Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary b9 323-0

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 ...

ma sign, is found in both the 14th century BC Amarna letters and 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 ...

''. In the Epic it is also used as the

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 ...

MA, (for

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 ...

"mina", ''manû'', a weight measure, as MA.NA, or MA.NA.ÀM). The ''ma'' sign is often used at the end of words, besides its alphabetic usage inside words as syllabic ''ma'', elsewhere for ''m'', or ''a''. The usage of cuneiform ''ma'' in the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'', is only exceeded by the usage of

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 ...

(1369 times, and 58, A (Sumerogram), versus 1047 times for ''ma'', 6 for MA (Sumerogram)). The high usage for ''a'' is partially a result of the prepositional use for ''a-na''-(Akkadian "ana", ''to, for'', etc.); "''i''", also has an increased prepositional use of

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; als ...

, for Akkadian ''ina'', ( i- na), for ''in, into, etc.''

References

* 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, c 1997, Tablet I thru Tablet XII, Index of Names, Sign List, and Glossary-(pp. 119–145), 165 pages. *

Rainey Rainey is a name of British-Irish origin. People with the surname * Bobby Rainey (born 1987), American National Football League player * Chuck Rainey (born 1940), American bassist * David "Puck" Rainey (born 1968), American reality TV personalit ...

, 1970. ''El Amarna Tablets, 359-379,'' Anson F. Rainey, (AOAT 8, ''Alter Orient Altes Testament 8'', Kevelaer and Neukirchen -Vluyen), 1970, 107 pages. ---- File:Amarna letter mp3h8878.jpg,

Amarna letter EA 365 Amarna letter EA 365, titled ''Furnishing Corvée Workers,'' is a squarish, mostly flat clay tablet, but thick enough (pillow-shaped), to contain text that continues toward the right margin, the right side of the obverse side, and also to the r ...

(reverse, top half), ''"Furnishing Corvée Workers"'',

Biridiya Biridiya was the ruler of Megiddo in the 14th century BC. Biridiya authored five of the Amarna letters correspondence. The name 'Biridiya' is also mentioned in the corpus from the city of 'Kumidu' (letter KL 72:600), the Kamid al lawz. However, ...

to Pharaoh, (subject corvee labor, and townsites: Shunama, Yapu, and

Nuribta Nuribta, also Nuribda, was a city, or city-state located in the vicinity of Magiddo in Israel, in historical Canaan during the time of the Amarna letters correspondence, a 15-20 year period of about 1350- 1335 BC. The majority of the Amarna lett ...

).
The "alphabetic" ma sign is used in the 7th line (Line 21), for URU-(city)-Šu-na-ma-ki, sixth character from left.
i- i-Na_(cuneiform)">na)_'City'-Shunama-(yours)"(ki_(cuneiform).html" ;"title="Na_(cuneiform).html" ;"title="nglish: line 21: "in ( i-Na (cuneiform)">na) 'City'-Shunama-(yours)"(ki (cuneiform)">ki)]
(text reads left-to-right, with a common signature of the right side of some characters ending in vertical single, or multiple strokes). (high resolution, expandible photo) Cuneiform signs