page_title: Dingir
hierarchical_section_title: Dingir
caption_attribution_description: English: King Iddin-Sin name inscription
context_page_description: Dingir is a Sumerian word for "god" or "goddess." Its cuneiform sign is most commonly employed as the determinative for religious names and related concepts, in which case it is not pronounced and is conventionally transliterated as a superscript "D" as in e.g. ᴰInanna.
  The cuneiform sign by itself was originally an ideogram for the Sumerian word an; its use was then extended to a logogram for the word diĝir and the supreme deity of the Sumerian pantheon An, and a phonogram for the syllable. Akkadian took over all these uses and added to them a logographic reading for the native ilum and from that a syllabic reading of. In Hittite orthography, the syllabic value of the sign was again only an.
  The concept of "divinity" in Sumerian is closely associated with the heavens, as is evident from the fact that the cuneiform sign doubles as the ideogram for "sky", and that its original shape is the picture of a star. It is also of note that the eight-pointed star was a chief symbol for the goddess Inanna. The original association of "divinity" is thus with "bright" or "shining" hierophanies in the sky.
context_section_description: Dingir (𒀭, usually transliterated DIĜIR, [tiŋiɾ]) is a Sumerian word for "god" or "goddess."  Its cuneiform sign is most commonly employed as the determinative for religious names and related concepts, in which case it is not pronounced and is conventionally transliterated as a superscript "D" as in e.g. ᴰInanna.
  The cuneiform sign by itself was originally an ideogram for the Sumerian word an ("sky" or "heaven"); its use was then extended to a logogram for the word diĝir ("god" or goddess) and the supreme deity of the Sumerian pantheon An, and a phonogram for the syllable /an/.  Akkadian took over all these uses and added to them a logographic reading for the native ilum and from that a syllabic reading of /il/.  In Hittite orthography, the syllabic value of the sign was again only an.
  The concept of "divinity" in Sumerian is closely associated with the heavens, as is evident from the fact that the cuneiform sign doubles as the ideogram for "sky", and that its original shape is the picture of a star. It is also of note that the eight-pointed star was a chief symbol for the goddess Inanna. The original association of "divinity" is thus with "bright" or "shining" hierophanies in the sky.
caption: The name of Simurrum king "Iddin-Sin" (𒀭𒄿𒋾𒀭𒂗𒍪, I-ti-n Sîn) with the "Dingir" initial silent honorofic 𒀭 for "Divine". The star symbol 𒀭, which can also be pronounced "An", is used again, but phonetically, in the middle of the name, for the sound "n". Stele in the Sulaymaniyah Museum, Iraq.
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