32.3331, Summer Schools: Sumerian Online Course / Online

Sat Oct 23 23:52:08 UTC 2021

LINGUIST List: Vol-32-3331. Sat Oct 23 2021. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 32.3331, Summer Schools:  Sumerian Online Course  / Online

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Date: Sat, 23 Oct 2021 19:51:50
From: Khachik Gevorgyan [khachik at aspirantum.com]
Subject: Sumerian Online Course  / Online

Sumerian Online Course

Host Institution: 
Website: https://aspirantum.com/courses/learn-sumerian

Dates: 22-Nov-2021 - 10-Dec-2021
Location: ONLINE, ONLINE, Armenia

Focus: ASPIRANTUM's Sumerian language course is organized so that undergraduate and graduate students, researchers and professors, and anyone interested in learning Sumerian and becoming familiar with the corpus of Sumerian inscriptions will benefit from it.
Minimum Education Level: No Minimum

Description:
This course will be organized on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays
each week (4 days each week, 12 days over three weeks) and will include 42
hours of intensive Sumerian teaching (3.5 hours during each day). 

The students will receive a detailed syllabus of each day's class. Currently,
only the 1st week of the syllabus is available online on our website
https://aspirantum.com/curriculum/sumerian-language-syllabus

We are planning to start the online classes at 9 PM Yerevan time. This time is
mainly comfortable for the students from European and American countries.
Depending on applicants' geography, the time may be changed, and all
applicants will be informed about the time changes before the course.

Classes each day will be divided into the following sections:
First class - Homework and discussion
Break
Second class - Sumerian Grammar and Readings
Break
Third class - Sumerian Readings

During the Sumerian classes, the following components will be covered every
day:

Grammar: Everyday class will cover the main grammatical concepts of the
Sumerian language.
Vocabulary: During the 3 weeks (42 hours total) course, the participants will
learn more than 500 Sumerian words.
Speaking: Participants will be forced to speak Sumerian and tortured if not,
just like in ancient Babylonian schools. This language teaching methodology
has been productive at all times :) (this is a joke, no one will be tortured,
and it is impossible because the class is online).
Translation: Each day, the participants will have translation assignments and
other homework to complete for the next day.
Readings: During the course, students will read several Sumerian texts,
including Old Sumerian texts from kings like Ur-Nanshe, Eannatum, and
Lugalzagesi, Sargonic and Gutian period texts from kings like Gudea of Lagash,
and Neo-Sumerian (Ur III) royal inscriptions. 

Since this course aims to be as comprehensive as possible given the time
constraints, the Sumerian texts will come from as many of the eras of the
language as possible. The Old Sumerian texts, which come from approximately
2700-2350BC, are the earliest royal inscriptions we have that contain
important historical information. The texts from the Ur-Nanshe dynasty of
Lagash are especially important, which is why they will be the focus of the
first week of the course. In this period, the writing system and system of
determinatives were in an early stage of development, but regardless, the Old
Sumerian period was when the writing system of Sumerian became solidified and
really cemented cuneiform’s place in history. During the last few weeks of the
course, we will be taking a look at how Sumerian developed during the
incredibly important reigns of Gudea of Lagash in the 22nd century BC and the
Ur III dynasty.

The benefits of the course: Familiarity with Sumerian benefits not only for
those interested in Sumerian linguistics, history, and religion but also for
students and researchers interested in a more in-depth understanding of
Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East as a whole. While most are aware of some
aspects of Ancient Near Eastern history through the lens of Greek historians,
the Bible, and even post-Sumerian era texts like the Code of Hammurabi,
reading foundational Sumerian texts gives one a more thorough perspective to
better understand Ancient Near Eastern civilization and royal ideology as a
whole.

Truly understanding the history of even the later Mesopotamian empires of
Hammurabi, Sennacherib, and Nebuchadnezzar is impossible without a thorough
knowledge of the Sumerian text corpus of the third millennium BC.

Knowledge of Sumerian will also provide the student with the necessary tools
for a better understanding of other ancient cuneiform languages, including
Akkadian and Hittite. The cuneiform writing system was invented especially to
write Sumerian, and this is also reflected even in non-Sumerian languages like
utilized cuneiform. 

Linguistic Field(s): Writing Systems

Subject Languages: Sumerian

Tuition: 900 USD

Tuition Explanation: The participation fee for the 3 weeks Sumerian online course is $900.

Registration: 10-Nov-2021 to 10-Nov-2021

Contact Person: Khachik Gevorgyan
                Email: khachik at aspirantum.com

Registration Instructions:
To apply, please fill in the application form.

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