437px, left, Cuneiform sign for bil-(=bí), kúm, ne, pil, ṭè, and as Sumerograms BIL, and NE, (sign uses from the ''Epic of Gilgamesh''). File:BM 29785 EA 9 Reverse.jpg, 315px, Amarna letter EA 9-(''Reverse''), Tushratta to Pharaoh, with usage of cuneiform ''bil'' in the spelling of ''qabû'', "to say, tell", Paragraph 1 (tablet obverse).
(high resolution, expandible photo, and last line, 3rd sign from left — bi), a common multi-use, multi-syllabic sign 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 ...

Ne sign, is found in both the 14th century 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 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 ...

''. In the Amarna letters, it is especially used in the opening, and introductory paragraph of the

clay tablet In the Ancient Near East, clay tablets (Akkadian ) were used as a writing medium, especially for writing in cuneiform, throughout the Bronze Age and well into the Iron Age. Cuneiform characters were imprinted on a wet clay tablet with a stylu ...

letter, when addressing the Pharaoh (King), or when sent to another individual who is part of the Pharaoh's correspondence, for the alternate syllabic usage of ''"bil"'', (used for the 'b'). In the Amarna letters, it is used as Bil (cuneiform), for the spelling of ''speaks'', or ''"says"'', in the opening statement; 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 ...

word is "qabû", for ''to say, tell''. (There is a wide range of sign usage in the 300+ Amarna letters for spelling "qabû" in the introduction, or in the texts; some of the Amarna letters are texts other than actual 'letters'.) The ne (cuneiform) sign has the following uses, besides "ne", in the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'': :bil-(=bí (bi2)) :kúm :ne :pil :ṭè :BIL ( Sumerogram usage) :NE The sign is a "two-part" compound sign. The center and left is the sign for ''

am (cuneiform) The cuneiform sign am, is a common-use sign of the Amarna letters, the ''Epic of Gilgamesh,'' and other cuneiform texts (for example Hittite texts). It is also used as AM. Linguistically, it has the alphabetical usage in texts for ''a'', ...

'', and the right is the sign for '' is (cuneiform)'', , (and listed as Giš (cuneiform), cuneiform "GIŠ" (the "is" sign) being the use for GIŠ (wood Sumerogram)). The specific usage numbers for the sign's meaning in the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' is as follows: ''bil''-(9), ''kúm''-(5), ''ne''-(1), ''pil''-(2), ''ṭè''-(13), ''BIL''-(3), ''NE''-(1). In the Amarna letters, the sign is used for spelling ''qabû'' in the introduction for letters: EA 9, EA 19, EA 141, EA 144, EA 205, EA 254, EA 270, EA 271, and EA 367, as well as some others.

Gallery

370px, qí-bil- ma, for ''"qabû"'', ("to speak", or "speaking")">qí (cuneiform)">qí-bil- ma, for ''"qabû"'', ("to speak", or "speaking") ----

References

*William L. Moran">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">Simo Parpola">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. *Ugarit Forschungen (Neukirchen-Vluyn). UF-11 (1979) honors Claude Schaeffer, with about 100 articles in 900 pages. pp 95, ff, "Comparative Graphemic Analysis of Akkadian language, Old Babylonian and Western Akkadian", author Giorgio Buccellati, ( i.e. Ugarit and Amarna letters, Amarna (letters), three others, Mari, Syria, Mari, OB,Royal, OB,non-Royal letters). ---- Cuneiform signs