Questions tagged [akkadian]
Use for questions about Akkadian (or Babylonian), an extinct East Semitic language formerly spoken in what is now Iraq.
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Was the "a" glyph ever used for ajV in Hittite?
As fdb mentioned in a comment:
The sequence a-a is a scribal convention for ajV [in Akkadian]. Some Assyriologists treat it as a single sign with the “Lautwert” aju, aji, aja
In Hittite, ...
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What is Ś in Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform?
In a few different places (1) (2), ORACC lists Ś (S with acute accent, U+015A) as a Unicode character used for Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform transcription.
However, I've never seen this letter used (in ...
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Why do some theophoric names put the verb first?
Across several Afro-Asiatic languages, it used to be common to use entire sentences as personal names, usually with a deity involved. For example, the emperor Nebuchadnezzar's name in Akkadian was ...
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Did Sumerian have /ħ/?
According to Gelb 1961, the famous Sumerian sign É ("house, building") was originally pronounced /ħa/ (or ḥa in Semiticist transcription). The main evidence for this is loanwords into other ...
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Were long vowels distinguished in cuneiform?
Hittite cuneiform occasionally shows "plene" spellings, with extra vowel signs that might indicate vowel length, or show the height of back vowels, or distinguish homophones (like the French grave ...
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How do we name a sign when we don't know any of its readings?
In the Hittite text CTH 591, we see this curious passage:
9-an ŠI 9-an SIG₇-an 9-an GAŠAN-TI MU-ḪI.A-uš a-aš-šu-ša-aš
9-ACC eye 9-ACC yellow.green-ACC 9-ACC lady- ?? year-PL-ACC good....
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Is a final -u in Semitic languages known outside of Akkadian?
Consider Akkadian bētu vs. Hebrew bayit (בַּיִת) (meaning "house") and Akkadian daltu vs. Hebrew delet (דֶּלֶת) (meaning "door"). Are these endings known outside of Akkadian? If so, when did they ...
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Did the discovery of Akkadian texts written in Ugaritic script affect our knowledge of Akkadian?
Besides Ugaritic, Hurrian and Akkadian texts, written in Ugaritic alphabetic script, were also discovered at Ras Shamra.1
My question is straightforward: did the discovery of Akkadian texts written ...
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How many sibilants did Old Akkadian cuneiform distinguish?
According to fdb's answer to another question:
It is believed that Old Akkadian (at least) still retained the Semitic distinction of s₁, s₂ and s₃ and used different signs for syllables containing ...
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What are good references on Eblaite cuneiform?
According to Wikipedia's article on the Eblaite language:
Studying the usage context for the symbols I, I2, A, ʾA, ḪA, etc. with regard to the writing conventions of Akkadian scribes enabled the ...
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How were glottal stops indicated in Akkadian cuneiform?
According to Huehnergard, Akkadian had a phonemic glottal stop. This makes sense, given the language's heritage.
However, he doesn't seem to mention it anywhere in the chapters on orthography, and I ...
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How can I find the word "behind" a cuneiform logogram?
Suppose I'm looking at a clay tablet, when come across an unfamiliar sign.
Looking up that second glyph in a sign list, I see that it's called GAR; putting that into the ePSD, I'm told it can be read ...
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Tabannusi in cuneiform script
I'd like to know how to correctly write a word "tabannusi" (build) in sumerian alphabet. Is there a chance then anyone can help me?
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Was the sign U gunû actually pronounced "ugunu"?
In Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform, the Akkadian word gunû "colored, decorated" is used to describe signs hatched across with little diagonal strokes. For example, the sign GAŠAN "lady" (...
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How do you form demonyms in Sumerian as well as Akkadian?
If I'm not mistaken, the Sumerians called themselves as 𒊕𒈪𒂵 (saĝ-gíg-ga) and their country as 𒆠𒂗𒄀 (k-en-gi(-r), how would you turn that into an adjectival form or demonym like how -n is added to ...
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Proto-Uralic *kämä vs Akkadian kamūnu
The English Wikipedia article for "cumin" mentions
All of these ultimately derive from Akkadian 𒂵𒈬𒉡 (kamūnu).
In Hungarian, caraway seeds are called köménymag, keménymag where the word &...
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Meaning of Old Babylonian word pāqidūtum [closed]
I am learning the Old Babylonian language and just stumbled over the word/form pāqidūtum. It seems to be a third person male stativ singular + u + the female ending tum of the verb paqadum (to care ...
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How to decode the Cuneiform ORACC data?
I just found this, the "OGSL Signlist" for Cuneiform. Remove the frame to get here. I click on a sign like A.EDIN and see this:
Values:eribₓ; eru₄; erua; erum₄; ummuₓ; ummudₓ.
for |A.EDIN| as ...
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Which part of the Oracc data is to be used for pronunciation of Akkadian words?
I shared this Oracc RINAP JSON example in my last post, but now I'm focusing on how to automatically generate an IPA version of each Akkadian "word", from some sort of input word/text.
It ...
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A question about cuneiform transliteration
In Akkadian context, there are basically two ways to “read” a given sign:
(I): a logographic reading; the values are inherited from the Sumerian period. In this case, the sign will be transliterated ...
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The nature of “sign name”
In Akkadian context, there are basically two ways to “read” a given sign:
(I): a logographic reading; the values are inherited from the Sumerian period. In this case, the sign will be transliterated ...
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What is the meaning of these verbal roots in The Concise Dictionary of Akkadian?
I am referring to this PDF or this HTML version of the "verbal roots" in The Concise Dictionary of Akkadian.
The HTML site says of them pretty much the same thing:
This index of Akkadian ...
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How do you pronounce 𒋡𒀾𒁉?
How do you pronounce the word 𒋡𒀾𒁉
𒋡𒀾𒁉 is an old akkadian word for:
fallen fruit
old fruit
dried fruit
something falling from the sky or a tree
something flowing, running, or trickling down
A ...
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What was the meaning of the word "Guedena"? [closed]
According to Wikipedia, Guedena, (also, "Gu-Edin", or "Gu'edena") was a fertile plain in Sumer.
Guedena
Gu-Edin (also transcribed "Gu'edena" or "Guedena") was ...
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Why are there top-level words in Akkadian dictionary, all of which are unpronounceable directly?
I have been digging into the Oracc RINAP dataset, which includes lots of "grammatical entries" in a huge JSON file, an example entry which looks like this:
{
"headword": "...
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