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-sh ...

sign ib, (or ip) is a common-use sign in the ''

Epic of Gilgamesh The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' () is an 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 begins with ...

'', the Amarna letters, and other cuneiform texts. Its common usage is syllabic for ''ib'' (or ''ip''), or alphabetic for ''i'' or ''b''/''p''; the "i" is also exchanged for "e" when spelling specific words 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 ...

. Cuneiform ''ib'' also can be found as

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 n ...

''URTA'', (a capital letter ( majuscule)), and for example it is used in the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' for the god's name: Ninurta, spelled ^DNIN.URTA.

''Epic of Gilgamesh'' usage

Cuneiform ''ib'' has other sub-uses in the ''Epic of Gilgamesh''. The following can be found: ''eb''--(4) times, ''ep''--(9), ''ib''--(114), ''ip''--(45), and ''URTA''--(4) times.

Similar cuneiform forms

The cuneiform ''ib''

character (no. 535) is built in a 'rectangular box form', sitting upon a long horizontal stroke. It contains the 2-verticals at right and 1-vertical at left. Three other signs are similarly built, cuneiform '' ur'' is the mirror image of "ib"/"ip", but with the two verticals at left. The "lu (cuneiform)" sign is identical to "ib", but instead of 1-short vertical in the center, ''lu'' contains 3-short verticals in the center. Another sign is similar to ''lu'', but has only 1-vertical, left and right, ku (cuneiform), and the Amarna letters is usually so compact, that hardly any of the individual strokes can be easily identified. Another sign is similar in this group to cuneiform '' ur'', but the center is replaced by 2 stokes, one angled down, and the other a wedge (at extreme right vertical), and is the '' gáb'' sign. In the Amarna letters it is often used for English "all", or "all (of us)",

, ''gabbu''. (Amarna letters EA 153, EA 287, EA 288, and EA 267)

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

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, 1970. ''El Amarna Tablets, 359-379,'' Anson F. Rainey, (AOAT 8, ''Alter Orient Altes Testament 8'', Kevelaer and Neukirchen -Vluyen), 1970, 107 pages. ---- File:British Museum Room 10 cuneiform.jpg, Cuneiform ''ib''/''ip'', 7th row, middle cuneiform sign. Cuneiform signs