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The
File:Ayyab letter mp3h8880.jpg, Ayyab's letter to Pharaoh, Amarna letter EA 364. His name is spelled in (line 2)--"um (cuneiform), um-ma (cuneiform), ma A (cuneiform), A-ia (cuneiform), iYa-aB, "...message (speaking), Ayyab..."
(Note, for ab, the second pair of horizontals are at different angles.)
Cuneiform signs
{{Semitic-lang-stub
The cuneiform
Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedge-sh ...
sign for the syllable ab also represents that for ap, or the vowel and consonant usages of a, b, or p: in the Akkadian language
Akkadian (, 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 is an extinct East Semitic language th ...
"b" is unaspirated, formed with the lips, and "p" is aspirated, with the breath). In the Akkadian language "b" and "p" are interchangeable; also, in cuneiform texts, any vowel (a, e, i or u: there is no "o" in Akkadian) can be interchanged with any other. The ab/ap sign also has a corresponding capital letter ( majuscule) usage as a 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 or Hittite.
Sumerograms are n ...
, as found in the ''Epic of Gilgamesh
The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' () is an epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia, and is regarded as the earliest surviving notable literature and the second oldest religious text, after the Pyramid Texts. The literary history of Gilgamesh begins with ...
'' for AB, the Akkadian language for ''šību'', meaning "elder".
In the corpus of the Amarna letters, where ab/ap is also commonly found, the names occur of the authors of letters to the Pharaoh, for example Labaya and Ayyab, in both of which the syllabic use of "ab is found.
The usage numbers for the "ab" cuneiform sign in Tablets I-XII of the ''Epic of Gilgamesh
The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' () is an epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia, and is regarded as the earliest surviving notable literature and the second oldest religious text, after the Pyramid Texts. The literary history of Gilgamesh begins with ...
'' are as follows: ab - 11, ap - 28 and sumerogram AB - 12. For ', Akkadian language for ''elder'', only two spellings use "AB"; six other spellings of ' are syllabic/alphabetic.
References
*William L. Moran, Moran, William L. 1987, 1992. ''The Amarna Letters.'' Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987, 1992. 393 pages.(softcover, ) * Parpola, 1971. ''The Standard BabylonianEpic of Gilgamesh
The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' () is an epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia, and is regarded as the earliest surviving notable literature and the second oldest religious text, after the Pyramid Texts. The literary history of Gilgamesh begins with ...
'', Simo Parpola, Parpola, Simo, Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project, c 1997, Tablet I thru Tablet XII, Index of Names, Sign List, and Glossary-(pp. 119–145), 165 pages.
*Anson Rainey, Rainey, 1970. ''El Amarna Tablets, 359-379,'' Anson Rainey, Anson F. Rainey, (AOAT 8, ''Alter Orient Altes Testament 8'', Kevelaer and Neukirchen -Vluyen), 1970, 107 pages.
(Note, for ab, the second pair of horizontals are at different angles.)