Akkadian Addenda · Signs

𒌉

child

Where it comes from

The child-sign of 101tur, “small, young,” and dumu, “child, son.” Akkadian kept the second reading whole as a sumerogram: on the stele it is DUMU, in the mouth it is mārum, “son” — construct mār, endlessly stacked in names and laws alike.

How to remember it

The smallest sign in the family carries the family: where a son’s rights, body or inheritance are at stake, the little child-sign stands in the line — and Babylon says mārum.

In the wild

Codex Hammurapi (composite text), law 196. urn:nabu:cdli:p464358:a:2508' · license: attribution.

Akkadian reading taught in 103’s chapter 11.