Etymology, the language of the birds, and the Sumerian syllabary

Where they come from. Etymology, a scholarly discipline, was born in the nineteenth century from the comparative grammar of languages. The language of the birds is a tradition of listening, popularized by Fulcanelli in 1926 in The Mystery of the Cathedrals. The Sumerian syllabary comes from the cuneiform script of Mesopotamia, the oldest writing known. Its signs were cataloged by René Labat in the Manuel d'épigraphie akkadienne, and John A. Halloran compiled the Sumerian Lexicon. The novelist Anton Parks also offers an original key to reading, through a matrix language he calls Emešà.

What they draw on. The given names and surname at birth, the name in everyday use, and the first and last names of both parents. Etymology goes back to the root and original meaning of each name. The language of the birds interprets it through sound: homophones and ways of dividing the name into sounds. The syllabary breaks it down as it is pronounced, and reads each syllable as a Sumerian sign.

What they are for. To hear what a name carries even before one inhabits it: a heritage, an image, sometimes a calling. The parents' names tell what the lineage passes on, and how the child's first name extends it or departs from it. When the three readings meet, the trait counts. The first can be verified; the other two are resonances.

A name has never determined anyone. It comes before the person and goes along with them, and it can always be changed.