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# sumerian

«sumerian» in Mova's school dictionary: **from or to do with Sumer, one of the world's first…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

adjective (Sumerian); noun (a Sumerian, Sumerians; Sumerian, the language)

### meaning for a pupil

1) Sumerian means from or to do with Sumer, one of the world's first civilisations, in southern Mesopotamia (now southern Iraq), about 5,000 years ago. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sumerian/#m1)

2) A Sumerian was a person from Sumer. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sumerian/#m2)

3) Sumerian is the language they spoke, written in cuneiform, one of the oldest written languages. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sumerian/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

History lessons: the Sumerians built some of the first cities (like Ur and Uruk), invented an early form of writing (cuneiform, pressed into clay tablets with a reed), and used a number system based on 60, which is why we have 60 minutes in an hour and 360 degrees in a circle. They built ziggurats (stepped temples) and told the story of Gilgamesh.

### examples

- The Sumerians wrote on clay tablets. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sumerian/#x1)
- Sumerian cities were built between two rivers. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sumerian/#x2)
- We made Sumerian cuneiform with lolly sticks and clay. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sumerian/#x3)
- Our 60 minutes in an hour comes from the Sumerian way of counting. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sumerian/#x4)
- Ur was a great Sumerian city. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sumerian/#x5)
- The Sumerian king Gilgamesh is the hero of a very old story. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sumerian/#x6)
- Sumerian is not related to any language spoken today. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sumerian/#x7)

### note

Always capital S. Said «soo-MAIR-ee-un» or «soo-MEER-ee-un». Sumer is not the same as «summer». Sumerian is a language isolate: no known living relatives.

### In the corpora

- [So the Sumerians invented writing, first as little pictures of grain and sheep.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/3-mesopotamia-first-cities-and-writing/5/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «sumerian» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sumerian/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.