Sumerian

American  

[soo-meer-ee-uhn, -mer-] / suˈmɪər i ən, -ˈmɛr- /

adjective

1. of or relating to Sumer, its people, or their language.

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noun

1. a native or inhabitant of Sumer.

2. a language of unknown affinities that was the language of the Sumerians and had, in the late 4th and 3rd millenniums b.c., a well-developed literature that is preserved in pictographic and cuneiform writing and represents the world's oldest extant written documents.

Sumerian British  

/ suːˈmɪərɪən, -ˈmɛər- /

noun

1. a member of a people who established a civilization in Sumer during the 4th millennium _bc

2. the extinct language of this people, of no known relationship to any other language

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adjective

1. of or relating to ancient Sumer, its inhabitants, or their language or civilization

Other Word Forms

• pre-Sumerian adjective

Etymology

Origin of Sumerian

First recorded in 1870–75; Sumer + -ian

Example Sentences

The loss of tidal waters may have forced Sumerian communities to respond with large-scale irrigation and flood control systems -- innovations that defined Sumer's golden age.

From Science Daily

Theories have linked it to early Brahmi scripts, Dravidian and Indo-Aryan languages, Sumerian, and even claimed it's just made up of political or religious symbols.

From BBC

Recent years have seen attempts to recreate the beer of the Vikings, the Late Shang and Western Zhou dynasties of China, and the Sumerians, who are believed to have invented beer.

From New York Times

The Sumerians of Mesopotamia devised a love song by around 2000 BCE, and scholars of Ancient Egypt have found love songs inscribed into pottery and written on sheets of papyrus.

From Los Angeles Times

Other ancient calendars, dating to the Sumerians 5,000 years ago, simply divided the year into 12 months of 30 days each.

From National Geographic