The

cuneiform Cuneiform is a Logogram, logo-Syllabary, syllabic writing system that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Near East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. Cuneiform script ...

ù sign ('u, no. 3'), is found in both the 14th century BC Amarna letters and the ''

Epic of Gilgamesh The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' () is an epic poetry, epic from ancient Mesopotamia. The literary history of Gilgamesh begins with five Sumerian language, Sumerian poems about Gilgamesh (formerly read as Sumerian "Bilgames"), king of Uruk, some of ...

''. Its use is as a conjunction, (translated as for example: ''and, but, else, until,'' etc.), but rarely it is substituted for ''alphabetic u'', but that vowel ''u'' is typically represented by 'u, no. 2', (u prime), ú; occasionally 'u, no. 1', (

u (cuneiform) The cuneiform U sign is found in both the 14th century BC Amarna letters and the ''Epic of Gilgamesh''. It can be used for the alphabetic ''u'', instead of the more common 2nd u, (ú). It has two other uses, commonly. It can be used for th ...

), , (mostly used for a conjunction, and ''numeral 10''), is also substituted for the "alphabetic u". The use of ''ù'' is often as a "stand-alone" conjunction, for example between two listed items, but it is used especially as a

segue A segue ( , ; ) is a transition from one topic or section to the next. In music In music, ''segue'' is a direction to the performer. It means ''continue (the next section) without a pause''. The term ''attacca'' is used synonymously. For writ ...

in text, (example Amarna letters), when changing topics, or when inserting segue-pausing positions. In the Amarna letters, it is also commonly immediately followed by a preposition: '' a- na'', or '' i- na'', used as ''"...And, to...."'', or ''"...And, in...."''; also ''"...But, for...."'', etc. This usage with a preposition is also a better example of the segue usage. Of the three u's, by graphemic analysis (Buccellati, 1979), the commonness is as follows: :ù (cuneiform), conjunction only (but also rare, for alphabetic "u") :

ú (cuneiform) The cuneiform sign ú is a common-use sign of the Amarna letters, the ''Epic of Gilgamesh,'' and other cuneiform texts (for example Hittite texts). It has a secondary sub-use in the Epic of Gilgamesh for šam. Linguistically, it has the alph ...

, alphabetic 'u' :

, alphabetic (minor), 10, conjunction (highest use) Both "ù (cuneiform)" and ú are in the top 25 most used signs, but E (cuneiform) and "u (cuneiform)" are not; other vowels (or combination) in the 25 are:

a (cuneiform) The cuneiform sign 𒀀 ( DIŠ, DIŠ OVER DIŠ) for a, and in the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' the sumerogram A, Akkadian for ''mû'', "water", which is used in the ''Gilgamesh flood myth'', Chapter XI of the Epic, or other passages. The sign is ...

i (cuneiform) The cuneiform i sign is a common use vowel sign. It can be found in many languages, examples being the Akkadian language of the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' (hundreds of years, parts of millenniums) and the mid 14th-century BC Amarna letters; al ...

, and

ia (cuneiform) The cuneiform ia sign 𒅀, is a combined sign, containing i (cuneiform) ligatured with a (cuneiform); it has the common meaning in the suffix form ''-ia'', for the meaning of "-mine". In the Amarna letters, the letters written to the Pha ...

, (''ia'' which has a secondary use as suffix, ''"-mine"'', or ''"my"'', thus in top 25 most used signs). Suffix ''"iYa"'' is used in the Middle East\Southwest Asia at present day to end placenames, or other names: "My Xxxxx". Usage numbers of ''ù'' in the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' is as follows: ù-(84); Buccellati's usage numbers (330 Amarna letters) is (1848).

Amarna letter varieties

Scribal variants of ''ù'' exist, and especially in the Amarna letters. At least one Amarna letter, EA 367, (Pharaoh to

Endaruta Endaruta was the ruler of Achshaph-(''Akšapa'' of the letters), in the 1350- 1335 BC Amarna letters correspondence. Endaruta was the author of EA 223 ( EA for 'el Amarna') of the letters. He is only referenced in two other letters EA 366 and ...

), has an atypical variant, but the entire letter has somewhat unusual cuneiform signs. (gáb(káp)-(4 uses), tá, and a variant form of um) ("um" also =''ṭup'', also in the letter, for "

clay tablet In the Ancient Near East, clay tablets (Akkadian language, Akkadian ) were used as a writing medium, especially for writing in cuneiform, throughout the Bronze Age and well into the Iron Age. Cuneiform characters were imprinted on a wet clay t ...

"-(''tuppu''), etc.) * Cuneiform-Ù--(EA 367-scribe variant)----(plus added-, covering up the (2)-3 horizontals, (and one added horizontal), as a complete replacement, instead of the horizontals!). The resultant is: wedge+Vertical+wedge+Vertical! (takes up same amount of

line-space)

Partial list of signs beginning with wedge (u)

Partial list of signs beginning with ''u-(wedge)'', from the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' (Parpola, 1971), and the Amarna letters: * Cuneiform-u--Sign No. 1----(conjunction use, and "10"; occasionally for ''u'') * Cuneiform- AMAR, ṣur, zur--Sign No. 2---;

Sumerogram A Sumerogram is the use of a Sumerian cuneiform character or group of characters as an ideogram or logogram rather than a syllabogram in the graphic representation of a language other than Sumerian, such as Akkadian, Eblaite, or Hittite. Th ...

: '' See!''-(''AMAR'') (

Akkadian language Akkadian ( ; )John Huehnergard & Christopher Woods, "Akkadian and Eblaite", ''The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages''. Ed. Roger D. Woodard (2004, Cambridge) Pages 218–280 was an East Semitic language that is attested ...

, "amāru", ''to see, behold'')-(''Note:'' minus ''the vertical stroke'') * Cuneiform- di--Sign No. 3--- * Cuneiform- ki--Sign No. 4--- * Cuneiform- mi-(Sign 5) * Cuneiform- ši--Sign No. 6--- * Cuneiform- ši, lim, or IGI ("in 'face' of", "before"

)--Sign No. 6-----(Abdi-Ashirta), Abdi- A- Ši- iR- Ta, (wedge-sign, 4th sign) * Cuneiform- u--Sign No. u-1--- * Cuneiform- ú--Sign No. u-2----(approximate: ''only 3 verticals'' for ú, (the common alphabetic u)) * Cuneiform-ù-(u-3)--Sign No. 7--- ** (With an added horizontal, , after the left vertical) Also: * Cuneiform- ar, ( Shuwardata of

Amarna letter EA 282 Amarna letter EA 282 is a relatively short ovate clay tablet Amarna letter, located in the British Museum, no. 29851. The letter contains only 16 lines of cuneiform text, in Akkadian language, Akkadian, with lines 12 to 16 covering half of the ta ...

) * Cuneiform- ar--..(=ši + ri) * Cuneiform- nim-(''nem, nim, num'', and

s NIM, NUM) ( EA 34)

References

* Buccellati, Giorgio, (Ugarit-Forschungen 11, 1979). ''Comparative Graphemic Analysis of Old Babylonian and Western Akkadian'', pp. 95–100. * Moran, William L. 1987, 1992. ''The Amarna Letters.'' Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987, 1992. 393 pages.(softcover, ) * Parpola, 1971. ''The Standard Babylonian

'', Parpola, Simo,

Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project The Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project is an international scholarly project aimed at collecting and publishing ancient Assyrian texts of the Neo-Assyrian Empire and studies based on them. Its headquarters are in Helsinki in Finland. State Archives ...

, c 1997, Tablet I thru Tablet XII, Index of Names, Sign List, and Glossary-(pp. 119–145), 165 pages. *Ugarit Forschungen (Neukirchen-Vluyn). UF-11 (1979) honors

Claude Schaeffer Claude may refer to: People and fictional characters * Claude (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Claude (surname), a list of people * Claude Callegari (1962–2021), English Arsenal supporter * Claude Debussy (1862–1918) ...

, with about 100 articles in 900 pages. pp 95, ff, "Comparative Graphemic Analysis of

Old Babylonian Old Babylonian may refer to: *the period of the First Babylonian dynasty (20th to 16th centuries BC) *the historical stage of the Akkadian language Akkadian ( ; )John Huehnergard & Christopher Woods, "Akkadian and Eblaite", ''The Cambridge Enc ...

and Western Akkadian", author Giorgio Buccellati, ( i.e. Ugarit and

Amarna Amarna (; ) is an extensive ancient Egyptian archaeological site containing the ruins of Akhetaten, the capital city during the late Eighteenth Dynasty. The city was established in 1346 BC, built at the direction of the Pharaoh Akhenaten, and a ...

(letters), three others, Mari, OB,Royal, OB,non-Royal letters). ---- File:Hitite cuneiform kv.png, (First line)-Usage of "u"'s no. 1, and no. 2, in the

Hittite language Hittite (, or ), also known as Nesite (Nešite/Neshite, Nessite), is an extinct Indo-European language that was spoken by the Hittites, a people of Bronze Age Anatolia who created an empire centred on Hattusa, as well as parts of the northern ...

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