>>24853570
>transcribed:
>Ur.Nammu lugal.Urim.ak.e
Damn, today I constantly mix up transcription and transliteration.

>>24853589
>Editions of major Sumerian texts all include transcription, right?
I'm not sure about whole works per se, but the corpora of the transliterated tablets, photos and autographs are freely available.
>So there's little reason to get good at cuneiform
Putting aside my personal affection for unusual writing systems, it *appears so*, but I have absolutely zero authority on the matter as I do *not* learn this language at the time. But speaking from my experience with Arabic or Chinese, learning the writing system helps a lot in establishing mental link between the form and content.
>>24853589
>I know about Inanna's Descent to the Underworld, The Matter of Aratta, and a couple of Gilgamesh poems.
I could add Epic of Ninurta to that list. I didn't read it though, but watched an interview with a Russian Sumerologist who authored this translation in Russian, and I found this a very interesting subject.

But yeah, Akkadian does appear to contain a richer literary corpus.

>Finally, did you look Akkadian before, as most Sumerian learners seem to be doing?
As a matter of fact, yes, I did. That's how I know about Huehnergard's Akkadian textbook. It was a long time ago, just did a couple of lessons. Similar in many regards to Modern Standard Arabic lol - more so than I imagined. But it was a self-contained endeavor, not related to Sumerian which didn't interest me at the time.