catboy-beb0p
asked:

This is only half a joke, but how would you translate "live, laugh, love" into Sumerian?

sumerianlanguage
answered:

Hmm, let me give this a try! As a Sumerian slogan, I’d probably want to avoid using the imperative forms, which would translate as something like “you’d better live! laugh! and love! or else” or “I wish you would live, laugh, and love…” neither of which get quite the right tone.

Instead, I’d probably just use nouns: zi, isish, namkianga  “life, laughter, love”, written 𒍣 𒅖 𒉆𒆠𒉘. If we wanted to mimic the same-syllable-ness of the original, namtil, isish, kiang 𒉆𒋾 𒅖 𒆠𒉘 “living, laughter, loving” is an option. Or, to maintain the alliteration and to have cuneiform of equal length, namguli namzilzil namkianga 𒉆𒆪𒇷 𒉆𒉣𒉣 𒉆𒆠𒉘 “friendship, pleasantness, love” might work.

If anybody makes one of these into a wall art, let me know! ^__^