The

cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedge-sha ...

du sign, also kup, and

sumerogram A Sumerogram is the use of a Sumerian cuneiform character or group of characters as an ideogram or logogram rather than a syllabogram in the graphic representation of a language other than Sumerian, such as Akkadian or Hittite. Sumerograms are no ...

s DU and GUB, is a common-use sign of the ''

Epic of Gilgamesh The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' () is an epic poetry, epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia, and is regarded as the earliest surviving notable literature and the second oldest religious text, after the Pyramid Texts. The literary history of Gilgamesh ...

'', the 1350 BC

Amarna letters The Amarna letters (; sometimes referred to as the Amarna correspondence or Amarna tablets, and cited with the abbreviation EA, for "El Amarna") are an archive, written on clay tablets, primarily consisting of diplomatic correspondence between t ...

, and other

texts. In the

Akkadian language Akkadian (, Akkadian: )John Huehnergard & Christopher Woods, "Akkadian and Eblaite", ''The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages''. Ed. Roger D. Woodard (2004, Cambridge) Pages 218-280 is an extinct East Semitic language th ...

for forming words, it can be used syllabically for: ''du'', or ''kup'' (and ''ku'', ''up''); also alphabetically for letters ''d'', ''u'', ''k'', or ''p''. (All the four vowels in Akkadian are interchangeable for forming words (''a, e, i, u''), thus the many choices of

scribe A scribe is a person who serves as a professional copyist, especially one who made copies of manuscripts before the invention of automatic printing. The profession of the scribe, previously widespread across cultures, lost most of its promi ...

s is apparent for composing actual 'dictionary-entry' words.) It is also true in the

, that some consonants are paired (k/g, k/q), thus the relationship between ''kup'', and sumerogram ''GUB'' is explained (k/G). For the

''GUB'', ''GUB'' in the

becomes ''uzuzzu'',

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...

for "to stand", or "to be present"; in the Epic of Gilgamesh, ''GUB'' is only used (2)-times for ''uzuzzu'', and is used elsewhere in the Tablets I-XII (chapters), (15)-times.

''Epic of Gilgamesh'' usage

The usage numbers for ''du'' in the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' are as follows: ''du''-(148) times, ''kup''-(1), and ''DU''-(17) times.

References

* Moran, William L. 1987, 1992. ''The Amarna Letters.'' Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987, 1992. 393 pages.(softcover, ) * Parpola, 1971. ''The Standard Babylonian

'', Parpola, Simo,

Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project The Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project is an international scholarly project aimed at collecting and publishing ancient Assyrian texts and studies based on them. Its headquarters are in Helsinki in Finland. State Archives of Assyria State Archives ...

, c 1997, Tablet I thru Tablet XII, Index of Names, Sign List, and Glossary-(pp. 119–145), 165 pages. Cuneiform signs