Sumerian Addenda · Signs
neck
| Name | GU2 |
|---|---|
| Reads | [gu] |
| Means | neck; riverbank; total (in accounts) |
| Taught in | 17 · The day destinies were decreed |
Where it comes from
Gu2 is the neck — and, by the land’s own anatomy, the riverbank: the raised rim a flood must top. In accounts it also serves as “total,” the sum a column’s entries pile up to. Whatever rises past the rim — water, feeling, figures — has crossed this sign.
How to remember it
A neck is where overflow happens: the river’s bank is its neck, and a heart in flood “overflows its banks.” Collars, brinks, and totals — everything that rims a fullness wears this sign.
In the wild
urn:nabu:etcsl:2.1.7:5 · license: ETCSL ·
non-commercial. The gloss follows the standard rendering of
the flood image.
Piece by piece:
- šag4 — the heart
- gu2-bi — its banks, literally “its neck”
- nam-gi4 — overflowed
Enlil’s feeling, rising over the levee of the chest. The image is read in 102’s chapter 17.