I thought Sumerian was a Semitic language. Is Eliade wrong, or out dated? Am I wrong? Apparently it was I who erred. Sumerian was originally not a Semitic language, but appears to be an isolate. As Eliade indicates, the original language cannot be tied to any other language groups. However, the close relationship between Sumerian and Akkadian speakers living together in the Tigris Euphrates valley led to a great deal of convergence between the isolate Sumerian and Semitic Akkadian. By around 2,000 BCE Akkadian, albeit with a number of features borrowed from Sumerian, replaced Sumerian and became the common language of Lower Mesopotamia.
