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 ...

du sign, also kup, and

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 ...

s DU and GUB, is a common-use sign of 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 ...

'', the 1350 BC Amarna letters, and other

texts. In the

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 ...

for forming words, it can be used syllabically for: ''du'', or ''kup'' (and ''ku'', ''up''); also alphabetically for letters ''d'', ''u'', ''k'', or ''p''. (All the four vowels in Akkadian are interchangeable for forming words (''a, e, i, u''), thus the many choices of

scribe A scribe is a person who serves as a professional copyist, especially one who made copies of manuscripts before the invention of Printing press, automatic printing. The work of scribes can involve copying manuscripts and other texts as well as ...

s is apparent for composing actual 'dictionary-entry' words.) It is also true in the

, that some consonants are paired (k/g, k/q), thus the relationship between ''kup'', and sumerogram ''GUB'' is explained (k/G). For the

''GUB'', ''GUB'' in the

becomes ''uzuzzu'',

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

for "to stand", or "to be present"; in the Epic of Gilgamesh, ''GUB'' is only used (2)-times for ''uzuzzu'', and is used elsewhere in the Tablets I-XII (chapters), (15)-times.

''Epic of Gilgamesh'' usage

The usage numbers for ''du'' in the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' are as follows: ''du''-(148) times, ''kup''-(1), and ''DU''-(17) times.

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 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. Cuneiform signs