Cuneiform signs

Numerals
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The Sumerians used a numerical system based on 1, 10 and 60. The way of writing a number like 70 would be the sign for 60 and the sign for 10 right after. This way of counting is still used today for measuring time as 60 seconds per minute and 60 minutes per hour.

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 File:Cuneiform writing Ur.jpg
The Sumerian cuneiform script had on the order of 1,000 distinct signs (or about 1,500 if variants are included). This number was reduced to about 600 by the 24th century BC and the beginning of Akkadian records. Not all Sumerian signs are used in Akkadian texts, and not all Akkadian signs are used in Hittite.

Falkenstein (1936) lists 939 signs used in the earliest period (late Uruk, 34th to 31st centuries).
With an emphasis on *Sumerian* forms, Deimel (1922) lists 870 signs used in the Early Dynastic II period (28th century, "LAK") and for the Early Dynastic IIIa period (26th century, "ŠL").
Rosengarten (1967) lists 468 signs used in Sumerian (pre-Sargonian).

Lagash and Mittermayer ("aBZL", 2006) list 480 Sumerian forms, written in Isin-Larsa and Old Babylonian times. Regarding *Akkadian* forms, the standard handbook for many years was Borger ("ABZ", 1981) with 598 signs used in Assyrian/Babylonian writing, recently superseded by Borger ("MesZL", 2004) with an expansion to 907 signs, an extension of their Sumerian readings and a new numbering scheme.

Signs used in Hittite cuneiform are listed by Forrer (1922), Friedrich (1960) and the *HZL* (Rüster and Neu 1989). The HZL lists a total of 375 signs, many with variants (for example, 12 variants are given for number 123 *EGIR*).

## Unicode

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As of version 8.0, the following ranges are assigned to the Sumero-Akkadian Cuneiform script in the Unicode Standard:

U+12000–U+123FF (922 assigned characters) "Cuneiform"
U+12400–U+1247F (116 assigned characters) "Cuneiform Numbers and Punctuation"
U+12480–U+1254F (196 assigned characters) "Early Dynastic Cuneiform"
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 "last" Sumerian transliteration as a practical approximation.

## Syllabary

The tables below show signs used for simple syllables of the form CV or VC. As used for the Sumerian language, the cuneiform script was in principle capable of distinguishing at least 16 consonants, transliterated as

*b, d, g, g̃, ḫ, k, l, m, n, p, r, ř, s, š, t, z*
as well as four vowel qualities, *a, e, i, u*.
The Akkadian language had no use for *g̃* or *ř* but needed to distinguish its emphatic series, *q, ṣ, ṭ*, adopting various "superfluous" Sumerian signs for the purpose (e.g. *qe*=KIN, *qu*=KUM, *qi*=KIN, *ṣa*=ZA, *ṣe*=ZÍ, *ṭur*=DUR etc.Template:Clarify)
Hittite as it adopted the Akkadian cuneiform further introduced signs such as *wi5*=GEŠTIN.

## References

1. ↑ Everson, Michael; Feuerherm, Karljürgen; Tinney, Steve (June 8, 2004). "Final proposal to encode the Cuneiform script in the SMP of the UCS Template:Webarchive."
2. ↑ Foxvog, Daniel A.. *Introduction to Sumerian grammar*. pp. 16–17, 20–21. https://cdli.ucla.edu/pubs/cdlp/cdlp0002\_20160104.pdfnone  (about phonemes g̃ and ř and their representation using cuneiform signs).
3. ↑ Template:Cite thesis (about phonemes g̃ and ř and their representation using cuneiform signs).

## Resources

* http://www.virtualsecrets.com/assyrian.html
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuneiform\_(Unicode\_block)