What language, if any, do the proto-cuneiform texts record?
Five answers, none aheadNone is ahead yet. See what would settle it.
Where it stands
Five answers have been proposed. None is ahead on the evidence yet. Five are still possible. Of the one narrower question under it, none is answered yet.
Why it matters
Everything else turns on this. The numbers, commodities and institutions can be read without knowing the language, but the texts cannot be read aloud, and the Sumerian attribution rests on the continuity of sign shapes into later cuneiform rather than on any spelling of a Sumerian word in Uruk IV[1][2]. Englund's survey of about 440 archaic personal names found none of the patterns of later Sumerian names, and the texts put numerals before nouns where Sumerian puts them after[3][4].
Answers 5
Next steps 3
1
Extract the archaic personal names (the slave-name set in Englund 2009 plus any name-position entries) from the CDLI bulk ATF, tabulate their sign structure, and run a permutation test against Early Dynastic Sumerian names (Fara, Abu Salabikh) and Early Dynastic Semitic names for shared elements and positional patterns.
~30 h
—not judged
2
Build a sign-frequency and collocation table from the CDLI bulk ATF under the four counting conventions of Born and Kelley 2021, split by Uruk IV and Uruk III, and compare positional statistics (case-initial, case-final, co-occurrence entropy) with the same measures for the Archaic Ur texts and for proto-Elamite, to see whether Uruk III moves toward the pattern of a language-bound script.
~20 h
—not judged
3
Compile every rebus spelling proposed for Uruk IV and Uruk III texts (Steinkeller 1995, Wilcke 2005, Monaco 2014, Krispijn, Johnson) as a table with the tablet P-number, the sign, the proposed Sumerian value and Whittaker's or Englund's objection, so the live cases can be checked against CDLI contexts one by one.
~12 h
—not judged
Ranked by how likely each is to move the key question, for the time it takes
History
- Hans J. Nissen et al.: the archaic texts show no grammar, no fixed sign order within cases and little or no phonetic coding, and their sign…For: Proto-cuneiform is a language-independent notation (proto-writing)
- Robert K. Englund: the sign shapes and the lexical lists continue without a break from Uruk III into Early Dynastic cuneiform, which…For: Proto-cuneiform records Sumerian
- Robert K. Englund: attempts to read Sumerian or Akkadian in the Uruk texts have not succeeded, and the texts' numeral-before-noun order…For: The language is unknown (Englund's agnosticism)
- Robert K. Englund: no reading of the archaic texts as Akkadian or any other known language has succeeded, and the one Akkadian loanword…Against: Proto-cuneiform records a non-Sumerian language
- Gordon Whittaker: no secure phonetic spelling of a Sumerian word exists in Uruk IV, and the proposed Uruk III cases fail or are unclear…Against: Proto-cuneiform records Sumerian
- Gordon Whittaker: no reading of the archaic texts as Akkadian or any other known language has succeeded, and the one Akkadian loanword…Against: Proto-cuneiform records a non-Sumerian language
- Miguel Civil: the sign shapes and the lexical lists continue without a break from Uruk III into Early Dynastic cuneiform, which…For: Proto-cuneiform records Sumerian
- Salvatore F. Monaco: the sexagesimal numeration and the unbroken continuity of signs and lists into Sumerian cuneiform are more easily…Against: The language is unknown (Englund's agnosticism)
- Manfred Krebernik: no reading of the archaic texts as Akkadian or any other known language has succeeded, and the one Akkadian loanword…Against: Proto-cuneiform records a non-Sumerian language
- Jacob L. Dahl: attempts to read Sumerian or Akkadian in the Uruk texts have not succeeded, and the texts' numeral-before-noun order…For: The language is unknown (Englund's agnosticism)
- Jacob L. Dahl: no secure phonetic spelling of a Sumerian word exists in Uruk IV, and the proposed Uruk III cases fail or are unclear…Against: Proto-cuneiform records Sumerian
- Jacob L. Dahl: the sign shapes and the lexical lists continue without a break from Uruk III into Early Dynastic cuneiform, which…For: Proto-cuneiform records Sumerian
- Session 1: raised the question, proposed five answers, found seven results bearing on its answers and worked on one of its sub-questions