Sumerian Addenda Β· Signs
workhorse
| Name | MA |
|---|---|
| Reads | [ma] |
| Means | [ma] β a spelling workhorse |
| Taught in | 06 Β· Names that are sentences |
Where it comes from
A spelling workhorse with no picture-story to tell β the sign lists offer nothing worth teaching. It earns its keep as the syllable ma in names, loanwords, and grammar (the -ma- βfor meβ ring of verb chains), on thousands of tablets.
How to remember it
Every stable needs its workhorse: unglamorous, strong, in harness every single day. This sign has no myth, no picture, no famous word of its own β and the corpus would stop moving without it.
In the wild
urn:nabu:cdli:p010743:obverse:3:1 Β·
license: attribution.
Piece by piece:
- ma-na β the mina, spelled sound by sound: two workhorse syllables carrying a unit of silver
The word behind Greek mnΓ’ and the βminaβ of every ancient-history book β plain spelling doing durable work. The weight is read in 102βs chapter 06.