Cuneiform 102 · Sumerian

The literacy track. Prerequisite: 101 · Foundations — this course assumes its 26 signs, its conventions, and its habits. Where 101 taught how the machine works, 102 is about mileage: the sign inventory grows chapter by chapter in an order computed from corpus frequency and graphic simplicity, each chapter adds exactly as much Sumerian grammar as its readings demand, and the readings are real texts — increasingly in full cuneiform, boxes turning into signs.

Chapters

0. Orientation — the long march, and your first new batch
1. The sentence in the clay — Sumerian in one chapter
2. The case that hides — the genitivethe grammatical case of possession or belonging — "the king's house", "lord of Lagash"
3. Say it twice — doubling, plurals, and the abstract nam-
4. The verbal chain, lightly — and the arrow that means life
5. A dedication, whole — the formula assembled
6. Names that are sentences — reading the people of the receipts
7. I am king — the copulaa word or word-part meaning "to be," linking a subject to what it is — Sumerian attaches it to the word itself: lugal-me-en, "I am king", and the genitivethe grammatical case of possession or belonging — "the king's house", "lord of Lagash" unmasked
8. The chain grows rings — prefixes, and saying no
9. Let me eat, let me drink — proverbs and the wish-forms
10. In those days — the literary register
11. A dedication, for real — the formula found on stone
12. Build it for me — mu-, -na-, and the votivegiven to a god in fulfillment of a vow — votive objects carry dedication inscriptions verb whole
13. You are — za-e, the locativethe grammatical case meaning "in, on, at" — Sumerian marks it with -a, and all seven cases
14. A row of proverbs — connected reading begins
15. Born a hero — Šulgi's hymn, his name in your hands
16. The tablet house speaks — scribes, colophonsa scribe's closing note on a tablet or manuscript — title, owner, date, the ancient equivalent of a title page at the end, the school itself
17. The day destinies were decreed — Gudea from line one
18. Reference — every sign taught, the grammar shelved

The course is complete — nineteen chapters. The track continues in Cuneiform 103 · Akkadian. Corrections are welcome in GitHub Issues.