Прото-шумерский субстрат: Язык Убейдской культуры

The search for connections between the Sumerian language is of great interest. There have been several attempts to do this.

This article attempts to compare the Sumerian language with others based on the reconstruction of the supposed Ubaid substrate language in Sumerian. To do this, the Sumerian language is compared with other languages that existed at the same time.

Thus, it becomes clear which languages were spoken by the peoples of the Ubaid culture and formed the pre-Sumerian substratum.

Ubaid aeneolithic archaeological culture was 6–4 thousands years ago in the south of modern Iraq. This was the most important culture in the Middle East for the creation of civilization. It was the culture that preceded the Uruk culture — that of the Sumerians themselves. People of the Ubaid culture spoke a language that was absorbed by Sumerian people and left a trace in the form of Pre-Sumerian substratum. At that time civilization was emerging on the territory of the fertile crescent.

During this era, the Middle East was inhabited by various prehistoric peoples who spoke extinct languages. Some of these cultures strongly influenced each other and mixed together. The largest and most interesting cultures to the north of Mesopotamia were the Halaf and Hassuna-Samarra. The people who lived here were in deep cultural, economic, and technological contact with other parts of the world like the Caucasus, Anatolia, and Iran. They had an intensive trade exchange. They had a great influence on the Ubaid culture, which at a later stage absorbed them into one large archaeological culture. Thus, all the major archaeological cultures of the Neolithic Near East were combined into one culture.

This fact gives us the opportunity to compare the languages that could have originated on the territory of ancient Mesopotamia with each other. Around 3100 BC, the great flood occurred, marking the end of the Ubaid culture. The Jemdet Nasr culture is already a proto-Sumerian archaeological culture of the Uruk circle. What happened to the lands north of Ubaid after the flood?

In later Mesopotamian sources, these lands are known as the land of Subartu. In the historical era, the Hurrians lived here, they created several kingdoms. The Hurrian language belongs to the Hurro-Urartian language family. These languages existed parallel to Sumerian. If they had co-existed within the Ubaid culture, they would have had a strong cultural influence. It would have covered religion and mythology at an early stage. The names of some deities could match. The supreme god of heaven in the Sumerian religion is An. Interestingly, it is interchangeable with the word denoting any god Dingir. They are even indicated by a single icon in Cuneiform. In the Hurrian language, the word god is Eni

They have other interesting parallels, including in the Swadesh list. The Sumerian word for date zulum has a cognate in the Hurrian language is zilumba and, more interestingly, in the Nakh-Dagestanian proto-language is *ʒ́ulamV

Let's take a look at some of the roots from the statistical list.

Hurrian erwi

These are the words from the Swadesh list. They are borrowed only as a result of ancient contacts, when one language forms a substrate for another.

This indicates early contacts between the Hurrians and the Sumerians.

In the historical era, the Sumerians had extensive ties with the Semites who inhabited northern Mesopotamia. First of all, these were the Eastern Semites, known as the Akkadians.

Subsequently, the two ethnic groups united to form a single population in Mesopotamia. Sumero-Semitic relations went both ways and for the most part date back to the period of the existence of Sumer and Akkad. Let's look at them.

Akkadian palûm

Akkadian epinnum ‛plow’ from Sumerian apin. Akkadian kārum ‛marina’ from Sumerian kar. Agricultural terms mostly came from Sumerian into Akkadian, as the ancient Semites were nomads.

Akkadian tappûm ‛fellow’ comes from Sumerian tab‐ba. Here we see the typical Akkadian ending -um.

Akkadian šatukkum ‛regular sacrifices’ from Sumerian sá‐du11(g)

Akkadian šangum ‛temple administrator’ from Sumerian sanga.

Akkadian isinnum ‛holiday’ from ezen. Religious terms and temple vocabulary also go back to Sumerian. The Akkadians were greatly influenced by the Sumerians in temple construction.

Akkadian paššūrum

Semitic *haykal

Some words came from Akkadian into Sumerian.

Sumerian silim ‛healthy, prosperous’ from Akkadian šalim. The Sumerian word "silim" contains a Semitic root meaning peace, health, and prosperity that appears in many languages and is also used as a greeting among Semitic peoples.

Sumerian sagi ‛cupbearer’ from Akkadian Šāqûm. A kind of royal official came from the Akkadian language, in Akkad the royal power was formed earlier than in Sumer.

Sumerian ar‐za‐na

Sumerian zabalum ‛juniper’ from Akkadian Sapālum.

Sumerian word ezen

Sumerian word báhar

Most of these contacts are quite recent and occurred in the historical era. There are quite a few Proto-Semitic borrowings in Sumerian and vice versa.

Also, Igor Diakonoff made a proposal about Proto-Tigrid languages that was substratum in Sumerian language. He called them Banana languages because they have a structure like the English word "banana" -C1V1C2V2C2V2

This feature is also inherent in Semitic languages. We can see it in the Akkadian demon's name Pazuzu. We can also find this structure in West Semitic languages like names Wanunu, in Arabic name Habibi. Perhaps, Huwawa is name for Lebanese giant monster who protect the Cedars forest, had semitic origin. It is found in the epic of Gilgamesh. Thus, the Proto-Tigrid substratum can be explained simply by borrowings from Semitic languages.

The Elamites are the oldest population of southwestern Iran. They were located on high ground in relation to Mesopotamia, so they were called an elevated place.

That's why their country was called the sublime land. Nim-ma ki

An important question is whether the Elamites lived in Mesopotamia during the Ubaid culture. In other words, could they have formed a pre-Sumerian substrate?

To do this, we need to pay attention to geography during the Ubaid culture. At that time, the water level in the Persian Gulf was higher. And the Ubaid culture did not directly border on Elam.

This raises the question of how the Elamites described the names of places in Mesopotamia. Did they have an idea of the structure of these lands based on their own language, or did they borrow them from the Sumerian language?

Mesopotamia consists of two rivers, the eastern Tigris River. So let's take a look at the name of the Tigris River in Sumerian Idigna. This word came from two roots Id and Igina that means faster river. This word came from Sumerian into Elamite and became the word Ti-ig-ra

Let's take a look at some other similarities between them. There are late borrowings from Sumerian into Elamite, such as the word lord in Sumerian en, in Elamite in, as the name of the patron god Susa Inshushinak. These borrowings were probably made while borrowing Cuneiform. But we will examine the early connections.

Sumerian word for eye Igi, also in sumerian dialect eme sal ibi, in Elamite elti

Sumerian word for love ki-ga-aĝ2, love in Elamite hanik

Sumerian word for to breathe zi, Elamite zur-zur. The word breath in both languages can be onomatopoeic.

These few coincidences cover the most basic layers of vocabulary. They may also have overlaps in other proto-languages. This suggests that the Elamites were not a people in the Ubaid culture and their language did not form a substratum in the Sumerian language.

Considering the pre-Sumerian substratum, we compared it with the well-known language families of the Middle East of that time. There were three of them, and we examined their connections with Sumerian. These are Semitic, Hurrian-Urartian and Elamite.

We have managed to isolate a layer of borrowings. The general vocabulary layer is divided into two periods, early and late. Most of the borrowings belong to the late period. These are, for example, Sumero-Akkadian loanwords that have no analogues in other Semitic languages.

But we also managed to isolate a layer of early borrowings that may relate to the period of the Ubaid culture. On the basis of which we have made a conclusion about the ethnic population of Mesopotamia of that period.

Some researchers have suggested that the Sumerians did not live in Mesopotamia at all before the flood. However, we can definitely conclude that the Sumerians lived as part of the Ubaid culture. And even before the flood, they definitely played an important role in the ethnogenesis of the inhabitants of Mesopotamia.

The flood is mentioned in Sumerian literature. Alulim, the name of the first ruler who lived before the flood, has a Sumerian etymology. Also, the oldest city of the Eridu Interfluve, which existed during the time of the Ubaid culture, has a translation from the Sumerian language. The name of the Tigris river has Sumerian roots, and it is still used in modern languages.

Nevertheless, the influence of other Mesopotamian peoples on the Sumerians is evident. Moreover, it should be noted that at a certain stage, the Ubaid culture encompassed several neighboring cultures such as Halaf and Hassuna-Samarra, thus covering Mesopotamia. And first of all, the peoples living in the Two Rivers show early connections with the Sumerians.

Of course, we are talking about the Hurrian-Urartian peoples, who influenced the early Sumerian language. We have seen this with examples. Moreover, some words of unclear etymology, which seemed to be the legacy of an unknown language in the pre-Sumerian substratum, fit the Hurrian borrowings. This indicates the early contact of these languages.

We also examined the connections of the Sumerian language with the Semitic ones. Despite the fact that most of them are of a late nature, there are also early borrowings. Although they are inferior in number to the Hurrian-Urartian, they are also interesting. Some of them may fit the description of Proto-Tigrid languages, which are distinguished as part of the pre-Sumerian substratum in Mesopotamia. This suggests that they also interacted with the Ubaid culture.

Finally, Sumerian-Elamite connections. We also managed to study them. They are few but very interesting. The Elamites borrowed the names of Mesopotamian place names from the Sumerians. These are probably late borrowings.

But there are several similar words in the early layer of vocabulary. They probably belong to the most archaic layer of vocabulary and are similar to words in other languages, therefore they cannot belong to the layer of the Ubaid culture.

So, after analyzing the general layer of vocabulary, we come to the conclusion that the Hurrians were the most likely neighbor of the Sumerians in the Ubaid culture. More precisely, the Hurrian-Urartian tribes at an early stage of their development.

They left their mark in the Sumerian language in the form of a substratum.