Learn to Read Ancient Sumerian: An Introduction for Complete Beginners.

At first I regretted buying this because it is dumbed down alot from what I wanted in a Sumerian grammar. I kept it because it was hardly worth the $ to return. I since bought a more expensive bigger better grammar. But I still refer to this one to check each other. It is useful but you will defintely want a more advanced grammar to accompany it. It cannot stand on its own. You must have another grammar to go along with it to be able to understand Sumerian texts.Annoying things include1. The signs for each chapter are not listed with their meanings at the end of each chapter. But this is likely because of the larger problem of a sign meaning more than 1 thing. All the various meanings of a sign are not listed. Transliteration of signs are listed with their meanings for each chapter but the sign for each transliteration is not shown side-by-side.2. The font is too large. They could have packed more info in if they used a smaller font.Good things include:1 They explain terms used in more sophisticated grammars. The other grammars tend to start using these terms without explanation.2 I did learn about the grammar of nouns and verbs.3 The references in the Bibliography are useful.The authors write they will be releasing an intermediate and advanced grammar. I wished they bundled all three books into one initially. But because only this intro was available, I had to go buy someone else's more advanced grammar. I couldn't wait. Because of the shipping cost to return this was big, I am glad I didn't return it. It does have value. The authors no doubt know the language. They need to publish their advanced grammar and package all three books as one.

The authors of this book also have an exhaustive video series on YouTube that I would suggest as a companion to the book. The channel is Digital Hammurabi.It will make it much easier to visualize and grasp the sound of Sumerian as well as the grammar.I am nowhere near an expert but after just a couple chapters you can already look at chunks of ancient tablets and recognize things. The lessons are presented in a logical manner.It does help to understand the terminology of grammar. Most people don't bother remembering all the parts of a sentence by name but it comes in handy when 'normalizing' a string of cuneiform.Sumerian is easier for the western speaker to pronounce as well. It lacks the hard back of the throat sounds we are familiar with from languages like Arabic and Egyptian. Sumerian has lots of SH sounds instead.This book (and the video series) are presented in a way that you will almost immediately be amazed at how much you can decipher. Most of the examples are lines taken from actual tablets and poems which shows that almost right away you are able to read actual ancient texts- not just super dumbed down 'beginner' versions. It's very motivating.

Pro's Very informative and educational. Easy to read. Slow pace and i can follow their approach. Good examples. I think it should have more examples. Con's I was surprise went I read that this is the first book of three. That wasn't mention.

Those interested in learning Sumerian, the world's first written language, quickly realize that the instructional material available to them is rather scant. This is even moreso for those at the very beginning of their study. Much of what little material is available seems designed for scholars in Assyriology or those who already know Akkadian. "Learn to Read Ancient Sumerian" does a magnificent job filling this gap. The book is truly adapted to real beginners whose knowledge of grammar (even English grammar) may not be what it should be, while those who are familiar with another language---especially a highly inflected language like Latin or Greek---will be encouraged by what they already know. The authors present the Sumerian language in digestible segments which allow the student to make steady progress without feeling overwhelmed. Not only is the spoken Sumerian taught (in romanized text with super- and subscripts necessary to avoid confusion of words which would otherwise sound identical), but the cuneiform text is introduced incrementally so that students can learn to actually read this ancient language. In addition, the authors have all the lessons (there are 11 of them in Book 1) taught on YouTube (digitalhammurabi.com). (NB: There are small differences between the material in the text and the material as presented on YouTube, but these are not really a problem since the basic concepts taught are the same.)Students whose knowledge of grammar and/or linguistics is more solid will find the going even easier. Sumerian is (as far as we know) a language isolate, but the grammar is reflective of familiar language concepts common to all languages and is no more demanding than Latin. The cuneiform script, on the other hand, presents certain challenges, but it is introduced in manageable portions and actually is one of the most attractive parts of the text. A person who works through this text and its sequel (possibly coming out late this year or early 2022) should have a great beginning in Sumerian.

If you want to learn the basics of Sumerian grammar then there is no other book that even comes anywhere close to this, that I know of. There is none better. Everything is explained clearly. The author makes it absolutely clear at the start that this is not meant to be a comprehensive academic grammar. There are enough of those already in print - which are completely useless to most absolute beginners, in my view, since such books assume you already know a lot of Sumerian - and also, usually, Babylonian. This book is much more akin to a “Teach Yourself Simplified Sumerian” book and does that very well.However, I personally found the style irritatingly far too “chatty” and the author really over-labours most points. It came across as if he has simply transcribed his you-tube channel lectures (which are also extremely good) into the book. But that is just me. From the point of view of the authors I can see it must be difficult to know at what level to pitch such a book. If you pitch it too high you will drives one group of people away. If pitch it too low then you will irritate a different group of people. You will never please everyone.There are one or two typos and errors, most trivial. But one particular one stands out; on page 241 it gives cuneiform character 312 to be the same as 176 as kala(g) which it is not. I also found 2 cuneiform sign in the body of the book that were not in the cuneiform sign list (pp 232-244) despite the claim that “This sign list contains all the cuneiform signs that appear in this book.”It is one of my pet hates, which this book also does, when the vocab/sign lists of a chapters do not match up with those needed to do the exercises. This book is not unique is that. But this is not an insurmountable obstacle.My criticisms are only minor and ultimately none of them detract from this being the best book I have found for the curious enquirer to just get the basics of Sumerian grammar without being drowned in all the minutiae, exceptions, uncertainties and so on that are listed ad nauseam in a formal comprehensive grammar - to the extent that you end up learning nothing.At the end of this book you truly will be able to read genuine ancient Sumerian, written in cuneiform. Furthermore, if you have the time you can probably do it in about a week, as I did in the recent “lock down” when I had little else to do.

Inexpensive (as these things go) primer into this profoundly unfamiliar language system.This book introduces both the phonetic and the cuneiform sign system to the reader.Worth a punt for the intellectually curious with a few pounds to spare.

Don't forget to check out the accompanying video tutorials on YouTube.This book is a great place to start learning ancient Sumerian, really easy to digest and the exercises are fun and rewarding.

Apparently it is not compatible with my Kindle Paperwhite so I've had to return it.

Fun and brilliant way to learn Chinese