The Sumerian Word for Goose 𒊻-;-

Here I shed light on the semantics, morphology and etymology of the Sumerian word for goose _ 𒊻-;-.

We know that the Sumerian pictograph 𒊻-;- ( pronounced uz) is a combination of two pictographs´-or-symbols _ 𒊺-;-(pronounced š-;-e ) and 𒄷-;- ( pronounced muš-;-en). 𒊺-;- is the Sumerian word for barley´-or-grain. The pictograph 𒄷-;- in Sumerian usually -function-s as the determinative refering to birds as a cateogry. In other words, it follows words like eagle, sparrow, duck etc. to indicate this preceding word is a bird. The pictograph 𒄷-;- can stand also in Sumerian as a noun meaning the word bird. On the other hand, the word 𒊻-;- in Sumerian stands for a duck´-or-a goose.

The semantic correlation between 𒄷-;- and 𒊻-;- is obvious and it is equal to the semantic correlation between the words bird and goose. However, I wonder whether from the point of view of Sumerians´-or-their experience there was a connection between the duck´-or-goose on the one hand and barley´-or-grain on the other hand.

While there are still things to discover´-or-find out in regard to the semantical and morphological aspects related to𒊻-;-, its etymological path seems to be much clearer. It is a loanword which kept its pronunciation in Akkadian (uz). The word continued to appear in other semitic language and is still in use in some languages like Hebrew א-;-ו-;-ו-;-ז-;- , Levantine وز and Modern Standard Arabic إوزة. The word is currently pronounced avz in Modern Standard Hebrew due to the fact the Sound system in Modern Hebrew has several sounds which pertain to Indo-European languages like V, which has replaced the Semitic semivowel 𐤅-;- (waw). Unlike Hebrew, Levantine and Modern Standard Arabic are safegurding the 𐤅-;- (waw) glide´-or-semivowel and hence sustaining seemingly the Sumerian original pronunciation.

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