Sumerian dog jokes, or the difficulty of translating dead languages

Re:Sumerian dog jokes, or the difficulty of translating dead... by sir_eliah on Monday March 21, 2022 @09:52AM (#30754118)

I don't know about original clay tablet on which this was written, but it can be found through the original publication I think: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1359157, if someone has access to JSTOR.

About the interpretation, I myself understand only the:

/igi nu-mu-un-du[8]/ - "I don't see anything"

The rest is a bit above my level. But check this alternative interpretation of this joke: https://twitter.com/abbyfheld/status/1501880993833054208

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Re:Sumerian dog jokes, or the difficulty of translating dead... by jtbayly on Monday March 21, 2022 @11:02AM (#30754899)

A friend of mine was taking Akkadian or Sumerian (I can’t remember which) and described the wide range of possible correct translations of a text with a story from class.

One student said it was a receipt for the sale of a cow. The prof said that was one real possibility. Another said it was a love poem. Prof agreed again. :shrug:

But my favorite translation disagreement is from the Epic of Gilgamesh, I think, where one man insists the proper translation of a line is “the lords of the land of the blazing rockets.”

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Re:Sumerian dog jokes, or the difficulty of translating dead... by xsmasher on Monday March 21, 2022 @09:00PM (#30761694)

> One student said it was a receipt for the sale of a cow. The prof said that was one real possibility. Another said it was a love poem. Prof agreed again.

Isn't this the plot of "Foucault's Pendulum?"

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Re:Sumerian dog jokes, or the difficulty of translating dead... by skullt on Monday March 21, 2022 @02:26PM (#30757815)

There's also a comment on that alternative interpretation here: https://twitter.com/LinManuelRwanda/status/15058362781090611...

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