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Home , Bi (cuneiform), Cuneiform, I (cuneiform), Ma (cuneiform), Mi (cuneiform), Na (cuneiform)

Cuneiform 98-363: Lecture 5 Midsemester grade

• Thanks for staying past the drop deadline!

• Percentage grade = 50% Homework + 50% Exam 1 • Pass iff percentage grade >= 40% Topics to cover by Exam 2

• • Numbers • Pronouns • Sound changes Cuneiform signs

• sign may represent: • (part of) a → • a whole word → • a (classifier)

• Ridiculously complicated

• Type V a, e, , u • Type CV • Only b, m, , t have different signs for Ce and Ci • Plus some other exceptions… • Type VC • Only l, n, š have different signs for eC and iC • Plus some other exceptions… • Type CVC • No distinction between e and i, voiced/voiceless/emphatic. How do we refer to syllabograms?

• We write the name of a polyphonous sign in capital letters. • e.g. the sign can represent ud, ut, uṭ, tam • Given a set of homophonous signs, we refer to: • the most common sign as is; • the 2nd most common sign with on the vowel; • the 3rd most common sign with grave accent on the vowel; • the rest with subscripts.

• e.g. sa, sá, sà, sa4 • We refer to other signs by their phonetic values. Akkadian orthography

• Words are spelled following the syllabification rule Most importantly, this means no (C)VC-V(C) • CVC are more often written as CV-VC than just CVC • kaspum can be -as-pu- • Double consonants are not always indicated • qaqqadum can be qa-aq-qa-dum or qa-qa-dum Extra vowel signs (e.g. šū as šu-u not šu)

Vowel length Word-initially Word-medially Word-finally

Short Almost never (e.g. a) Exception: some 1-syllabic words (e.g. ul as u-ul)

Usually not Usually not Macron Occasionally Exception: some 1-syllabic Exception: some 1-syllabic (e.g. ā) (e.g. kīn as -i-in) words (e.g. šū as šu-u) words (e.g. lū as lu-ú)

Circumflex May or may not Almost always (e.g. â) (e.g. rabîm as --im or ra-bi-i-im) (e.g. imlâ as im--a) How do you know the variants of a (potentially) polyphonic sign? • Look it up in the -Index of Sign Values • Textbook p. 575 (PDF 615/700) • Look up the index in the Sign List • Textbook p. 563 (PDF 603/700) • Polyphonic variants, logographic values

• Run example with UD • This assumes that you somehow know that this sign might be polyphonic or logographic • How do you know that? Practice!

• Normalize: This is the • ag-ra-am šu-a- a- --ar --e bi-tim (Roman) a-gu-úr-ma i-na ba-ne-e bi-tim ú-ul ig--úr. transcription • a-wi-lum šu-ú bi-tam ù eq-lam i-ša-am-ma i-ni-iš.

• šar--um ṭe4-ma-am it-ti eṭ-lu-ti-im iš-ku-um-ma na-ar-ka-ba-ti-im a-na ša--im -ni-i-im ir-ka-bu. • i-na ep-še-tim i-ša-ra-tim ša ru-be-em šu-a-ti na-pí-iš-ti ma-tim i-ṭi--ma ma-tum iḫ-du.

• Represent whole words • Given in capital letters and in their Sumerian pronunciation • e.g. NUN (= rubûm) ‘prince’ • Some signs have a phonographic value and a logographic value • ____ is bu, pu and GÍD (= arkum) ‘long’ • ____ is an, AN (= šamû) ‘sky’ and (= ilum) ‘god’ • Sometimes compounded • ______DUMU.MUNUS (= mārtum) ‘daughter’ consists of DUMU (= mārum) ‘son’ and MUNUS (= sinništum) ‘woman’ Special use of logograms 1: Plurality

• Logogram + MEŠ ‘(.) they are’ • e.g. DINGIR.MEŠ GAL.MEŠ (= ilū rabûtum) ‘great gods’ • Logogram + ḪI.A (ḪÁ) for non- beings • e.g. GUD (= alpum) ‘ox’, GUD.ḪI.A (= alpū) ‘oxen’ • Reduplication • e.g. EN KUR.KUR (= bēl mātātim) ‘master of (all) the lands’ Use case 2: phonetic complements Practice!

• Normalize: This is the • ŠE-um i-na eq-le-tim i--er-ma ni-šu ba--tim (Roman) an-ni-tim ŠE-am -at-ra-am a-na KUG.BABBAR transcription i-na-di-na. • i-na UD--im šu-a-ti i-na-ni ú-ul i-ṭú-la. • -an-na-tum ma-tam ša-a-ti is-ḫu-up-ma ni-šu ma- da-tum i-mu--ma MUNUS.MEŠ DUMU.MEŠ ú- ul ul-da. More realistic normalization task Reminds me of the Japanese system

• Phonograms represent sounds, logograms represent words/phrases

• Japanese has 3 writing systems /nihongo/ ‘Japanese’ • (stems) Logo 日本 語 • (inflections, functionals) Phono にほんご • (loanwords, foreign names) Phono ニホンゴ • Kanji’s were first used logographically to write Chinese, then used phonographically to write Japanese syllables, which developed into the two phonographic writing systems From kanji to hiragana/katakana