The word for"wind": How ancient civilizations explained an invisible force

"The oldest written language in the world is generally now agreed to be Sumerian, forged in the kingdom of Sumer in what is now southeastern Iraq, the origins of which date back to around 3100 BCE -­ 5,000 years ago, during the Bronze Age. The writing is in cuneiform script, patterns of largely wedge-­shaped lines that were impressed with a sharpened reed onto tablets of softened and leather-­hard clay, eventually baked to ensure their preservation."

"A word for wind exists in Sumerian -­ it is lil. The lexical story of this particular word is a little more complicated, however, since Sumerians, as far as we know, may well have been aware of wind and its effects, yet did not fully understand what caused the air -­ which was also invisible, of course -­ to move. There are Sumerian words for other features of the weather - for rain, for clouds, for ice, fog, thunder, and lightning."

"There is even a cuneiform word for snow, which was not common in Mesopotamia but which certainly occurred once in a while, and the existence of which, together with the challenges it presented to a settled desert people, presumably kept them intellectually on their toes. All of these things -­ rain, fog, clouds, snow, and so forth -­ are all easily seen, discernible, visible, describable, and so lend themselves to having a cuneiform noun determined for them and an utterable sound evolved for them."

Sumerian is the earliest attested written language, emerging in Sumer around 3100 BCE and recorded in cuneiform impressed on clay tablets then baked for preservation. Sumerians had a specific term for wind, lil, but lacked a clear explanation for why invisible air moved and recognized wind chiefly by its observable effects. Sumerian vocabulary also named rain, clouds, ice, fog, thunder, lightning, and occasional snow. Visible weather phenomena lent themselves to distinct cuneiform nouns and spoken terms, while wind was conceptualized through secondary signs such as rippling water, waving branches, dust devils, and dishevelled clothing.

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