Note 66 — Chapter III · THE SUMERIANS

The two dialects were called eme-KU (i.e. eme-lakhkha, W.A.I. iii. 4, 31, 32), “the language of the enchanter,” and eme-SAL, “the woman’s language,” which are rendered in Semitic Babylonian, lisan Sumeri and (lisan) Akkadi, “the language of Sumer” and “the language of Akkad.” In a tablet (81, 7–27, 130, 6, 7) they are said to be “like” one another. Other dialects were termed “the language of the sacrificer” and “the language of the anointer,” as being used by these two classes of priests. They differed, perhaps, from the standard dialects in intonation or the use of technical words. We hear also of “a carter’s language” in which anbarri—which, it is noticeable, is a Sumerian word—meant “yoke and reins,” i.e. “harness” (Zeitschrift für Assyriologie, ix. p. 164).