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 wedg ...

alphabetic um sign, also dup, tup, ṭup, and DUB, the Sumerogram (

logogram In a written language, a logogram, logograph, or lexigraph is a written character that represents a word or morpheme. Chinese characters (pronounced ''hanzi'' in Mandarin, ''kanji'' in Japanese, ''hanja'' in Korean) are generally logograms, as ...

), 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 ...

"ṭuppu",Parpola, 1971. ''The Standard Babylonian

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 wit ...

'', Glossary, pp. 119-145, ṭuppu, p. 144. (= the

clay tablet In the Ancient Near East, clay tablets (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 tablet with a styl ...

), is found in both the 14th century BC Amarna letters and the

. In the Amarna letters as ''um'', it is found as ''um-ma'' in the introduction of the letters as ''"Message (thus)"''...(and then the PN (personal name) of the individual sending, or authoring the letter). In specific texts with dialogue, for example Amarna letter EA 19, ''Love and Gold'', an extensive discussion is made by the king of Babylon about his father, ancestry, friendship between kings, envoys, women (for the harem, or wife), etc., and consequently the dialogue is preceded by ''um-ma'' ("quote"), then the dialogue by the messenger, (or the king).

References

Moran, William L. William Lambert Moran (August 11, 1921 – December 19, 2000) was an American Assyriologist. He was born in Chicago, United States. In 1939, Moran joined the Jesuit order. He then attended Loyola University in Chicago, where he received his ...

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 through Tablet XII, Index of Names, Sign List, and Glossary-(pp. 119–145), 165 pages. * Rainey, 1970. ''El Amarna Tablets, 359-379,'' Anson F. Rainey, (AOAT 8, ''Alter Orient Altes Testament 8'', Kevelaer and Neukirchen -Vluyen), 1970, 107 pages. Cuneiform signs {{Semitic-lang-stub