Sumerian Addenda · Signs
water
| Name | A |
|---|---|
| Reads | [a] |
| Means | water |
| Taught in | 00 · Orientation |
Where it comes from
Two parallel streams of flowing water — one of the script’s classic pictures, already recognizable in the earliest tablets. It writes the word a, “water,” and because Sumerian used the bare sound /a/ everywhere — in names, in grammar — the water sign became the script’s busiest syllable: the rebus leap of 101’s chapter 03 in its purest form.
How to remember it
Water runs in two thin channels, side by side — two long wedges like irrigation ditches seen from the air. Everything in Sumer begins with water in a channel; so does the sign list.
In the wild
urn:nabu:cdli:p216758 · license:
attribution.
Piece by piece:
- a — the object slot of the formula, compressed to one vowel
- mu-na-ru — the verb chain: mu- “did,” -na- “for him,” ru “dedicate”
The closing words of a thousand votive gifts — and the water sign opens them sounding as plain /a/, no water in sight. The whole formula is taken apart in 102’s chapter 12.