# Gordon Whittaker 2005: The Sumerian Question: Reviewing the Issues

> Gordon Whittaker, 2005. 12 records on Mysteries Department cite it. In W. H. van Soldt (ed.), Ethnicity in Ancient Mesopotamia (RAI 48, Leiden 2002)…

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[Sources](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources)[Unread cuneiform: half a million tablets and the limits of Sumerian](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform)Gordon Whittaker 2005

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# The Sumerian Question: Reviewing the Issues

Gordon Whittaker, 2005.

**Unread cuneiform: half a million tablets and the limits of Sumerian** Chapter0

## What it's used for here

In W. H. van Soldt (ed.), Ethnicity in Ancient Mesopotamia (RAI 48, Leiden 2002), Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, pp. 409-429. Reviews the debate on whether Sumerians were native to southern Iraq or arrived late, the Landsberger (1944) and Salonen (1968) substratum proposals, Rubio's 1999 refutation, Semitic loanwords, and Whittaker's own "Euphratic" Indo-European hypothesis, which the field rejects. Used for the Sumerian question and the author's own minority position.

## Cited by on this site 12 records

[Rebus principle](https://mysteriesdept.com/concepts/CPT0DEDY1N5MN91/rebus-principle)

CPT

[Mainstream opinion rejects Euphratic, chiefly because Indo-European is not expected in fourth-millennium Iraq and the…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform/evidence/EVD0DEDYWEH6TNJ/mainstream-opinion-rejects-euphratic-chiefly-because-indo)

Evidence

EVD

[No reading of the archaic texts as Akkadian or any other known language has succeeded, and the one Akkadian loanword…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/evidence/EVD0DEDXNJXPYX1/no-reading-of-the-archaic-texts-as-akkadian-or-any-other)

Evidence

EVD

[No secure phonetic spelling of a Sumerian word exists in Uruk IV, and the proposed Uruk III cases fail or are unclear…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/evidence/EVD0DEDXMG7BY07/no-secure-phonetic-spelling-of-a-sumerian-word-exists-in)

Evidence

EVD

[Reviews of the proposed early rebus spellings find no secure Uruk IV case, and the first secure syllabic signs appear…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/evidence/EVD0DEE9FRYCC0C/reviews-of-the-proposed-early-rebus-spellings-find-no-secure)

Evidence

EVD

[Rubio's item-by-item review left no coherent substrate vocabulary; most Sumerologists treat the substratum as unproven.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform/evidence/EVD0DEDYYQGASG8/rubios-item-by-item-review-left-no-coherent-substrate)

Evidence

EVD

[The archaic lists were transmitted in fixed order for about 1,300 years and acquire Sumerian readings only in their…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/evidence/EVD0DEE9HZ18XJ2/the-archaic-lists-were-transmitted-in-fixed-order-for-about)

Evidence

EVD

[Whittaker presents about 200 proposed loanwords and argues that loans can only be demonstrated by identifying a donor…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform/evidence/EVD0DEDYX61W8XG/whittaker-presents-about-200-proposed-loanwords-and-argues)

Evidence

EVD

[Proto-cuneiform: the archaic texts of Uruk](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform)

The mystery article

MYS

[The unread cuneiform: half a million tablets and the limits of Sumerian](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform)

The mystery article

MYS

[Does Sumerian have any demonstrable relative or substratum, or is it an isolate?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform/questions/QST0DEDT86CFAB2/does-sumerian-have-any-demonstrable-relative-or-substratum)

Question

QST

[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)

Question

QST

## Cite it

```
Gordon Whittaker (2005). The Sumerian Question: Reviewing the Issues. https://www.academia.edu/1869564/The_Sumerian_Question_Reviewing_the_Issues
```

[Find it at academia.edu](https://www.academia.edu/1869564/The_Sumerian_Question_Reviewing_the_Issues)

Key

**SRC** 0DEDHQE9W64H

Kind

Book chapter

Rights

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