Talk Dirty to Me in Sumerian

17 May 2011 12:06 PM - Talk dirty to me in Sumerian - Jennifer Ball © Feb. 10, 2011

Talk Dirty to Me in Sumerianby Jennifer Ball © February 10, 2011

The Sumerian language was written using cuneiform—which means “wedge-shaped” inscrip-tions—and if you were thinking “cunt-shaped” you wouldn’t be wrong. Wedge, vagina, V-shaped, U-shaped, C-shaped, cunei-, cunt: they’re essentially all the same form: a sack. And that form is so important that the world’s first writing started with it. The word “cunt” tends to make people flinch because using slang speech when refer-ring to generative and excremental parts of the body reminds humans that we are animals. The rise of civilization has succeeded due to the squelching of our animalistic tendencies. Earlier cultures didn’t have these restrictions however, so if we want to understand their languages, we can’t use our puritanical attitudes and limited lexicon when examining their scripts. I have looked through the entire Pennsylvanian Sumerian Dictionary, and only these four characters above are depicted face forward. To depict something with a face is to give

Cuneiform depictions with definitions are from the Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary (http://psd.museum.upenn.edu/epsd/index.html). De-pictions without definitions are from UCLA’s Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (http://www.cdli.ucla.edu/tools/SignLists/protocuneiform/archsigns.html)

flesh musician donkey foot/stag uzu nar anshe/dusu/eme ngri

These cuneiform inscriptions (rotated 90° clockwise for viewing ease) are the only characters in Sumerian to be depicted frontally with a semblance of a body. They are used in other meanings, but these meanings and pronunciations are the most attested. What do “flesh,” “musician,” “donkey,” and “foot” have in common? Early man appears to have revered them. “Revere” can also mean “fear,” and the foot (far right) also signified for “stag,” an animal that staggers as you kill it and is angry (note the pronunciation ngri) in the midst of rutting. Feet that trample can seem to have an identity of their own. Early humans were figuring out what was conscious and what wasn’t. “Flesh” on the far left looks like a mummy and also signified for “body, entrails, omen.” There were probably a lot of uses for a body back in 3,000 B.C. Nar, the musician (second from left), seems to have meant “nurse,” but it also signifies for “liar.” If you were in the desert, and you saw this graffiti telling you, “Nooky here,” and then you didn’t get any milk, you would call the woman a liar. Which is why the don-key meant so much to early writers and has so many names. Eme meant “female donkey,” and the same sound pattern (though different cuneiform) meant “wet nurse” as well, so the donkeys probably performed many functions.

- 17 May 2011 12:06 PM Talk dirty to me in Sumerian - Jennifer Ball © Feb. 10, 2011 17 May 2011 12:06 PM - Page 3Talk dirty to me in Sumerian - Jennifer Ball © Feb. 10, 2011

it reverence (please refer to “Cats vs. Sheep: Their Significance in the Chinese Language”: http://www.scribd.com/doc/48145936/Cats-vs-Sheep-Their-significance-in-the-Chinese-language). You’ll notice the foot/stag has no eyes however. A foot or a stag is an entity of which to be wary. “Revere” means to have “fear again.” The depiction of the stag is more of a target, with no eyes, but a center spot at which to shoot. “Nar” is a musician. The first musicians were probably birds, which the Sumerians called mushen. But next were probably mothers as they sang to console their children. Or even wet nurses, who had to be better singers because wet nurses don’t just work for poor people. They work for kings and wealthy, important people who don’t want to hear their ba-bies crying. Wet nurses were called musheniqtu in Akkadian. (The upside down caret on the “s” means it has an “sh” sound.) “Nar” seems to mean “nurse” and it shows up in words for “goddess,” “heart,” “murder,” “liar,” “extreme liar,” and “treachery.”

17 May 2011 12:06 PM Talk dirty to me in Sumerian - Jennifer Ball © Feb. 10, 2011 17 May 2011 12:06 PM - Page 5Talk dirty to me in Sumerian - Jennifer Ball © Feb. 10, 2011

Here hamun means “harmony,” a very close connection, and it also means “bird” (see next page) and in Akkadian “female mourner, bird, insect.” Below dalhamun would seem to mean “disharmony” in the form of a storm.

(My note: This means “water-tongue-harmony”: kissing?)


musician, goddess, prostitute, foxrotated 90° cwTo the Sumerians, goddesses were musicians with milk. This looks like a woman holding her breast up. This woman is “nar” 643 times. Could this word mean “nurse”?

nar/ka’amusician/fox/nurse?


From UCLA


uzu flesh/body

From UCLA

ngrifoot/stag/trample


anshe/dusu/emeequid/donkey/jenny

All cuneiform depictions seen here are from the Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary (http://psd.museum.upenn.edu/epsd/index.html) “The Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary Project is carried out in the Babylonian Section of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Anthro-pology and Archaeology. It is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and private contributions.”

Talk Dirty to Me in Sumerian

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