The cuneiform sign hal, is a common-use sign in the '' Epic of Gilgamesh'', the

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 cuneiform texts, for example Hittite texts. Its common usage is syllabic for ''hal'', but could also be use for alphabetic ''h'' or ''l'', or the ''a'', and for the other three vowels of ''e'', ''i'', or ''u''.

''Epic of Gilgamesh'' usage

Cuneiform ''hal'' has a single usage in the Epic of Gilgamesh, for ''hal''. The usage is: ''hal'', 11 times. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the most common usage of ''hal'', at the beginning of words spelled ''"hal-"'' in the glossary, is for

Akkadian Akkadian or Accadian may refer to: * Akkadians, inhabitants of the Akkadian Empire * Akkadian language, an extinct Eastern Semitic language * Akkadian literature, literature in this language * Akkadian cuneiform, early writing system * Akkadian myt ...

''halāqu'', English, ''to disappear'', ''to cause to be lost''; in the Amarna letters it is used to refer to city-states, or towns, lost to the Hapiru. In the Epic, two other words use ''hal'' at the beginning of their spellings, ''halbu'', for English ''forest'', three times in the Epic, Tablets VII, IV, and II. One spelling of ''halāpu'', (English, ''"to clothe"''), of four spellings, uses ''hal'', Tablet IV, line 196, ú-hal- lip.

Amarna letters usage

One main usage in the

, is for the Akkadian language word ''halāqu'',Parpola, 1971. ''The Standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh'', Glossary, pp. 119-145, halāqu', p. 126; English, "to disappear"., "to cause to be lost". referring to the capturing of city-states, or towns, ( Amarna letter EA 288).

References

Moran, William L. William Lambert Moran (August 11, 1921 – December 19, 2000) was an American Assyriologist. He was born in Chicago, United States. In 1939, Moran joined the Jesuit order. He then attended Loyola University in Chicago, where he received his ...

1987, 1992. ''The Amarna Letters.'' Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987, 1992. 393 pages.(softcover, ) * Parpola, 1971. ''The Standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh'', 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. * Rainey, 1970. ''El Amarna Tablets, 359-379,'' Anson F. Rainey, (AOAT 8, ''Alter Orient Altes Testament 8'', Kevelaer and Neukirchen -Vluyen), 1970, 107 pages. {{commons category, Hal (cuneiform) Cuneiform signs