psycholepzy t1_ja5ggzm wrote
Reply to comment by random2187 in 4,500-year-old Sumerian temple dedicated to mighty thunder god discovered in Iraq. by Rifletree
Is "Gudea" with a hard or soft G?
random2187 t1_ja5hoit wrote
We really can't say since there's no way to know how the original speakers pronounced things. We can somewhat confidently restore what Akkadian sounded like due to comparative semetic studies and their syllabic spelling in writing. However, Sumerian is a language isolate with no known related languages for comparison, their spelling was mostly logographic (think chinese, a single symbol representing an idea), and the only way we know the associated sounds is through Akkadian who didn't have the same sounds to be able to accurately represent how Sumerian was pronounced. For example it's believed that Sumerian had several o sounds that Akkadian is simply unable to render, and instead get represented as the same u sounds despite the variety that originally existed. You'll usually hear it pronounced with a soft g today but that has nothing to do with how it was originally pronounced
psycholepzy t1_ja5mo3l wrote
Might it be related to "Judea"?
I'm barely a hobbyist, but I have fallen in love with the etymology of religious words, place names, and iconography. It would be wild to find connections between Hadad or Baal and an equivalent Sumerian/Akkadian diety.
False etymologies and debunkings notwithstanding, it's an area that really excites me.
random2187 t1_ja5vqum wrote
That’s a really cool idea but the connection would be really tenuous. Gudea was a single Sumerian king who ruled in Mesopotamia in the 22nd or 21st century and while Mesopotamia did have contact with the Levant for a long time, the name Judah which is the root of Judea is first attested in the Iron Age after the Bronze Age collapse, around the 7th or 8th century BCE. So different cultures and a long time span separating them
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