| Sumerian Glossary Link & Pronunciation Guide Notes to accompany my fictional stories. Anomalies used in my stories are marked * [ ] * by James W. Bell © 2003 |
| Patrick C. Ryan has a good one-page online Sumerian Glossary which you can access by clicking here. It should be noted that Ryan alphabetizes by the Sumerian alphabet which is somewhat different from English. Sumerian words are indexed in the following order: English Ryan A (Pronounced 'ah' as in ‘father’) A B (Pronounced 'b' as in ‘ball’) B D (Pronounced 'd' as in ‘dog’) D E (Pronounced 'eh' as in ‘bend’) E G (Pronounced 'g' as in ‘go’) G G (Pronounced 'gw' as in ‘gwen’) G[~]2 G (Pronounced 'ng' as in ‘thing’) (N)G[~]3 H (Pronounced 'h' as in ‘hat’) H I (Pronounced 'ee' as in ‘see’) I K (Pronounced 'k' as in ‘kick’) K L (Pronounced 'l' as in ‘low’) L M (Pronounced 'm' as in ‘man’) M N (Pronounced 'n' as in ‘no’) N P (Pronounced 'p' as in ‘pet') P R (Pronounced 'r' as in ‘red’) R S (Pronounced 's' as in ‘sew’) S S (Pronounced 'sh' as in ‘sure’) Š T (Pronounced 't' as in ‘top’) T U (Pronounced 'oo' as in ‘moon’) U Z (Pronounced 'z' as in ‘zoo’) Z Sumerian syllables tend to be evenly accented with a slight stress on certain syllables, according to the number of syllables in a word. In two syllable words, the stress occurs on the first syllable. In four syllable words, the stress occurs on the third syllable. In three syllable words, the stress occurs on the first or second syllable. Written Pronounced One Syllable Words kur koor Sin Seen Two Syllable Words Abzu Ahb'-zoo Anu Ahn'-u Enki Ehn'-kee Enlil Ehn'-leel galla gah'-lah Shamash Shah'-mahsh sukkal soo'-kahl Uruk Oo'-rook Three Syllable Words Dumuzi Doo-moo'-zee Gilgamesh Geel'-gah-mesh Inanna Ee'-nahn-nah Nisaba Nee-Sah'-bah Four Syllable Words Ereshkigal Eh-resh-kee'-gahl Geshtinanna Gesh-tee-nahn'-nah *[ In my stories, as a fiction writer, I sometimes tack an ‘a’ onto the end of a name to indicate feminine gender. This is my own contrivance. Sumerians never used suffixes to indicate gender. ]* |