Bram Jagersma, one of the world’s leading authorities (probably the leading authority) on Sumerian grammar, is working on a new version of his textbook—and in a pre-release chapter, he argues that the Sumerian word nen means not “this one” but “one like this”.
This changes everything—the famous Sumerian “dog walks into a bar” joke has to be completely reinterpreted! Now the dog says not “I’ll open this one” but “I’ll open one like this”!
(For anyone who doesn’t study ancient languages for a living—the world’s oldest known bar joke is written in Sumerian. The traditional translation was “A dog walks into a bar. He says, ‘I can’t see a thing. I’ll open this one.’” What exactly this means has long been a mystery.)