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Nabau's Journal has this to say about the use of ancient scripts in Shumer: "The early language of Shumer was transcribed utilising various wedge form symbols to represent the spoken language. This symbology will be familiar to all from the extant monuments upon which it is inscribed. The script represented during most of the early period was not alphabetic, that particular innovation occurred at some point during the period of the Priest Kings; at which point a more cursive form of representation was introduced similar to that which is common in most lands today. The script saw a brief reintroduction in the 4th century when it was used for official documents. This utilisation was entirely based on a direct transliteration between sign and letter; and of course has no similarity to the language originally represented by the script. The signs chosen for this alphabet were taken from the subset that represented single syllables in the original language. There appears to have been little attempt at standardisation and the correlation between sign and letter varied over time. There are also numerous examples of the use of this script in personal communications whether to add secrecy or solemnity to the correspondence. This became something of a fashion in the 6th century that also saw the use of the much earlier form of the script which was far closer to the logo-graphic beginnings from which all scripts originate. Both scripts are still in use today in correspondence of a certain kind, where the rudimentary secrecy offered is considered beneficial – letters between lovers perhaps or school children or to give credence to mysterious maps." |
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His notes also give the characters used in the scripts. The first three lines of each script are letters and the last two numbers: |
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Tabaan's Journal contains a passage of text, which is of no great relevance but it is long enough to allow translation of one of the scripts: |
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