"This summer, Rivers teachers are embarking on a variety of activities through the school’s faculty enrichment grants, which aim to promote the intellectual growth of Rivers teachers through research, education, and other independent projects. Today, we hear from David Burzillo, who will be studying Sumerian,an ancient language from Southern Mesopotamia."

One of the many challenges of learning Sumerian is getting used to the many aspects of the language that make it so different from English.  One major difference is how words are built up in the language.  When language analysis and the grouping of languages into families was taking place in earnest in the 19^th century, linguists came up with a typology for classifying the world’s languages. Three major types were identified, based on the way that words were created.   Isolating languages are languages in which basically every morpheme is a separate word.  Chinese is an isolating language.  Fusional or inflectional languages fuse endings to word roots and use the word endings to convey important information about person, number, tense, etc…  Latin is a fusional or inflectional language.  Sumerian is an agglutinative language.  In agglutinative languages strings of prefixes and suffixes are linked to nominal and verbal roots to make words.  For a novice Sumerian student like me, recognizing the verbal roots and then identifying the various prefixes and suffixes that go with them is incredibly time consuming.  

 

To illustrate, here is an example from an inscription of Amar-Sin on a stamped brick:

 

Column II of a Brick Inscription of Amar-Sin

One of the many verbs in the inscription is in line eleven of the second column, the last line in the image.  Its transliteration is:

“ḫe₂-eb-til-le-ne”

 

 

This line  is transcribed by Sumerologists in the following way:

“ḫe₂.(i₃)b.til.e.ene.0”

This line of the inscription is part of a curse, in which Amar-Sin calls upon the gods Nanna and Ningal to “put an end to the offspring” of anyone who changes the position of the statue he has set up or tears down its pedestal.

The verbal root is til, which means “to live.” This, though, is only one of the seven elements that make up this verb.  What is the function of all the other elements?  What information do they convey? 

1.    ḫe₂ is a modal prefix, regularly used to introduce curses.

2.    i₃ is a conjugation prefix.  (The i contracted into the e of the previous sign, a common occurrence in Sumerian.) As I noted in an earlier blog, Sumerologists are not in agreement about the actual function of conjugation prefixes.

3.    b is a personal prefix, which refers back to the direct object (offspring) in the previous line.

4.    til is the verbal root

5.    e indicates that this is a maru verb, a type of Sumerian verb which probably indicates an incompleted action

6.    ene is a plural marker, needed because the subject of the verb is plural (the gods Nanna and Ningal)

7.    0 is a personal affix which cross-references the subjects (again, the gods Nanna and Ningal)

 

As you can see from this verb form, despite the fact that the verbal root is quite simple, there is a lot of important information conveyed in the prefixes and affixes attached to it.  It is this characteristic of combining prefixes and suffixes and roots which led to the definition of Sumerian as an agglutinative language, and it is one of the many aspects of the language which takes some getting used to. 

 

David Burzillo 

My Summer Internship

This summer, Rivers students are embarking on a variety of interesting and challenging adventures, from doing community service abroad to attending prestigious music camps. Throughout the coming months, we will be periodically checking in with a handful of students to learn more about their experiences. Today, we hear from Alexander Post, who is working at the Children’s Hospital this summer through the Rivers science internship program.

Throughout my internship I had so many amazing experiences. I was able to shadow a respiratory therapist and observe an intubation, participate in the PALS (pediatric advanced life support) course with the critical care fellows, follow attending physicians during rounds, learn how to place a central venous line (a special IV), learn how to place a breathing tube and how to properly ventilate a patient, watch a cardiac catheterization (a surgery during which a catheter is threaded through the patient’s vasculature all the way into his heart in order to diagnose or treat a condition), learn about cardiac arrhythmias and treat them using a defibrillator. I also learned about human anatomy, physiology, and medicine through watching and helping run simulations. Everyday was an adventure during which I knew that I would learn something new.

Last post from Mexico

This summer, Rivers teachers are embarking on a variety of activities through the school’s faculty enrichment grants, which aim to promote the intellectual growth of Rivers teachers through research, education, and other independent projects. Today, we hear from Ben Leeming, who is traveling to Zacatecas, Mexico to study the Uto-Aztecan language of Nahuatl.


A week ago Sunday saw the kick-off of perhaps the biggest annual cultural event in Zacatecas (next to the Féria, of course): the International Folk Dance Festival, in it's 16th year (?), and a source of huge pride for Zacatecanos. Dance groups from literally all over the world (as well as tourists) descend on the city for a of week of folk dance. The entire city has been transformed: every plaza has stages and bleachers set up in them, and there is dance and music coming from every corner of the city. It's wonderful! Last Sunday afternoon we watched the opening parade down in the center.

From our vantage point we watched probably thirty dance groups from places as far-flung as Russia, Slovakia, and France parade by. Each group had its own band or musical group, and they stopped right in front of us to perform for the viewing stand of dignitaries. What a show!

At first only my three year old Rinny could see (she was on my shoulders for two hours!) The other kids were mad and made all kinds of noise until finally they shoved their way through the crowd and sat down right in the street, front and center, and had an ABSOLUTE blast! It seemed like in every other group there was some performer who stopped to shake the hand or tossle the hair of the white kids. Many of the Mexican groups (which were BY FAR the best of the show!) had people dressed in fantastic costumes - devils, witches, saints, skeletons, etc. - and many of them took an interest in my kids. It was such a fantastic experience for them. I can't begin to describe the colors, the swirling dancers, the costumes and masks and music...

The different groups will be performing every day all over the city and even the state. They perform in pairs: one group from Mexico with one group from abroad. (Again, in my opinion, the Mexican groups are by far the best! Such amazing colors and vivid mix of Indian and Mexican and European.)

See video highlights of the street parade here.

On Tuesday the dance festival looked like it was going to be rained out, but the sun eventually returned and the shows went on. I left my evening class early to join Susi and the kids to see a local music and dance group from Zacatecas perform. They were all teenagers. The music was so fantastic and the dancing wonderful. Earlier that day I made an audio recording of the rehearsal for this performance which you can listen to here.

My last day of classes was Friday and since then we have been relaxing, resting, and trying to enjoy our final days in Zacatecas. Currently everyone is healthy – thank God! – although Saturday I thought I was coming down with the flu. I think my body was just crashing after a very intense six weeks: 210 hours of class, 38 hours of walking to and from class, and a year’s worth of language instruction! It has been an incredible experience, though. Looking forward to sharing pictures and stories this fall. See you all in September!

Little Fingers

This summer, Rivers students are embarking on a variety of interesting and challenging adventures, from doing community service abroad to attending prestigious music camps. Throughout the coming months, we will be periodically checking in with a handful of students to learn more about their experiences. Today, we hear from Emily Hoberman, who is working at the Children’s Hospital this summer.

This last week was my seventh week working at the hospital. While I am now accustomed to the conditions of the floor and have practiced and learned many techniques for holding, playing and communicating with babies and young children, I have taken the opportunity this week to fully appreciate the babies. Despite being extremely sick, the babies nonetheless smile, laugh, and can really brighten anyone’s day.

When I rock a baby to sleep or play with one in my lap, I am always amazed by how small they are. For example, when a baby’s hand latches onto one of my fingers, I can't help but notice how tiny his fingernail is, or how his hand can barely wrap itself around my thumb. Last week, while holding and comforting a three week old baby (who only weighed five pounds) for several hours, I observed how small all of his features are. My longest finger, was, for example, the length of his lower leg (his knee to the bottom of his foot) and his pinky finger was the same length as that of the nail on my thumb.

Many of the little things that the babies do are adorable. For example, when they are just about to fall asleep, either from being tired or from being sleepy from their medications, they tend to roll their eyes and gently rest their head against my chest. They almost always grab onto my hand when they fall asleep, and even when I try to move my hand or shift my body a little, they tighten their grip.

There are many long term volunteers on my floor that truly enjoy helping out with the babies. It is no wonder as the babies are really cute and need to be held and comforted a lot.

--Emily Hoberman