Akkadian Addenda · Signs

𒅀IA · [ia] · i and a fused in one sign — the -ya of "my"

my

Where it comes from

Not a picture at all but a ligature: 𒄿I · [i] · the bare vowel i; the cry of laments and 𒀀A · [a] · water welded into one sign, spelling the glide ia/ya that neither could carry alone. Its great customer is the suffix -ya, “my” — the first-person voice of every letter-writer in Babylon.

How to remember it

Two old friends — i and a — standing so close they became one sign, meaning my: what is mine stands that close to me. Write it whenever the writer claims something for himself.

In the wild

Akkadian reading taught in 103’s chapter 12.