Terms — a working glossary

Every technical term the courses use, in one plain sentence each. These are the same definitions that appear in a small bubble when you hover a dotted-underlined term anywhere on the site; this page is the place to look one up deliberately. Terms are listed alphabetically.

Egyptian-specific terms — cartouche, uniliteral, serekh, and their kin — have their own page in the hieroglyphs school’s Egyptian glossary.

Winkelhaken

the field's name (German, "angle-hook") for the corner wedge — the small open-angle impression made with the corner of the stylus tip

ablative

the grammatical case meaning "from, out of" — Sumerian marks it with -ta

agglutinative

building words by stacking small pieces, each with exactly one job — like beads on a string

aspiration

the puff of air after a consonant — hold a hand before your mouth: English "pie" has it, "spy" does not

causative

a verb build meaning "make someone do it" — the tree falls, the woodsman FELLS it; Akkadian builds it with š- in front (šūbilam, "make-carry it — send it")

classifier

Egyptology's name for a determinative — the silent sign closing a word to say what kind of thing it is: person, speech, plural, idea

cohortative

the verb form that says "let me / let us" — a wish the speaker makes about their own action; Sumerian fronts the verb with ga-

colophon

a scribe's closing note on a tablet or manuscript — title, owner, date, the ancient equivalent of a title page at the end

comitative

the grammatical case meaning "together with" — Sumerian marks it with -da

copula

a word or word-part meaning "to be," linking a subject to what it is — Sumerian attaches it to the word itself: lugal-me-en, "I am king"

dative

the grammatical case meaning "to, for (someone)" — Sumerian marks it with -ra

determinative

a silent sign at the end (in cuneiform, often the front) of a word that classifies it — person, god, place, motion — never pronounced

dual

a grammatical number for exactly two, beyond singular and plural — Akkadian keeps it for natural pairs: īnān, "the two eyes"

ergative

the case marking the doer of an action verb — Sumerian tags it with -e, treating doers and be-ers differently

genitive

the grammatical case of possession or belonging — "the king's house", "lord of Lagash"

gur

the big Mesopotamian grain measure — three hundred sila of roughly a liter each, so about 300 liters of barley; the granary's counterpart to the silver-scale's mina

homophone

one of several different words or signs sharing the same sound — like English "two", "too", and "to"; index numbers (e₂, u₄) tell same-sounding signs apart

homophony

several different signs sharing one sound — the mirror image of one sign having several readings

locative

the grammatical case meaning "in, on, at" — Sumerian marks it with -a

logogram

a sign that writes a whole word by itself

mina

the Mesopotamian pound: a weight of about 500 grams, divided into sixty shekels — silver by the mina was serious wealth

nominalizer

a small word-part that folds a whole clause into a description or a thing — Sumerian's is -a: "ate" becomes "who ate"

paleography

reading the age and origin of a text from the changing shapes of its signs

particle

a small function word that frames or flavors a sentence without naming any thing or action

passive

a verb build that flips who suffers the action — "he kills" versus "he IS killed"; Akkadian builds it with n- in front (iddâk)

pictograph

an early sign that is still simply a picture of the thing it means

polyvalency

one sign carrying several possible readings; context picks the right one

precative

the verb form that says "may he, may it be so" — a wish aimed at someone else's action; Sumerian fronts the verb with ha-, Akkadian with l-: liṭīb, "may it be well"

rebus

borrowing a picture for its sound instead of its meaning — drawing a sun to write "son"

retroflex

said with the tongue-tip curled up and back toward the roof of the mouth

shekel

the basic Mesopotamian weight, about 8 grams — one shekel of silver was roughly a hired worker's monthly wage

terminative

the grammatical case meaning "to, toward, up to" — Sumerian marks it with -še₃

titulary

a ruler's full formal string of names and titles, repeated in fixed order on monuments

transitive

a verb whose action lands on something — someone builds SOMETHING, eats SOMETHING; a verb that just happens (going, sitting) is intransitive

transliteration

the sign-by-sign rendering of ancient writing in modern letters, so every sign stays accountable

votive

given to a god in fulfillment of a vow — votive objects carry dedication inscriptions

year-name

Babylon's dating system: years carry no numbers — each is NAMED for a royal deed ("the year Immerum built Inanna's temple"); the scribes' lists of these names are how we order their history

Missing a term that puzzled you? That is worth an issue: GitHub Issues.