The Sumerian language is one of the world’s oldest known written languages and holds a crucial place in the history of human civilization. Spoken in ancient Mesopotamia (modern-day southern Iraq), Sumerian was in use as a spoken language from approximately 3100 BCE to around 2000 BCE. However, it continued to be used as a written and liturgical language for many centuries afterward, much like Latin in medieval Europe.
Sumerian is a language isolate, meaning it has no proven linguistic relatives. Unlike Semitic or Indo-European languages, it does not belong to any known language family, and its origins remain mysterious. The Sumerians themselves referred to their language as eme-ĝir ("native tongue"), and it was later distinguished from Akkadian, a Semitic language, as eme-sal ("women's language") in some texts.