Language - precise? Ha!

Cuneiform was a language used long ago.  The language was like English, it was used across a great extent of the commercial world, called a lingua franca.  It was the first written script that the modern world knows about.  It was spoken for a really long time in this commercial center of the world, probably around 2000 years.  People knew of it or knew it well enough to trade with it apparently because people from both east and west came to the fertile crescent area of the Earth.

That old script of runes was used to record business transactions at first, but as time passed, it was used for everything writing is used for, such as laws and stories.  Very few people can read this script, so we have to take the word of these erudite individuals as to what the signs mean, but there has been little controversy, for the most part, over the translations of tablets using these symbols.  As with any ancient tongue, some controversy does arise, however, because some words seem to have a plethora of meanings and context determines what is being said. That's a little problematic, though, because sometimes contexts are figurative, so they support more than one meaning of a word.  These are called interpretations, of course.

There's  a very interesting word from cuneiform that has the potential to change the way we think about our origins.  The idea is not new, but it is gaining more and more support.  It was perpetuated in the 1980s by a movie about Mars.  At the end of the movie, Earth travelers found a disguised edifice on Mars that housed the account of the destruction of Mars and the migration of its inhabitants to the Earth.  Stargate the movie and series capitalized also on the idea that humans were started as a result of efforts of ETs from another galaxy.  The story in cuneiform echoes this theme because it has to do with the origins of humanity on Earth and uses the term anunaki. Mostly the translators have assigned the word's meaning as a group of gods.  So, all the council of the gods like Ea and Enlil are considered the Anunaki.  But, there is a part of the story that doesn't fit this assignment of meaning.  The Anunaki said they came from another galaxy to be here.  Now if this is true, then we need to evaluate again the creation myths that come from this time period.  For one, there's not really a creation.   For two, there's not really a council of deities, but a people from another planet.  The Hopi Native American stories support the same hypothesis.

A word like Anunaki makes one aware of the pitfalls of reducing any language into some precise set of rules for spelling (for there are 3 spellings of annunnaki), syntax or meanings.  But, it's ok.  Those who consider themselves a part of the established gatekeepers of the English language are about to meet their demise.  Of course, they will depart with their usual venting of spleens, and vocally at that.  Language has its moments when it is exact, but it sure has its moments that cause discomfort for those who want it to always be exact.  Language was rich in its cuneiform form.  It's rich now.  It will be rich when its current written form goes by the wayside in favor of holographic transmission of complete environments.  Whatever form language takes, it will have a precise side, but it will mainly deal in interpretations into perpetuity.  Can't wait to see the holographic form of Anunaki!  Maybe the movies E.T. and Paul have merit.  What cute Anunaki if that's true.