Learning "super dead" languages

A few months ago, while talking with a friend about the ancient languages I'm studying, my friend made a humorous comment (I'm paraphrasing from memory): "Latin is a 'dead' language, right? But people still know it even though it doesn't have native speakers anymore. So if that's a 'dead' language, then is that [pointing to my textbook, A Grammar of Akkadian] a 'super dead' language?"

Fast forward to yesterday: While conducting research for my departmental honors thesis, I skimmed through Jeremy A. Black's Reading Sumerian Poetry, in which he states that much of our understanding of Sumerian is derived from our understanding of Akkadian - our understanding of which is derived from its relationship to other Semitic languages (21). In this way, I can see how my friend thought of these languages as "super dead;" compared to a language such as Latin, which is still prevalent in modern languages and possesses a historical context that is much better preserved, Sumerian and Akkadian are much more removed from society.

Additionally, Black addresses the difficulties of reading ancient languages. (I'd like to preface my commentary by stating that there are, in my opinion, two parts to "reading": (1) recognition [of the words], and (2) comprehension [of what the words mean, as well as what significance they carry within their context]. For example, in order to read the sentence Hannah went to the store, I must first recognize these words, and then comprehend their meanings - such as that Hannah is a proper noun referring to an individual [who she is and what she does may also signify additional meaning]; went is a verb that implies movement from one point to another; to indicates how this movement is working; and the store could refer to several different places and concepts [i.e. the grocery store; the shopping mall; specifically, local]. This concept of reading is just as prevalent in a modern language as it is in an ancient language.) Black acknowledges that our "knowledge of the Sumerian language" is "incomplete" and, thus, causes a lack of satisfaction in understanding and interpreting Sumerian poetry (20). He goes on to discuss the difficulties of interpretation that ensue from this lack of knowledge, such as "ignorance of the precise meaning of a word" (21) and a lack of "historical framework" (23) - both of which concern how external cultural context (whether implicit in the language itself or as part of the greater historical context of the text) affect our reading of a text.

Don't take modern languages for granted - their contexts are much more readily available! Despite the difficulties, learning a "super dead" language is super rewarding. This is just another example of how interconnected culture and language are - and another example of how much we can learn about ancient peoples through their languages!



Black, Jeremy A. Reading Sumerian Poetry. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998. Print.