# Cuneiform Numbers and Punctuation

In Unicode, the Sumero-Akkadian Cuneiform script is covered in three blocks in the Supplementary Multilingual Plane (SMP):
* U+12000–U+123FF Cuneiform
* U+12400–U+1247F Cuneiform Numbers and Punctuation
* U+12480–U+1254F Early Dynastic Cuneiform
The sample glyphs in the chart file published by the Unicode Consortium show the characters in their Classical Sumerian form (Early Dynastic period, mid 3rd millennium BCE). The characters as written during the 2nd and 1st millennia BCE, the era during which the vast majority of cuneiform texts were written, are considered font variants of the same characters.

## Organization

The final proposal for Unicode encoding of the script was submitted by two cuneiform scholars working with an experienced Unicode proposal writer in June 2004. The base character inventory is derived from the list of Ur III signs compiled by the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative of UCLA based on the inventories of Miguel Civil, Rykle Borger (2003), and Robert Englund. Rather than opting for a direct ordering by glyph shape and complexity, according to the numbering of an existing catalogue, the Unicode order of glyphs was based on the Latin alphabetic order of their 'main' Sumerian transliteration as a practical approximation.

## Block

Cuneiform Numbers and Punctuation Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF) :
| | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F |
| U+1240x | 𒐀 | 𒐁 | 𒐂 | 𒐃 | 𒐄 | 𒐅 | 𒐆 | 𒐇 | 𒐈 | 𒐉 | 𒐊 | 𒐋 | 𒐌 | 𒐍 | 𒐎 | 𒐏 |
| U+1241x | 𒐐 | 𒐑 | 𒐒 | 𒐓 | 𒐔 | 𒐕 | 𒐖 | 𒐗 | 𒐘 | 𒐙 | 𒐚 | 𒐛 | 𒐜 | 𒐝 | 𒐞 | 𒐟 |
| U+1242x | 𒐠 | 𒐡 | 𒐢 | 𒐣 | 𒐤 | 𒐥 | 𒐦 | 𒐧 | 𒐨 | 𒐩 | 𒐪 | 𒐫 | 𒐬 | 𒐭 | 𒐮 | 𒐯 |
| U+1243x | 𒐰 | 𒐱 | 𒐲 | 𒐳 | 𒐴 | 𒐵 | 𒐶 | 𒐷 | 𒐸 | 𒐹 | 𒐺 | 𒐻 | 𒐼 | 𒐽 | 𒐾 | 𒐿 |
| U+1244x | 𒑀 | 𒑁 | 𒑂 | 𒑃 | 𒑄 | 𒑅 | 𒑆 | 𒑇 | 𒑈 | 𒑉 | 𒑊 | 𒑋 | 𒑌 | 𒑍 | 𒑎 | 𒑏 |
| U+1245x | 𒑐 | 𒑑 | 𒑒 | 𒑓 | 𒑔 | 𒑕 | 𒑖 | 𒑗 | 𒑘 | 𒑙 | 𒑚 | 𒑛 | 𒑜 | 𒑝 | 𒑞 | 𒑟 |
| U+1246x | 𒑠 | 𒑡 | 𒑢 | 𒑣 | 𒑤 | 𒑥 | 𒑦 | 𒑧 | 𒑨 | 𒑩 | 𒑪 | 𒑫 | 𒑬 | 𒑭 | 𒑮 | |
| U+1247x | 𒑰 | 𒑱 | 𒑲 | 𒑳 | 𒑴 | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Notes 1.^ As of Unicode version 16.0 2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points |||||||||||||||||

## Signs

    See also list of cuneiform signs.
The following table allows matching of Borger's 1981 and 2003 numbering with Unicode characters The "primary" transliteration column has the glyphs' Sumerian values as given by the official glyph name, slightly modified here for legibility by including traditional assyriological symbols such as "x" rather than "TIMES". The exact Unicode names can be unambiguously recovered by prefixing, "CUNEIFORM [NUMERIC] SIGN", replacing "TIMES" for "x", "PLUS" for "+" and "OVER" for "/", "ASTERISK" for "*", "H" for "Ḫ", "SH" for "Š", and switching to uppercase.
| Sign | Code point | Name | Borger (2003) | Borger (1981) | Comments |
| 𒀸 | U+12038 | one AŠ | 001 | | 1, from general Cuneiform_(Unicode_block) not this block |
| 𒐀 | U+12400 | two AŠ | 002 | 2 | 2, = U+1212C |
| 𒐁 | U+12401 | three AŠ | 004 | | 3, EŠ$_6$ |
| 𒐂 | U+12402 | four AŠ | 215 | 124,42 | 4, LIMMU$_2$, LIMM$_2$, TAB.TAB |
| 𒐃 | U+12403 | five AŠ | 216 | | 5, IA$_7$, TAB.TAB.AŠ |
| 𒐄 | U+12404 | six AŠ | 217 | | 6, AŠ$_4$, TAB.TAB.TAB |
| 𒐅 | U+12405 | seven AŠ | 218 | | 7, IMIN$_2$, TAB.TAB.TAB.AŠ |
| 𒐆 | U+12406 | eight AŠ | 219 | | 8, USSU$_2$, TAB.TAB.TAB.TAB |
| 𒐇 | U+12407 | nine AŠ | 220 | | 9, ILIMMU$_2$, TAB.TAB.TAB.TAB.AŠ |
| 𒐈 | U+12408 | three DIŠ | 834 | 593 | 3, 180, EŠ$_5$ |
| 𒐉 | U+12409 | four DIŠ | 851; 852; 853 | 316 | 4, 240, ZA, LIMMU$_5$, NIGIDALIMMU, = U+1235D |
| 𒐊 | U+1240A | five DIŠ | 861 | 598a | 5, 300, IA$_2$ |
| 𒐋 | U+1240B | six DIŠ | 862 | 598b | 6, 360, AŠ$_3$ |
| 𒐌 | U+1240C | seven DIŠ | 863 | 598c | 7, 420 |
| 𒐍 | U+1240D | eight DIŠ | 864 | 598d | 8, 480 |
| 𒐎 | U+1240E | nine DIŠ | | | 9, 540 |
| 𒐏 | U+1240F | four U | 713 | 474 | 40, NIMIN |
| 𒐐 | U+12410 | five U | 714 | 475 | 50, NINNU |
| 𒐑 | U+12411 | six U | 715 | 476 | 60 |
| 𒐒 | U+12412 | seven U | 716 | 477 | 70 |
| 𒐓 | U+12413 | eight U | 717 | 478 | 80 |
| 𒐔 | U+12414 | nine U | 718 | 479 | 90 |
| 𒐕 | U+12415 | one GEŠ$_2$ | | | |
| 𒐖 | U+12416 | two GEŠ$_2$ | | | |
| 𒐗 | U+12417 | three GEŠ$_2$ | | | |
| 𒐘 | U+12418 | four GEŠ$_2$ | | | |
| 𒐙 | U+12419 | five GEŠ$_2$ | | | |
| 𒐚 | U+1241A | six GEŠ$_2$ | | | |
| 𒐛 | U+1241B | seven GEŠ$_2$ | | | |
| 𒐜 | U+1241C | eight GEŠ$_2$ | | | |
| 𒐝 | U+1241D | nine GEŠ$_2$ | | | |
| 𒐞 | U+1241E | one GEŠU | 824 | 534 | GEŠ$_2$.U; 600 or 70 |
| 𒐟 | U+1241F | two GEŠU | | | 1200 or 80 |
| 𒐠 | U+12420 | three GEŠU | | | 1800 or 90 |
| 𒐡 | U+12421 | four GEŠU | | | 2400 or 100 |
| 𒐢 | U+12422 | five GEŠU | | | 3000 or 110 |
| 𒐣 | U+12423 | two ŠAR$_2$ | | | |
| 𒐤 | U+12424 | three ŠAR$_2$ | | | |
| 𒐥 | U+12425 | three ŠAR$_2$ variant form | | | |
| 𒐦 | U+12426 | four ŠAR$_2$ | | | |
| 𒐧 | U+12427 | five ŠAR$_2$ | | | |
| 𒐨 | U+12428 | six ŠAR$_2$ | | | |
| 𒐩 | U+12429 | seven ŠAR$_2$ | | | |
| 𒐪 | U+1242A | eight ŠAR$_2$ | | | |
| 𒐫 | U+1242B | nine ŠAR$_2$ | | | |
| 𒐬 | U+1242C | one ŠARU | 653 | 409 | 36,000 |
| 𒐭 | U+1242D | two ŠARU | | | 72,000 |
| 𒐮 | U+1242E | three ŠARU | | | 108,000 |
| 𒐯 | U+1242F | three ŠARU variant form | | | 108,000 |
| 𒐰 | U+12430 | four ŠARU | | | 144,000 |
| 𒐱 | U+12431 | five ŠARU | | | 180,000 |
| 𒐲 | U+12432 | ŠAR$_2$ x GAL.DIŠ | 651 | 408 | 216,000 |
| 𒐳 | U+12433 | ŠAR$_2$ x GAL.MIN | 652 | 408 | 432,000 |
| 𒐴 | U+12434 | one BURU | 662 | 350,8 | U gunû |
| 𒐵 | U+12435 | two BURU | | | |
| 𒐶 | U+12436 | three BURU | | | |
| 𒐷 | U+12437 | three BURU variant form | | | |
| 𒐸 | U+12438 | four BURU | | | |
| 𒐹 | U+12439 | five BURU | | | |
| 𒐺 | U+1243A | EŠ$_{16}$ | 505 | | 3, = U+1203C |
| 𒐻 | U+1243B | EŠ$_{21}$ | 210 | | 3 |
| 𒐼 | U+1243C | LIMMU | 859; 860 | | 4, NIG$_2$, GAR, NINDA |
| 𒐽 | U+1243D | LIMMU$_4$ | 506 | | 4 |
| 𒐾 | U+1243E | | | | |
| 𒐿 | U+1243F | | | | |
| 𒑀 | U+12440 | AŠ$_9$ | 536 | | 6, EŠ$_{16}$.EŠ$_{16}$ |
| 𒑁 | U+12441 | IMIN$_3$ | 537 | | 7, UMUN$_9$ |
| 𒑂 | U+12442 | IMIN | 863 | | 7 |
| 𒑃 | U+12443 | IMIN variant form | 866 | | 7 |
| 𒑄 | U+12444 | USSU | 867 | | 8 |
| 𒑅 | U+12445 | USSU$_3$ | 538 | | 8 |
| 𒑆 | U+12446 | ILIMMU | 868 | | 9 |
| 𒑇 | U+12447 | ILIMMU$_3$ | 539 | | 9, EŠ$_{16}$.EŠ$_{16}$.EŠ$_{16}$ |
| 𒑈 | U+12448 | ILIMMU$_4$ | 577 | | 9 |
| 𒑉 | U+12449 | DIŠ / DIŠ / DIŠ | 865v | | 9 |
| 𒑊 | U+1244A | two AŠ tenû | 593 | | |
| 𒑋 | U+1244B | three AŠ tenû | 629 | | |
| 𒑌 | U+1244C | four AŠ tenû | 854 | 379; 380 | ZA tenû, ERIM tenû |
| 𒑍 | U+1244D | five AŠ tenû | | | |
| 𒑎 | U+1244E | six AŠ tenû | | | |
| 𒑏 | U+1244F | one BAN$_2$ | 122 | | = U+12047 |
| 𒑐 | U+12450 | two BAN$_2$ | | | |
| 𒑑 | U+12451 | three BAN$_2$ | | | |
| 𒑒 | U+12452 | four BAN$_2$ | | | |
| 𒑓 | U+12453 | four BAN$_2$ variant form | | | |
| 𒑔 | U+12454 | five BAN$_2$ | | | |
| 𒑕 | U+12455 | five BAN$_2$ variant form | | | |
| 𒑖 | U+12456 | NIGIDAMIN | 847, 848 | | |
| 𒑗 | U+12457 | NIGIDAEŠ | 850 | | |
| 𒑘 | U+12458 | one EŠE$_3$ | | | = U+12041, U+12300 |
| 𒑙 | U+12459 | two EŠE$_3$ | | | = U+12049 |
| 𒑚 | U+1245A | one third | 826 | 571 | ŠUŠANA |
| 𒑛 | U+1245B | two thirds | 832 | 572 | |
| 𒑜 | U+1245C | five sixths | 838 | 573 | KINGUSILA |
| 𒑝 | U+1245D | one third variant form | | | |
| 𒑞 | U+1245E | two thirds variant form | | | |
| 𒑟 | U+1245F | one eighth | | | |
| 𒑠 | U+12460 | one quarter | | | |
| 𒑡 | U+12461 | Old Assyrian one sixth | 630 | | Kültepe only |
| 𒑢 | U+12462 | Old Assyrian one quarter | | | |
| 𒑰 | U+12470 | Old Assyrian word divider | | | |
| 𒑱 | U+12471 | vertical colon | 592 | | Glossenkeil |
| 𒑲 | U+12472 | diagonal colon | 592 | | Glossenkeil |
| 𒑳 | U+12473 | diagonal tricolon | | | |

## History

The following Unicode-related documents record the purpose and process of defining specific characters in the Cuneiform Numbers and Punctuation block:
| Version | Final code points | Count | L2 ID | WG2 ID | Document |
| 5.0 | U+12400..12462, 12470..12473 | 103 | L2/00-128 | | Bunz, Carl-Martin (2000-03-01), Scripts from the Past in Future Versions of Unicode |
| 5.0 | U+12400..12462, 12470..12473 | 103 | L2/00-153 | | Bunz, Carl-Martin (2000-04-26), Further comments on historic scripts |
| 5.0 | U+12400..12462, 12470..12473 | 103 | L2/00-398 | | Snyder, Dean (2000-11-07), Cuneiform: From Clay Tablet to Computer |
| 5.0 | U+12400..12462, 12470..12473 | 103 | L2/00-419 | N2297 | Everson, Michael (2000-11-20), Legacy cuneiform font implementations and the ICE project |
| 5.0 | U+12400..12462, 12470..12473 | 103 | L2/03-162 | N2585 | Everson, Michael; Feuerherm, Karljürgen (2003-05-25), Basic principles for the encoding of Sumero-Akkadian Cuneiform |
| 5.0 | U+12400..12462, 12470..12473 | 103 | L2/03-415 | | Snyder, Dean (2003-11-01), Proposal to Encode the Sumero-Akkadian Cuneiform Script in the UCS |
| 5.0 | U+12400..12462, 12470..12473 | 103 | L2/03-393R | N2664R | Everson, Michael; Feuerherm, Karljürgen; Tinney, Steve (2003-11-03), Preliminary proposal to encode Cuneiform script in the SMP of the UCS |
| 5.0 | U+12400..12462, 12470..12473 | 103 | L2/03-416 | | Anderson, Lloyd (2003-11-03), The Cuneiform Encoding Proposal -- a View of its Current Status |
| 5.0 | U+12400..12462, 12470..12473 | 103 | L2/04-080 | | Tinney, Steve (2004-01-24), Rationale for changes to N2664R |
| 5.0 | U+12400..12462, 12470..12473 | 103 | L2/04-036 | N2698 | Everson, Michael; Feuerherm, Karljürgen; Tinney, Steve (2004-01-29), Revised proposal to encode Cuneiform script in the SMP of the UCS |
| 5.0 | U+12400..12462, 12470..12473 | 103 | L2/04-041 | | Anderson, Lloyd (2004-01-29), Fitting Cuneiform Encoding to Cuneiform Script |
| 5.0 | U+12400..12462, 12470..12473 | 103 | L2/04-059 | | Feuerherm, Karljürgen (2004-01-30), Short Response to L2/04-041 "Fitting Cuneiform Encoding to Cuneiform Script" |
| 5.0 | U+12400..12462, 12470..12473 | 103 | L2/04-063 | | Gewecke, Tom (2004-01-30), Re: Cuneiform at UTC |
| 5.0 | U+12400..12462, 12470..12473 | 103 | L2/04-056 | | Veldhuis, Niek (2004-01-31), Letter re "Cuneiform Unicode" |
| 5.0 | U+12400..12462, 12470..12473 | 103 | L2/04-057 | | Jones, Charles E. (2004-02-01), Letter re "Cuneiform" |
| 5.0 | U+12400..12462, 12470..12473 | 103 | L2/04-058 | | Michalowski, Piotr (2004-02-01), Letter re "cuneiform unicode" |
| 5.0 | U+12400..12462, 12470..12473 | 103 | L2/04-064 | | Cooper, Jerry (2004-02-01), Letter re "unicode proposal" |
| 5.0 | U+12400..12462, 12470..12473 | 103 | L2/04-066 | | Durusau, Patrick (2004-02-02), Letter re "Proposal N2698" |
| 5.0 | U+12400..12462, 12470..12473 | 103 | L2/04-081 | | Black, Jeremy (2004-02-02), Letter re "cuneiform Unicode proposal" |
| 5.0 | U+12400..12462, 12470..12473 | 103 | L2/04-086 | | Anderson, Lloyd (2004-02-03), Notes for verbal presentation to UTC meeting, 3 February 2004 |
| 5.0 | U+12400..12462, 12470..12473 | 103 | L2/04-099 | | Anderson, Lloyd (2004-02-09), Unification of cuneiform numbers |
| 5.0 | U+12400..12462, 12470..12473 | 103 | L2/04-225 | | Anderson, Lloyd (2004-06-07), Proposed modifications to introductory text of N2798 = L204-189 Proposal for Cuneiform Encoding |
| 5.0 | U+12400..12462, 12470..12473 | 103 | L2/04-189 | N2786 | Everson, Michael; Feuerherm, Karljürgen; Tinney, Steve (2004-06-08), Final proposal to encode Cuneiform script |
| 5.0 | U+12400..12462, 12470..12473 | 103 | L2/04-223R | | Anderson, Lloyd (2004-06-11), Proposed modifications to delete and add signs to N2798 = L204-189 Proposal for Cuneiform Encoding |
| 5.0 | U+12400..12462, 12470..12473 | 103 | L2/04-354 | | McGowan, Rick (2004-09-20), Cuneiform Properties |
| 5.0 | U+12400..12462, 12470..12473 | 103 | L2/05-135 | | Tinney, Steve (2005-05-10), Corrections to N2786 |
| 5.0 | U+12400..12462, 12470..12473 | 103 | L2/05-174 | | Everson, Michael (2005-07-28), Irish comments on Cuneiform |
| 5.0 | U+12400..12462, 12470..12473 | 103 | L2/05-108R | | Moore, Lisa (2005-08-26), "Cuneiform (C.17)", UTC #103 Minutes |
| 5.0 | U+12400..12462, 12470..12473 | 103 | | N2953 (pdf, doc) | Umamaheswaran, V. S. (2006-02-16), "M47.12", Unconfirmed minutes of WG 2 meeting 47, Sophia Antipolis, France; 2005-09-12/15 |
| 5.0 | U+12400..12462, 12470..12473 | 103 | L2/12-112 | | Moore, Lisa (2012-05-17), "Consensus 131-C30", UTC #131 / L2 #228 Minutes, Change the numeric values for 1240F..12414 to 40..90, for Unicode 6.2. |
| 5.0 | U+12400..12462, 12470..12473 | 103 | L2/12-240 | | Davis, Mark (2012-07-20), Property Issues for U6.2 |
| 5.0 | U+12400..12462, 12470..12473 | 103 | L2/12-239 | | Moore, Lisa (2012-08-14), "Consensus 132-C19", UTC #132 Minutes, Give U+12432 and U+12433 the numeric type "numeric" and the numeric values 216,000, and 432,000 respectively. Make U+12456 and 12457 have the numeric type "numeric" and value "-1". |
| 5.0 | U+12400..12462, 12470..12473 | 103 | L2/12-328 | | Anderson, Deborah (2012-10-16), Numeric value fixes for two cuneiform characters |
| 5.0 | U+12400..12462, 12470..12473 | 103 | L2/12-343R2 | | Moore, Lisa (2012-12-04), "Consensus 133-C30", UTC #133 Minutes, Change the numeric value of U+12456 to 2 and U+12457 to 3, for Unicode 6.3. |
| 7.0 | U+12463..1246E, 12474 | 13 | L2/12-002 | N4178R | Everson, Michael; Tinney, Steve (2012-01-16), Proposal for additions and corrections to Sumero-Akkadian Cuneiform |
| 7.0 | U+12463..1246E, 12474 | 13 | L2/12-207R | N4277R | Everson, Michael; Tinney, Steve (2012-07-31), Proposal for additions and corrections to Sumero-Akkadian Cuneiform |
| 7.0 | U+12463..1246E, 12474 | 13 | L2/12-239 | | Moore, Lisa (2012-08-14), "C.3", UTC #132 Minutes |
| ↑ Proposed code points and characters names may differ from final code points and names ||||||