نطق سوم

Lecture 3:

Listen to part of a lecture in an ancient history class. The professor has been discussing the Sumerians and the Akkadians, two ancient peoples from an area that’s in modern-day Iraq.

So far we’ve been focusing on the written record of the Sumerians and the Akkadians, like the cuneiform inscriptions in those slides last week. To see how historians work with archaeologists and linguists to put together the pieces of the puzzle. What do these ancient symbols mean? What do they tell us about ancient peoples?

We’ve seen how these ancient texts shed light on social institutions, such as legal systems, like the Hammurabi Code, practical aspects of everyday life, such as farming and irrigation methods, as well as religious and artistic texts.

Now we’ll be discussing ancient texts when we move to Egypt to see how the hieroglyphics, the Egyptians’ first writing system, reveal to us the foundations of their civilization.But before we leave the Akkadians, I want to take a minute to let you hear what some of their texts sounded like in the original language, which obviously is no longer spoken, or at least what linguists think it sounded like. Now this is based on somewhat speculative and fairly recent research, but it should give you some idea of what the ancient language sounded like.

Okay, so I bought this really interesting tape, it’s a recording of Akkadian texts, mostly fragments of myths and poetry, but also practical topics like… Let’s see, the first reading is, ok, this one is about agriculture, it’s actually from a 4000-year-old farmers’ manual with advice on growing barley. And then, yes, George, did you have a question?

I was just wondering, I mean, it’s really cool that you guys have figured out what it sounds like and all, but I don’t get why would you all care so much about a language nobody speaks anymore. It’s not like you have to learn how to say, oh, I don’t know, which way to the airport.

Okay. George, I see what you are going with that, and that’s a really good question, especially since that selection from the farmers’ manual is probably not the best example of why all this should interest you.

Of course, I’m fascinated, but then that’s my profession. I guess the more important reason has to do with our appreciation of ancient literature, the myths and poetry. Now that’s something that really is important to hear as well as read since…well, for the Akkadians, as for most early civilizations, the literature was mainly an oral tradition, you have to understand that back then that writing, like engraving into stone, was an expensive and laborious process.

With no formal system of education, most people were illiterate, in fact, the few people that could read and write, the professional scribes, formed a separate class.

Well, ancient peoples, nevertheless, had literature, but it was an oral literature, a spoken body of legends, myths, poems, which were occasionally written down but mostly memorized and passed down from generation to generation.

So, okay, let’s go to the recording of part of the story of Gilgamesh. Now this is one of the oldest myths ever told. Well, this story was meant to be recited aloud, even chanted or sung. So to appreciate how Akkadians experienced the legend, we should really hear it, not just look at the translation. And then right after that, there’s some poems. Now most poets, even today, craft their poetry thinking about how it sounds to their readers, the rhymes, the rhythms of the language, that kind of thing.

So that even if you are just reading it on the page, you are still hearing it in your head, right?

So, George, you are right. The part of the tape about laws and practical stuff, that probably wouldn’t be of much interest to anyone but a specialist. But I hope I have convinced you that to appreciate ancient literature you’ll really need to know what it sounded like.

Now, this is somewhat outside the scope of this class. But I know several of you are studying ancient languages and literature, so this could even be a topic for a research paper.

Okay. Here, let me first read to you in English of course the part you’re gonna hear. This is from the end of the story, where Gilgamesh, the hero is offered the chance to become immortal but then loses that opportunity. So he weeps and says, “For whom have I labored? For whom have I journeyed? For whom have I suffered? I have gained absolutely nothing for myself!”

You hear that repetition of “for whom”, this really brings home the character’s sadness, and by contrast, emphasizes that “nothing” in the next line.

Now the English translation does preserve the repetition of the original Akkadian words. But what about other types of oral effects? Like repetition of a syllable or other sounds within a word. That kind of thing gets lost when you translate into a modern language.

ctually was a hybrid.