Akkadian Addenda · Signs

𒁉BI · [pi] · the last syllable of Ḫammurapi

its

Where it comes from

A Sumerian veteran — the school taught it in 102 as bi, “its/that.” Akkadian kept that voice and added a near twin: because b and p sit a hair apart in the mouth, the scribes let the sign carry pi₂ as well, and Old Babylonian spelling uses it freely for both. The index digit in pi₂ is the modern field’s bookkeeping, not the scribe’s — on the clay it is simply this sign.

How to remember it

You know its voice already; now hear it pop. The proof it matters: the king of Babylon signs himself with it — Ḫa-am-mu-ra-pi₂ — and you cannot spell the most famous name in Mesopotamia without this veteran’s new reading.

In the wild

Akkadian reading taught in 103’s chapter 02.