Research Notes: Duranki

Note: MaxyBee did not have any notes for this series

Six Words: Epic of Gilgamesh featuring Dr. Stone

Author:

• 三浦 建太郎, Miura Kentarō
  • Mi-u-ra, Ken-ta-ro(x2) (two beats)
  • Don’t let the i and u next to each other in Miura trip you up! Vowel sounds are always pronounced separately, so take your time and pronounce all three syllables clearly and with approximately the same length/stress!
  • Remember that that there is no stress in Japanese, so the given name is not pronounced “Ken-TA-ro” like your first instinct might suggest (putting stress on the second-to-last syllable is a thing from Spanish and Italian that English speakers have mistakenly applied to Japanese words)

Title: Duranki ドゥルアンキ

• The “Du” should clue you into the fact that this is not a Japanese word, since the syllable “du” never appears in Japanese! The title of the manga uses a combination of two different katakana to represent the sound (ドゥ).
• Pronunciation: Doo + ron (like in Ron Burgundy) + key
• Like a lot of this series, this title is a reference to Mesopotamian mythology. Duranki (also called Ekur) is kinda like the Sumerian equivalent of Mount Olympus in Greek mythology. It’s a mountain palace/garden that is the gathering place of the gods. It’s thought that the construction of ziggurats in Mesotamian cities were likely connected to belief in Ekur/Duranki (perhaps trying to copy it or pay tribute to it?)

Characters:

• Usumgallu
  • The ancient Sumerian would likely have the first syllable and the last syllable have long vowels from what I can see online, but replicating the likely ancient pronunciation is tough even for me, so let’s just ignore the vowel length for now
  • Oo-soom-gaul-loo\
  • They say that it means “dragon,” which it might, but it comes from root words that mean “wild duck” + “demon/spirit,” which is kinda a funky way of thinking about a dragon
  • Not really sure where they got the “only” + “great” name explanation the serpent god gives in the opening from…
• Fwawa
  • Have no idea what this comes from, but I would guess that the intended pronunciation is something like “fwah” (as in foie gras) + “wah” (as in that “Wawa” thing y’all have in Pennsylvania)
• Kirta
  • Keer-tah
• Qantes
  • Probably pronounced “Kahn-tess”
  • The Q probably denotes a consonant sound we do not have in English, but I’ll spare you trying to get it :P

Other:

• Mount Nisir
  • Pronounced “nee-seer”
  • A location in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Likely located in modern-day northern Iraq (Kurdistan).
  • The mountain is the final resting place of an ark that the god Enki ordered Utnapishtim to build in preparation for a giant flood that would wipe out all humans and animals (sound familiar?)
  • These stories of massive floods covering the world are actually pretty common in early mythology. A theory about why these stories are so widespread across many different cultures is that they stem from oral traditions dating back to prehistoric times at the end of the most recent glacial period, which sediment records show caused massive floods in many areas of the world.