Hello! My name is Guillaume Malingue, I'm 30 and I live in Paris (France). I'm studying Sumerian epigraphy as an auditor in the "Ecole du Louvre", the school of the Louvre museum.

 

When I first tried to summarize my course and organize my class notes, I have soon faced the "font" problem:

Were can I found a good cuneiform font to type sumerian words!

 

After a long search on the Internet I have found two cunieforms fonts:

an akkadian font cuneiform: http://members.aol.com/ricdum/samples.htm#akk

and an old Persian cuneiform: http://reinhold.kainhofer.com/rk_fonts/

 

But no Sumerian cuneiform!

 

Then I decided to create my own font and to freely provide it to the Sumerian community!

 

 

 

 

    

 

I have based all my work on a very nicely build document made by my teacher: Bertrand Lafont from the CNRS (All the credit should be awarded to him, and the mistakes are only due to my own misinterpretation)

and also on the "Manuel d'epigraphie Akkadienne" by René Labat (Geuthner - Paris   - 6éme Edition)

 

I have chosen to draw the 450 most common signs.

As a standard TrueType Font is limited to 256 slots, my UR III Sumerian font necessitate 2 separate font.

You can download them right now:

 

UR III (1) TrueType Font: Summer1.ttf 

 

 

UR III (2) TrueType Font: Summer2.ttf

 

 

If you need some help to install the font just ask me! 

 

They are TrueType fonts, which mean you can change the size as you want, make them Bold or Italic, it will keep a "smooth" aspect:

 

eg: Ki + En + GI = Sumer

Size 10:                                                        

SIZE 30 :

(those are just low definition images, the real font is much better than that!!!....)

 

 

 

   

I have also made an excel file with the transcription between the standard "ASCII/Unicode" strokes and the corresponding cuneiform and their value in Sumerian. (to use it properly you need to install the polices first):

 

 Guillaume Malingue Sumerian font Guidebook.xls  (size: 340 Ko)

 

This file is probably indispensable for and easy use.

As many people fear to download Excel file, I have build a HTML version (but to see it properly you need to install the polices first): UrIIIlist.htm

 

 

 

The process to search each signe one by one may be long, so I have build a small macro in Excel to translate it automatically. It works perfectly and save a huge time!

 e.g.:

- You want to write the sentence: "Ur-Nammu, King of Sumer, King of Akkad":

- You choose a cell and type the words in latin alphabet: Ur Dingir Namma Lugal Ki En Gi Lugal KiUri

- You launch the macro, the sentence is automatically "translated" in cuneiform:

- You can copy it and past it in any Windows application (as a text or as image)

 

If you want this file, just send me a short mail, I'll send it to you! (for free of course!)

 

 

 

 

 

As I spent a long time to build the font, I would greatly appreciate your opinion on it!

just send me an e-mail: gmalingue@yahoo.fr  !!

 

I want to keep the font updated, so if some cuneiform are missing or if you find some mistakes, keep me aware, I'll update it!

 

 

 

 

Next steps...

 

I wanted to provide a full Sumerian dictionary based on John Alloran nice work:

http://www.sumerian.org/sumerlex.htm

but he didn't gave me the authorization to use his work…

 

I want to keep the font updated, so if some cuneiform are missing or if you find some mistake, keep me aware, I'll update it!

 

 

Thanks:

 

* To my teacher Bertrand Lafont for his enthusiast teaching! He gave me desire and will to dig the knowledge of Sumerian language and culture!

 

* To Richard Dumbrill for his kind help and advice. He is the author of the Akkadian TrueType font linked above.

 

 

 

 

 

Last update: August 1st 2004                                                  

Credit & Copyright: gmalingue@yahoo.fr