. The infinitive is thus PaRāS-um and the third person singular common-gender is iPRuS. There is supposed to be logic in here, but, yet it eludes me. The verbal system of semitic languages… man! And Akkadian seem to have more damned forms of the verbs than Ancient Greek does… in a +infinitive in genitive = while doing verb. Good to know. So, also, today is my birthday! Wohoo! As of yet, though, I’m still stressed like h*ll and my anti-depressive medication has yet to kick in fully. Depression, stress and birthday parties are a bad combination for language learning. Also a book I want is out of print and expensive. I’m making good progress in writing in cuneiform on clay. I’ve bough modelling clay, I think I’ve mentioned that’ and I got a stylus from uni and I can make readable signs now. Though they’re still not as neat as I want them to be. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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