Gabriele, please forgive me. I'm not trying to be rude at all. But is your one year at university enough to teach us Sumerian? Is the language accessible enough to be learnable in its entirety in just one year? And will I be able to teach it after one year of study? If you say yes, then this tells me quite a bit. I, like most people, would think that it would take years of schooling and graduate work to master this ancient language. If it is at least,, oh, 90% learned after one year, then that's exciting! I've taken Latin, ancient Greek, some Koine, and Egyptian hieroglyphs recently, all of which have required of me quite a few books and reference materials ... and many months/years ... in order to somewhat master. I'm hoping that maybe Sumerian might be less of a brain-warping exercise. Thanks for your time and efforts! I'll be signing up shortly.
Greetings Pinto, I appreciate the honesty and I thank you for asking, I will now try to articulate a satisfactory answer: over the years I have embarked on many linguistic endeavours, and all in the most different ways: I have acquired native-like fluency in Spanish, for which ten years of formal education are to be credited, and in the same way I have achieved advanced proficiency in German and reading proficiency in Latin (written proficiency of course). However, I have also reached a very advanced level in a number of other languages away from the desks of a classroom, including, for example, Russian, my knowledge of which can be testified by official certificates (granted by national institutions), which are no less valid than the others just because my study of Russian was never ‘official’. Sumerian is no exception: I have studied it the way I have studied all the other languages, in and outside of the classroom, through textbooks and manuals. Alas there is no official Sumerian certificate to be obtained, but I’d be very glad to share with you some of by unpublished works with you so to add some ‘dimension to my claims. I will also point out that I did not start learning Sumerian this year, in fact, this course is the product of more than five years of “amateur” learning, which, in simple terms, equals to hundreds of hours of extensive reading of manuals, grammars and generally Sumerian related scholastic literature. Over the years I have also talked to different sumerologists myself, this course is in fact proof-checked with the help of a real Assyriologist. I also will not claim mastery of any of the areas orbiting Sumerian: I am no historian and no archaeologist, I have simply learned the language in the way one would learn any language to proficiency. Onto the second question: how much Sumerian can one realistically learn in a year? I’ll start by pointing out that this course is officially titled Beginner to Intermediate Sumerian course, and it does not claim to bring one from zero to absolute Sumerian proficiency, exiting the course you will not be able to read all sorts of literature at first glance. It will, however, grant an all-round knowledge of the grammar in all its aspects, along with good knowledge of Sumerian cuneiform and the ability to navigate virtually any text knowing how to go about translating it. As specified in the video, sources my every each claims are meticulously pointed out in the slides of every lesson, so that one can easily read and expand upon the grammatical concepts as intended by the very authors that theorised them. In a nutshell, I think one can get very far in a year, given the amount of effort I have put in the course. I invite you to take part to the first lessons and see for yourself, I say it is worth giving a chance to. Kind regards and a good continuation of day 🙂
@@GabrieleBarra Thank you for answering my questions. I should've mentioned that I am searching for a quality course to learn this language, and, being on social security and rather poor, I have to make sure that I will be investing my money in courses that I won't be disappointed in. I haven't found that source yet, so that's why I was asking all of those questions. I've been "burned" in the past learning other languages. I hope I didn't upset you in any way. You seem to be articulate, knowledgeable, and immersed in the language, attributes I look for in a teacher. And it definitely looks like you have enjoyed putting this course together! Very impressive! (Plus, in your message above, you used the word "alas"!! LOL) I look forward to taking your course and contributing to Patreon. (The bi-monthly Saturday live classes might be hard for me to attend, so I'll have to watch replays, I guess. At what time is the live session tomorrow? I live in Montana, Mountain TIme in the US.)
Oh, also, I just rewatched this video and you said you have been "teaching" Sumerian for the last year. I thought you said you have been "taking" Sumerian for the past year. I am sorry for not listening thoroughly. I have a bad habit of that.
You can use the sign-up link in the video description. Gabriele is on lesson III now, but they’re all here on YT, so I think it’s still possible to catch up. Syllabus link comes once registered :-)
That would be a very interesting thing todo but it sounds like a lot of work. Unfortunately i am busy writing my graduation thesis and have not really the time or mental space to do anthing but that. :(
Hi Phil, the syllabus comes with the sign-up :-). I will let Gabriele respond to your other questions, from my personal perspective (I am the Egyptian dude), a year is good to get a solid grounding in the grammar and the base vocabulary so that you can tackle native texts with the help of a dictionary without feeling lost ... in my experience it takes a few years minimum to be able to handle texts comfortably without a dictionary, even for modern languages. I have studied Sumerian with Gabriele in his pilot course last year and it has helped a lot to demystify the grammar (the learning curve for Sumerian tends to be steep especially as most teaching grammars out there are rather "hardcore"). So, I can only recommend it!
@@learnhieraticsumerian4208 Is there any way I can donate to Gabriele on Patreon without signing up for monthly payments? I won't have the funds to pay for the bonus features, but I'd like to contribute. I'll just take the free courses.
![Deciphering the world's oldest rule book | Irving Finkel | Curator's Corner S1 Ep1 [PILOT]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/wHjznvH54Cw/mqdefault.jpg)
I'm so glad you put this on RUclips. I'm planning on starting a Masters in history, and I believe Sumerian will be intrinsic to my Thesis.
This is gonna be epic!
It will be - make sure to share :-)
Cool, man
I'm interested in this program
And will we learn how to use proper instruments to write cuneiform as well?
I love sumerian. I started 2 months ago. May be I will join. I have a master in Egyptology as well.
Do you have a course starting in 2024?
Gabriele, please forgive me. I'm not trying to be rude at all. But is your one year at university enough to teach us Sumerian? Is the language accessible enough to be learnable in its entirety in just one year? And will I be able to teach it after one year of study? If you say yes, then this tells me quite a bit. I, like most people, would think that it would take years of schooling and graduate work to master this ancient language. If it is at least,, oh, 90% learned after one year, then that's exciting! I've taken Latin, ancient Greek, some Koine, and Egyptian hieroglyphs recently, all of which have required of me quite a few books and reference materials ... and many months/years ... in order to somewhat master. I'm hoping that maybe Sumerian might be less of a brain-warping exercise. Thanks for your time and efforts! I'll be signing up shortly.
Greetings Pinto,
I appreciate the honesty and I thank you for asking, I will now try to articulate a satisfactory answer: over the years I have embarked on many linguistic endeavours, and all in the most different ways: I have acquired native-like fluency in Spanish, for which ten years of formal education are to be credited, and in the same way I have achieved advanced proficiency in German and reading proficiency in Latin (written proficiency of course). However, I have also reached a very advanced level in a number of other languages away from the desks of a classroom, including, for example, Russian, my knowledge of which can be testified by official certificates (granted by national institutions), which are no less valid than the others just because my study of Russian was never ‘official’. Sumerian is no exception: I have studied it the way I have studied all the other languages, in and outside of the classroom, through textbooks and manuals. Alas there is no official Sumerian certificate to be obtained, but I’d be very glad to share with you some of by unpublished works with you so to add some ‘dimension to my claims. I will also point out that I did not start learning Sumerian this year, in fact, this course is the product of more than five years of “amateur” learning, which, in simple terms, equals to hundreds of hours of extensive reading of manuals, grammars and generally Sumerian related scholastic literature. Over the years I have also talked to different sumerologists myself, this course is in fact proof-checked with the help of a real Assyriologist.
I also will not claim mastery of any of the areas orbiting Sumerian: I am no historian and no archaeologist, I have simply learned the language in the way one would learn any language to proficiency.
Onto the second question: how much Sumerian can one realistically learn in a year? I’ll start by pointing out that this course is officially titled Beginner to Intermediate Sumerian course, and it does not claim to bring one from zero to absolute Sumerian proficiency, exiting the course you will not be able to read all sorts of literature at first glance. It will, however, grant an all-round knowledge of the grammar in all its aspects, along with good knowledge of Sumerian cuneiform and the ability to navigate virtually any text knowing how to go about translating it. As specified in the video, sources my every each claims are meticulously pointed out in the slides of every lesson, so that one can easily read and expand upon the grammatical concepts as intended by the very authors that theorised them.
In a nutshell, I think one can get very far in a year, given the amount of effort I have put in the course. I invite you to take part to the first lessons and see for yourself, I say it is worth giving a chance to.
Kind regards and a good continuation of day 🙂
@@GabrieleBarra Thank you for answering my questions. I should've mentioned that I am searching for a quality course to learn this language, and, being on social security and rather poor, I have to make sure that I will be investing my money in courses that I won't be disappointed in. I haven't found that source yet, so that's why I was asking all of those questions. I've been "burned" in the past learning other languages. I hope I didn't upset you in any way. You seem to be articulate, knowledgeable, and immersed in the language, attributes I look for in a teacher. And it definitely looks like you have enjoyed putting this course together! Very impressive! (Plus, in your message above, you used the word "alas"!! LOL) I look forward to taking your course and contributing to Patreon. (The bi-monthly Saturday live classes might be hard for me to attend, so I'll have to watch replays, I guess. At what time is the live session tomorrow? I live in Montana, Mountain TIme in the US.)
Oh, also, I just rewatched this video and you said you have been "teaching" Sumerian for the last year. I thought you said you have been "taking" Sumerian for the past year. I am sorry for not listening thoroughly. I have a bad habit of that.
I can't find the syllabus here, have you removed it? Also, I found out about the course now, can I join it?
You can use the sign-up link in the video description. Gabriele is on lesson III now, but they’re all here on YT, so I think it’s still possible to catch up. Syllabus link comes once registered :-)
That would be a very interesting thing todo but it sounds like a lot of work. Unfortunately i am busy writing my graduation thesis and have not really the time or mental space to do anthing but that. :(
It will always be there on YT afterwards :-)
Cost?
Hm, that (free) course by Gabriele ended in 2023. There will be another round, for Patreon subscribers - check out the discord link for more.
and I don't see the link for the syllabus. 😊
Hi Phil, the syllabus comes with the sign-up :-). I will let Gabriele respond to your other questions, from my personal perspective (I am the Egyptian dude), a year is good to get a solid grounding in the grammar and the base vocabulary so that you can tackle native texts with the help of a dictionary without feeling lost ... in my experience it takes a few years minimum to be able to handle texts comfortably without a dictionary, even for modern languages. I have studied Sumerian with Gabriele in his pilot course last year and it has helped a lot to demystify the grammar (the learning curve for Sumerian tends to be steep especially as most teaching grammars out there are rather "hardcore"). So, I can only recommend it!
@@learnhieraticsumerian4208 Is there any way I can donate to Gabriele on Patreon without signing up for monthly payments? I won't have the funds to pay for the bonus features, but I'd like to contribute. I'll just take the free courses.
you look cute :D
Sumerian verbs................
Such a creepy sounding language