ABSTRACT
“What kind of a scribe is a scribe who does not know Sumerian?” was a dismissive question posed some 4,000 years ago (Alster 1997: 54), when knowledge of the language was regarded as essential to an educated man. The high standing of Sumerian continued for a further 2,000 years and extended throughout much of the ancient Middle East. The speaker would be even less impressed by the current status of this once great language. Despite a claim to be the first language written (the rival being ancient Egyptian), and a subsequent written history extending for twice as long as has been the case so far for English, Sumerian fell into oblivion and was only rediscovered less than two centuries ago.
