: INTRODUCTION : The Language's Relatives and Development : What about Assyrian? : A note on Sumerian : Pronunciation : About the exercises : THE CUNEIFORM SCRIPT, TRANSLITERATION AND NORMALIZATION : Phonetic writing : Sumerographic writing and phonetic complements : Determinatives : The cuneiform script: how it evolved : Transliteration : Which sign is being used to write a syllable? : Normalization : SOME GENERAL FEATURES OF THE LANGUAGE : Roots and patterns : Position of the verb within the sentence : Articles : Pronouns as subjects of verbs : Sound changes : Syllables and division into syllables ('syllabification') : Sound change 1: vowel elision : Sound change 2: vowel contraction : Sound change 3: assimilation of consonants : OVERVIEW OF NOUNS AND ADJECTIVES : Case : Gender : Number : Words functioning as nouns : NOUNS AND ADJECTIVES, SINGULAR : The second millennium BC : The first millennium BC : NOUNS AND ADJECTIVES, PLURAL : The second millennium BC : Masculine nouns: : Masculine adjectives: : Feminine nouns and adjectives: : The first millennium BC : HOW TO SAY 'OF': THE 'CONSTRUCT STATE' : Origin of 'construct' forms : Formation of the 'construct state' in the singular : Formation of the 'construct state' in the plural : Use of the singular and plural construct forms : ADVERBS AND LOCATIVES : OVERVIEW OF VERBS : The four verb systems : The sub-systems: tn and t : 'Weak' verbs : Verbs with 'a' and verbs with 'e' : Tenses : Pronouns and gender : Summary : THE PRESENT : Forming the present for non-weak verbs s : Forming the present for weak verbs : THE PRETERITE : THE PERFECT : THE STATIVE : VERBAL FORMS FOR ALL PERSONS : HOW TO EXPRESS WISHES AND COMMANDS : SUBORDINATE CLAUSES : VERBS AND THE DIRECTION OF MOTION : PRONOUNS : THE DUAL : A FEW TRICKS OF THE TRADE : Sandhi spellings : Puns : Unorthodox syllable divisions : Special sign readings : Alphabetic influence : Rebus writings : Scribal errors resulting from copying : Scribal errors resulting from dictation : The structure of poetic lines : Structural parallelism : FURTHER READING : APPENDIX: GLOSSED CUNEIFORM READINGS : GLOSSARY.