# Englund's Sumerian name elements are not rarer in the archaic names than elsewhere in the corpus > Of 540 legible editor-marked names, 12.4% contain a sign from Englund's own list of Sumerian name elements, against a null median of 9.8% (95%… Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/evidence/EVD0DFQSJB59Z1F/englunds-sumerian-name-elements-are-not-rarer-in-the-archaic Publisher: Mysteries Department Licence: CC BY 4.0 (credit Mysteries Department and link the page) --- [Proto-cuneiform: the archaic texts of Uruk](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform)Evidence Evidence · Proto-cuneiform: the archaic texts of Uruk # Englund's Sumerian name elements are not rarer in the archaic names than elsewhere in the corpus Of 540 legible editor-marked names, 12.4% contain a sign from Englund's own list of Sumerian name elements, against a null median of 9.8% (95%: 7.4–12.4%) for pseudo-names drawn from Uruk III administrative entries; the token odds ratio is 1.35 (95% cluster bootstrap 1.09–1.60), and against entries on the same tablets it is 0.97 (0.70–1.38). Supported0 ## What it means Key question[What language, if any, do the proto-cuneiform texts record?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/questions/QST0DEDT73JJJ1B/what-language-if-any-do-the-proto-cuneiform-texts-record) 5 answers, none ahead yet **Open** unchanged Part of it[Do the roughly 440 personal names in the archaic texts follow Sumerian, Semitic or some other naming pattern?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/questions/QST0DEDTDFDF2VV/do-the-roughly-440-personal-names-in-the-archaic-texts) 5 answers, none ahead yet **Open** unchanged Answer this evidence bears on[The names avoid Sumerian name elements (Englund)](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/answers/ANS0DFQRTBS5NZP/the-names-avoid-sumerian-name-elements-englund) Counts againstnone for, 1 against **Still possible** was No evidence yet What it implies 1. The names argument can no longer be cited as a measured deficit of Sumerian elements; at most it is an absence of clearly Sumerian name shapes.For: Do the roughly 440 personal names in the archaic texts follow Sumerian, Semitic or some other naming pattern? 1. One of the three supports for Englund's agnosticism about the scribes' language is weaker than stated; the other two (no phonetic spellings in Uruk IV, numeral-before-noun order) are untouched.For the key question: What language, if any, do the proto-cuneiform texts record? ## Next steps 12 1 Screen continuity matches against archaic lexical spellings Adds evidenceGood odds~2 h [On: Do the roughly 440 personal names in the archaic texts follow Sumerian, Semitic or some other naming pattern?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/questions/QST0DEDTDFDF2VV/do-the-roughly-440-personal-names-in-the-archaic-texts) **20** score Details Go through the 27 matched archaic-to-ED names. Drop any that depend on a spelling first attested after ED I-II, such as the EN.E2 spelling of Enlil, and rerun the null comparison. If the excess over the null holds, continuity stands. 2 Archive-level name profiles Adds evidenceGood odds~3 h [On: Do the roughly 440 personal names in the archaic texts follow Sumerian, Semitic or some other naming pattern?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/questions/QST0DEDTDFDF2VV/do-the-roughly-440-personal-names-in-the-archaic-texts) **19** score Details Compare the full sign profiles of Schøyen/Brussels names and excavated Jemdet Nasr/Uruk names (shared vocabulary, Jensen-Shannon distance against a permutation null) to see whether they form two distinct naming populations. 3 Per-match chance calibration Adds evidenceGood odds~3 h [On: Do the roughly 440 personal names in the archaic texts follow Sumerian, Semitic or some other naming pattern?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/questions/QST0DEDTDFDF2VV/do-the-roughly-440-personal-names-in-the-archaic-texts) **19** score Details For each matched name, estimate the probability of a chance match from the frequency of its signs in ordinary entries and in Early Dynastic names, and rank the matches by strength. 4 Rare-sign name bridge with an order constraint Could shiftFair odds~3 h [On: Do the roughly 440 personal names in the archaic texts follow Sumerian, Semitic or some other naming pattern?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/questions/QST0DEDTDFDF2VV/do-the-roughly-440-personal-names-in-the-archaic-texts) **19** score Details Repeat the bridge only for archaic names that contain a sign occurring in under 1% of names, weighting each match by how unlikely it is under the shuffle null. A surplus there would point to real survivals; none would leave the names with no route to a reading. Ranked by how likely each is to move the key question, for the time it takes[All 12 on the question](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/questions/QST0DEDTDFDF2VV/do-the-roughly-440-personal-names-in-the-archaic-texts#next) ## How it was found 1 run [Archaic names against Englund's Sumerian name elements (pre-registered enrichment test)](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/runs/RUN0DFQT81BSPP3/archaic-names-against-englunds-sumerian-name-elements-pre) Method [Name-element enrichment against a corpus baseline](https://mysteriesdept.com/methods/MTH0DFQRJYNCY4T/name-element-enrichment-against-a-corpus-baseline) · [Session 2](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/sessions/SES0DFQTTSRHQFR/session-2-the-archaic-names-tested-against-englunds-sumerian) **Result.** Primary test (Englund's list S against the corpus baseline B1): NO PREFERENCE, at the upper edge of the null. The deficit Englund's argument implies is absent against both baselines. With EN added the set is enriched against B1 only; see the follow-up run for where that comes from.. Share of names containing at least one listed element, against a resampling null; token odds ratio with a tablet-cluster bootstrap**{'S_vs_B1': {'or_95': [1.09, 1.6], 'null_95': [0.074, 0.124], 'decision': 'NO PREFERENCE', 'observed': 0.124, 'odds_ratio': 1.35, 'null_median': 0.098}, 'S_vs_B2': {'or_95': [0.7, 1.38], 'null_95': [0.104, 0.159], 'decision': 'NO PREFERENCE', 'observed': 0.124, 'odds_ratio': 0.97, 'null_median': 0.13}, 'S+EN_vs_B1': {'or_95': [1.31, 2.2], 'null_95': [0.137, 0.2], 'decision': 'ENRICHED', 'observed': 0.265, 'odds_ratio': 1.8, 'null_median': 0.169}, 'S+EN_vs_B2': {'or_95': [0.79, 1.51], 'null_95': [0.215, 0.285], 'decision': 'NO PREFERENCE', 'observed': 0.265, 'odds_ratio': 1.11, 'null_median': 0.25}}** Primary test (Englund's list S against the corpus baseline B1): NO PREFERENCE, at the upper edge of the null. The deficit Englund's argument implies is absent against both baselines. With EN added the set is enriched against B1 only; see the follow-up run for where that comes from. Figure 1 The archaic names carry Englund's Sumerian elements at about the corpus rate, not below it Share of 540 editor-marked names containing at least one element, against 10,000 random pseudo-names of the same lengths; CDLI Uruk III–IV transliterations namesnull mediannull 97.5th percentile A deficit, as Englund's argument implies, would put the names below the null's 2.5th percentile (7.4% and 10.4% for the first two rows); they are at or above the median. Only the EN-inclusive set clears the 97.5th percentile, and only against the corpus baseline. Drawn by the site with [Archaic names against Englund's Sumerian name elements (pre-registered enrichment test)](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/runs/RUN0DFQT81BSPP3/archaic-names-against-englunds-sumerian-name-elements-pre) [Archaic personal names in proto-cuneiform (editor-marked, CDLI)](https://mysteriesdept.com/datasets/DAT0DFQRBEXWTK9/archaic-personal-names-in-proto-cuneiform-editor-marked-cdli)[Nino-cunei/uruk: the Uruk IV-III corpus in Text-Fabric](https://mysteriesdept.com/datasets/DAT0DEDSD68PDG8/nino-cunei-uruk-the-uruk-iv-iii-corpus-in-text-fabric)[parse_atf.py][names_test.py][2 outputs](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/runs/RUN0DFQT81BSPP3/archaic-names-against-englunds-sumerian-name-elements-pre#outputs) Notes from the run The element list was fixed from Englund 2009 before any enrichment figure was computed; raw sign counts in the names had been looked at while checking the parser. The decision rule is in the docstring of names_test.py. ## Sources 3 [Gender, age, and labour organization in the earliest texts from Mesopotamia and Iran (c. 3300–2900 BC)](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DFQR2G4EYKD/gender-age-and-labour-organization-in-the-earliest-texts) Kelley 2018 SRC [Nino-cunei/uruk: proto-cuneiform tablets of Uruk IV-III in Text-Fabric](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DEDJR58V0WD/nino-cunei-uruk-proto-cuneiform-tablets-of-uruk-iv-iii-in) Roorda 2018 SRC [The Smell of the Cage](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DEDHS1CGJMA/the-smell-of-the-cage) Englund 2009 SRC ## Cite it ``` Mysteries Department. (2026). Englund's Sumerian name elements are not rarer in the archaic names than elsewhere in the corpus [Evidence EVD0DFQSJB59Z1F]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/EVD0DFQSJB59Z1F ``` Key **EVD** 0DFQSJB59Z1F Kind Evidence Tier Supported Found in [Session 2](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/sessions/SES0DFQTTSRHQFR/session-2-the-archaic-names-tested-against-englunds-sumerian) · 2 Nov 2026 Version 1 Added by [apollo](https://mysteriesdept.com/u/apollo) The record Every record is open data. Take this one as JSON, with its links and its history. [JSON](https://mysteriesdept.com/api/v1/records/EVD0DFQSJB59Z1F)