Sumerian was the first language to be put into writing (ca. 3200–3100 BCE), and it is the language for which the cuneiform script was originally developed. Even after it was supplanted by Akkadian as the primary spoken language in ancient Mesopotamia, Sumerian continued to be used as a scholarly written language until the end of the first millennium BCE. This volume presents the first comprehensive English-language scholarly lexicon of Sumerian. This dictionary covers all the nuances of meaning for Sumerian terms found in historical inscriptions and literary, administrative, and lexical texts dating from about 2500 BCE to the first century BCE. The entries are organized by transcription and are accompanied by the transliteration and translation of passages in which the term occurs and, where relevant, a discussion of the word’s treatment in other publications. Main entries bring together all the parts of speech and compound forms for the Sumerian term and present each part of speech
