#separator:tab #html:true # edubba-cuneiform-102 — one card per sign taught in the course, generated by # bin/deck_export.rb from the Edubba registries and Sign Codex. # Import into Anki (File > Import), then enable FSRS in the deck # options for evidence-backed scheduling. 𒈨 rites · ME · [me] · rites, divine powers; to be
The rites are the smallest signs with the largest reach — two strokes that hold up the world, the way ritual does. When a king says lugal-me-en, "I AM king," the being-verb he leans on is this sign.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒁀 allot · BA · [ba] · to allot; the verbal prefix ba-
To allot is to break the loaf: the sign splits into a few quick wedges like portions off a block. Rations, fields, fates — whatever the archive hands out, this sign does the handing.
i₃-na-ba — "(he) allotted (it) to him" (urn:nabu:cdli:p010012:obverse:1:4, license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒉡 not · NU · [nu] · not — the negation
Not is a small bar across the door: three strokes, no ceremony, entry denied. The smallest signs carry the largest switches — this one turns any statement off.
nu-ak — "not done" — most likely folded inside a personal name (approximate) (urn:nabu:cdli:p010063:reverse:5:8, license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒌨 dog · UR · [ur] · dog; in names, "hound of" a god or king
A dog at heel: compact, alert, five quick wedges. In a proverb it wanders and steals; at the front of a name it sits obediently before its master — same dog, two moods.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒋫 from · TA · [ta] · [ta] (ablative marker in context)
From points away: the sign's long wedge pushes off its cluster like a departure. Read -ta and ask from where? since when? — the answer is the word it rides on.
iti a₂-ki-ti-ta — "from the month of Akiti" (urn:nabu:cdli:p100317:reverse:3, license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒂠 rope · EŠ2 · [še] · rope; the terminative -še3
A rope ties one thing TO another — which is exactly what the tag does: it ropes a phrase to its goal. Four wedges, a short lasso thrown toward a purpose.
nam-ti-la-ni-še₃ — "for his life" (urn:nabu:cdli:p216741, license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒂊 levee · E · [e] · [e]; as a word, levee/ditch
A levee is a long bank with cross-cuts — and the sign is exactly that: a row of wedges banked against a line. Not to be mistaken for its towering cousin É, the house: the levee lies low, the house stands tall.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒁉 its · BI · [bi] · its/that; [bi] (a vessel in origin)
A jug on a shelf, and you ask whose lid that is: its — the jug's own. Things own things through this sign; people go another way. If the owner could not sign a receipt, the possessive is -bi.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒋗 hand · ŠU · [šu] · hand
A hand held out, fingers spread — the wedges fan like knuckles. Everything given, taken, or signed for in the archives passes through this sign; follow the hand and you follow the goods.
šu-i — barber — the profession title, as the receipts spell it (urn:nabu:cdli:p010501:reverse:5:10, license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒈠 workhorse · MA · [ma] · [ma] — a spelling workhorse
Every stable needs its workhorse: unglamorous, strong, in harness every single day. This sign has no myth, no picture, no famous word of its own — and the corpus would stop moving without it.
ma-na — a mina — the standard weight, sixty shekels (urn:nabu:cdli:p010743:obverse:3:1, license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒌗 month · ITI · [iti] · month — the day-sign with thirty tucked inside
A month is a box of days: the day-sign made into a container, the number thirty rattling inside. When a tablet needs a date, it reaches for the box first, then names which box.
iti a₂-ki-ti — "month of the Akiti festival" (urn:nabu:cdli:p100219:reverse:3, license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒊏 toward · RA · [ra] · [ra] (dative marker in context)
Toward someone: the sign leans its wedges forward like a messenger already moving. When you meet -ra, someone is about to receive something — find out who.
ama diŋir-re-ne-ra — "for the mother of the gods" (urn:nabu:cdli:p216741, license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒇲 weigh · LAL · [la] · to hang, to weigh out; the spelling la₂
Weigh: two pans hanging from a beam — the sign suspends its wedges the same way. Whatever hangs is being measured; whatever is la₂ on a tablet has been put on the scale.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒍝 bead · ZA · [za] · bead, precious stone; [za] — za-e, "you"
A bead is small, hard, and precious — three wedges you could string on a cord. And the person a hymn calls you is precious the same way: za-e, the bead-word aimed at someone who matters.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒂵 milk · GA · [ga] · milk; [ga]
A milk jug in its crate: the sign's wedges rack up like jars in a dairy. Milk is the first food and ga is early everywhere — in the earliest names, it is what children are called after.
ga-naŋ-naŋ — "Milk, drink, drink" (approximate) (urn:nabu:cdli:p010652, license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒉆 fate · NAM · [nam] · fate, destiny; abstract-noun prefix
Fate is the -ness of things: put nam- in front and a king becomes kingship, a life becomes Life. Fate is what you get when the concrete is lifted one shelf up — and the gods keep the knife.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒁕 side · DA · [da] · side; [da] (comitative in context)
Your side is where company walks: the sign spreads a shoulder-and-arm of wedges, making room for whoever comes along. See -da, add "with."
lugal-a₂-zi-da — "The king is my right arm" (approximate) (urn:nabu:cdli:p010063:reverse:6:5, license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒍪 know · ZU · [zu] · to know; the -zu of "your"
What is yours is what you know: one sound covers both, and this one sign writes them both. Say -zu — "your" — and the knowing comes along free.
diŋir-a-zu — Diŋir-azu — "the god knows" (approximate) (urn:nabu:cdli:p010008, license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒄀 reed · GI · [gi] · reed — the writing tool itself; gi in Šul-gi
The reed is the pen drawing its own portrait: one stalk, leaves flagging off it. Every sign in this codex was pressed by a reed — this is the sign where the tool signs its work.
ki-en-gi — Kiengi — Sumer, in its own oldest name (urn:nabu:cdli:p010447:reverse:2:6, license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒅔 in- · IN · [in] · [in]; the verbal prefix in-
In- gets the verb going the way a key turns a lock: the sentence's doing starts the moment you read it. Where the chain opens with these wedges, someone has already acted.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒊮 heart · ŠA3 · [ša] · heart, midst, mood
The heart sits in the middle of everything, and so does this sign's meaning: the inside of a person, a city, a month. When a text goes inward — moods, wombs, interiors — the heart-sign is already there.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒁺 go · DU · [du] · to go; a foot/leg in origin
Go: a leg mid-stride, heel up. Whether a person goes or a jar of oil is walked to the palace, the script sends the same foot to do it.
i₃ e₂-gal DU — "oil — (to the) palace — delivered" (urn:nabu:cdli:p010016, license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒋾 arrow · TI · [ti] · arrow; by rebus, life — the textbook rebus pair
An arrow in flight is the fastest thing a Sumerian ever saw — and life is the thing that flies. Four wedges, fletching and point; aim it at nam- and you get Life itself.
nam-ti-la-ni-še₃ — "for his life" (urn:nabu:cdli:p216741, license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒍣 breath · ZI · [zi] · breath, life; true, righteous (zid)
Breath is the proof of life and the test of truth: hold a blade of grass to the lips and see it move. Where a king is called true, this sign is doing the certifying.
dumu-zi — Dumuzi, "the true son" (approximate) (urn:nabu:cdli:p010019:reverse:3:3', license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒃻 thing · GAR · [niŋ] · thing, property (niŋ₂); to place (gar)
A thing is whatever can be set down on the table — and this sign does both: names the stuff (niŋ₂) and sets it in place (gar). If you can stack it, count it, or gift it, it starts here.
niŋ₂-ba — gift — literally "a thing allotted" (urn:nabu:cdli:p010008:obverse:3:1, license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒆷 abundance · LA · [la] · [la]; abundance
Abundance overflows: nine wedges heaped like grain over the rim. And like plenty itself, the sign turns up everywhere — wherever two syllables need a generous join, la fills the gap.
lu₂-kal-la — "the precious one" — an Ur III official's name, from his own cylinder seal (urn:nabu:cdli:p100014:seal.1:1, license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒋛 horn · SI · [si] · horn; to fill
A horn fills from the point up: tip it and pour. One horn is the thing; say it twice and everything brims — si-si, full to the rim.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒅆 eye · IGI · [igi] · eye; face; before — igi PN, "witnessed by"
An eye with its lid and pupil, lying on its side the way all the old pictures ended up. What the eye has seen, the document can prove — "before the eye of" is how the archives say witnessed.
igi-kalam — Igi-kalam — "Eye of the Land" (approximate) (urn:nabu:cdli:p010607:reverse:3:8, license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒆬 pure · KU3 · [ku] · pure, holy; precious metal
Pure is what gleams: five clean wedges, nothing extra — the sign itself kept spotless. Temple or silver ingot, if it glitters without tarnish, the scribes reached for this sign.
e₂ ku₃ — "the pure house" — a temple's stock epithet (urn:nabu:cdli:p010644:obverse:3:2, license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒎏 lady · NIN · [nin] · lady, queen, mistress
The lady of the house wears the composed sign: a woman's title folded into seven tidy wedges. Meet nin- at the front of a name and bow — a goddess or a queen is being introduced.
nin-a-zu — Nin-azu — "the lady knows" (approximate) (urn:nabu:cdli:p010068, license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒆕 build · KAK · [du] · to build; a peg — the builder's verb of every votive
Build starts with one peg in the ground: stake the corner, raise the wall. The sign IS the first act of construction — read it and hear the mallet.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒄄 return · GI4 · [gi] · to return, restore; to answer
Return is the reed-sign's round trip: it looks like its lookalike GI the reed, but with more to carry — the sign that goes out comes back loaded. Answer, homecoming, restoration: all the same journey home.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒉈 brazier · NE · [ne] · brazier/fire; [ne]
A brazier crackles with nine wedges of kindling — the busiest-looking sign of its chapter. Fire spreads; so does this syllable, into any word that needs its heat.
a-ne-ne — A-nene — a name (approximate) (urn:nabu:cdli:p010528, license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒊬 write · SAR · [sar] · to write; garden plot in origin
To write is to garden in clay: set your rows straight, keep the beds even, harvest meaning. Every scribe who signed dub-sar was calling himself a planter of lines.
dub-sar — "scribe" — tablet-writer, plainly (urn:nabu:cdli:p010009:reverse:1:2, license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒄿 cry · I · [i] · the bare vowel i; the cry of laments (i-lu)
A cry is the smallest word there is — one vowel, thrown into the air. Five wedges stacked like the breath behind a shout; when grief or proclamation needs a sound before it needs a word, this is the sign.
šu-i — barber — the profession title, as the receipts spell it (urn:nabu:cdli:p010501:reverse:5:10, license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒆗 mighty · KAL · [kal] · mighty, strong (kalag); precious
Mighty and precious are one wedge-cluster: strength you can bank. A king is kalag-ga the way a treasure is kal — held tight, worth the holding.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒁲 verdict · DI · [di] · lawsuit, judgment; to speak (di)
A verdict is a line drawn through a dispute — one straight judgment. And till the judgment comes, the case goes on: the same sign ambles through the proverbs as plain going.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒄩 fish · HA · [ha] · the fish pictogram (word read ku₆); the wish-prefix ha-
A fish grants wishes in half the world's stories — and in Sumerian it literally does: put the fish before a verb and the verb becomes a hope. Fins for swimming, sound for wishing.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒊒 dedicate · RU · [ru] · to dedicate — a mu-na-ru, the votive's closing verb
To dedicate is to let go: the sign leans forward like hands releasing an offering onto the altar. When you read …ru at the end of an inscription, the object you are holding was itself the gift.
a mu-na-ru — "dedicated this to him" (urn:nabu:cdli:p216758, license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒀝 do · AK · [ak] · to do, to make
Do is a hammer-tap of a sign: short, blunt, six wedges of getting-it-done. And keep the pun: ak the deed, -ak the "of" — the doing and the belonging share one sound.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒀉 arm · A2 · [a] · arm; strength; side — a₂ zid-da, the right side
An arm bent at the elbow — the wedge angles like a bicep at work. Strength, wages ("arm-hire"), the right-hand side: when the body politic needs a limb, this is the one it raises.
iti a₂-ki-ti — "month of the Akiti festival" (urn:nabu:cdli:p100219:reverse:3, license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒋧 give · SUM · [šum] · to give (a bundle of onions in origin)
To give is to hold out the bundle: the sign still looks like stalks tied at the middle, offered across a counter. From onions to empires, the gesture never changed.
an-na-šum₂ — "An gave (him)" — a thanksgiving folded into a name (approximate) (urn:nabu:cdli:p010063:obverse:2:17, license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒄘 neck · GU2 · [gu] · neck; riverbank; total (in accounts)
A neck is where overflow happens: the river's bank is its neck, and a heart in flood "overflows its banks." Collars, brinks, and totals — everything that rims a fullness wears this sign.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒋻 cut · TAR · [tar] · to cut; to decree (nam ... tar, to decree fate)
Cut: two wedges crossing like shears. When the great gods sat down on the first day, what they did to the world's fates was this sign — one clean decisive stroke each.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒈤 exalted · MAH · [mah] · great, exalted
Exalted stands on a platform: where gal just measures, mah bows. Keep the pair straight by register — a big jar is gal; a great god is mah.
nam-mah — "majesty, greatness" (urn:nabu:cdli:p010059:reverse:3:10, license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒊑 distant · RI · [ri] · [ri]; distant — ud ri-a, "in those days"
Distant is where the storyteller points: over the horizon, before the flood, in THAT day — not this one. When a poem opens with this sign, settle in: you are being carried a long way back.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒂄 hero · DUN · [šul] · young man in his prime, hero (šul) — Šulgi's own name-word
The hero is the youth at full strength — the word kings kept for themselves even when gray. Read šul and picture the prime of life, wearing a crown it claimed early.
ur-šul — "servant of the Youth" (approximate) (urn:nabu:cdli:p010063:obverse:6:15, license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒌅 born · TU · [tu] · to be born (tu-ud)
Born: the smallest door in the script, and everyone comes through it. When a hymn wants a hero's origin story, this sign opens the account — since I was born…
ki a-tu-ta — "from Atu" — the receipts' from-so-and-so formula (urn:nabu:cdli:p100034:obverse:2, license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒂼 mother · AMA · [ama] · mother
Mother is the word children everywhere say first — ama — and the sign keeps it: a star-marked enclosure, the household with its hearth. Where a goddess mothers a whole country, this sign carries the title.
ama diŋir-re-ne-ra — "for the mother of the gods" (urn:nabu:cdli:p216741, license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒌧 the Land · KALAM · [kalam] · the Land — Sumer as its own texts name it
The Land is home ground: where the mountain-sign looks outward at the highlands, this sign plants itself in the river plain and means ours. One word of geography that is really a word of belonging.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102 𒆪 seize · KU · [ku] · to seize (dab₅); to sit, dwell (tuš)
Seize: a clamp of wedges, closing. When a god seizes a glutton or an officer seizes a work-gang, the script uses this grip — and once the seizing is done, the same sign sits down to stay.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-102