Akkadian Addenda · Signs
juniper
| Name | LI |
|---|---|
| Reads | [li/le] |
| Means | [li/le]; a juniper in the lists |
| Taught in | 01 · Spelling sound by sound |
Where it comes from
The old lists gloss the sign as a juniper — an aromatic tree — though the identification is stated rather than certain. Sumerian used it sparingly; Akkadian adopted its sound wholesale, and li became the tenth most frequent syllable in Old Babylonian writing: inside verbs, inside names, and famously inside the wish-forms (li- opens Akkadian’s “may he…” precatives, which later chapters read).
How to remember it
A juniper is a modest tree with berries in everything — gin, stews, incense. The sign is the same: modest shape, spread through the whole corpus one li at a time. Its e-colored twin le rides the same bracket, and first walks in chapter 08: lē’ûm, “the capable,” the epilogue’s word for its able king.
In the wild
urn:nabu:cdli:p464358:a:306 · license: attribution.
Taught in 103’s chapter 01 — the sign waited out two Sumerian courses in the candidate pool and crossed into the school with Akkadian.