"So whenever I give a lecture, somebody from the audience gets up and says, "Dr Kramer, ... how do you know how to pronounce these words?" And my answer then is as follows: If one of the dead Sumerians that Leonard Woolley dug up at Ur, if he was miraculously resurrected and came into the room and he heard me say, [speaks Sumerian], he would say: "That man Kramer, he’s doing very well; he’s pronouncing his words and I understand them. But my goodness does he have a Jewish accent.""
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Academics from the United StatesHistorians from the United StatesJews from the United StatesTranslators from the United StatesOrientalists
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Interviewed by John R. Maier for Brockport Television Writers Forum (6 October 1981), YouTube; Transcript
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Samuel_Noah_Kramer
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Samuel Noah Kramer
Samuel Noah Kramer (September 28, 1897 – November 26, 1990) was one of the world's leading Assyriologists, an expert in Sumerian history and Sumerian language.
2 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Samuel Noah Kramer →
Related Quotes
"The Sumerologist is one of the narrowest of specialists in the highly specialized academic halls of learning, a well-…"
"For him delicious flavors dwell In books as in old Muscatel."
"And in the evening, everywhere Along the roadside, up and down, I see the golden torches flare Like lighted street-la…"
"Song like a rose should be; Each rhyme a petal sweet; For fragrance, melody, That when her lips repeat The words, her…"
"Americans have always been especially prone to regard all things as resulting from the free choice of a free will. Pr…"
"Democracy is clearly most appropriate for countries which enjoy an economic surplus and least appropriate for countri…"
"Here, for the last time together, appeared a triumvirate of old men, relics of a golden age, who still towered like g…"
"The hunter catches a dreadful prey, the seaman steers his ship into an unspeakable harbor, the plowman sows and reaps…"
"You are the king no doubt, but in one respect, at least, I am your equal: the right to reply. I claim that privilege …"