
Diš is a
cuneiform
Cuneiform is a Logogram, logo-Syllabary, syllabic writing system that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Near East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. Cuneiform script ...
sign represented by 𒁹 or
. It has many uses in
cuneiform
Cuneiform is a Logogram, logo-Syllabary, syllabic writing system that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Near East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. Cuneiform script ...
texts, including in the ''
Epic of Gilgamesh
The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' () is an epic poetry, epic from ancient Mesopotamia. The literary history of Gilgamesh begins with five Sumerian language, Sumerian poems about Gilgamesh (formerly read as Sumerian "Bilgames"), king of Uruk, some of ...
''.
Description
𒁹 is a cuneiform sign. In
Unicode
Unicode or ''The Unicode Standard'' or TUS is a character encoding standard maintained by the Unicode Consortium designed to support the use of text in all of the world's writing systems that can be digitized. Version 16.0 defines 154,998 Char ...
, it is represented by U+12079 (DISH)
Use of the vertical sign
In the
Amarna letters, it is commonly used to denote ''Male individuals''. (Women are denoted by
sal (cuneiform),
. )
The sign is also used to denote "numbers of items". The sign is used for 1. Examples of multiple uses in the
Amarna letters, is to address the
Pharaoh
Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian language, Egyptian: ''wikt:pr ꜥꜣ, pr ꜥꜣ''; Meroitic language, Meroitic: 𐦲𐦤𐦧, ; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') was the title of the monarch of ancient Egypt from the First Dynasty of Egypt, First Dynasty ( ...
, often as ''"servant-yours, at 2 Feet, .. I bow."'' An example of multiple uses in the Amarna letters, often the bowing down is done: ''" .. 7 and 7 times (I bow) !"'', with seven small strokes as units of number "1".
''Epic of Gilgamesh'' usage
In the ''
Epic of Gilgamesh
The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' () is an epic poetry, epic from ancient Mesopotamia. The literary history of Gilgamesh begins with five Sumerian language, Sumerian poems about Gilgamesh (formerly read as Sumerian "Bilgames"), king of Uruk, some of ...
'', there are also uses for "diš", and "tiš". (In the
Akkadian language
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 was an East Semitic language that is attested ...
, "d" & "t", are interchangeable (voiced vs unvoiced).
The ''ana'', (''diš'') sign usage in the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' is as follows: ''ana''-(151 times); ''diš''-(6); ''tiš''-(6); and ''1''-(87 times).
[Parpola, 1971. ''The Standard Babylonian ]Epic of Gilgamesh
The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' () is an epic poetry, epic from ancient Mesopotamia. The literary history of Gilgamesh begins with five Sumerian language, Sumerian poems about Gilgamesh (formerly read as Sumerian "Bilgames"), king of Uruk, some of ...
'', Sign List, pp. 155-165, no. 480, p. 164, ("ana"), "diš", etc.
The glossenkeil usage of the angled sign
Many of the
Amarna letters use
glossenkeils, of two varieties: type 1: , and type 2: (
gl (AL)). Type 2 is found in example letters:
EA 364,
EA 245, and
EA 287. (In ''CDLI'' listings (Chicago Digital Library Initiative), it is represented in transcription as ":". Likewise in the
Moran, William L. translations.) Type 1 can be found in Amarna example letter
EA 147.
The type 2 glossenkeil, is a shortened version of the ''large-angled-stroke'', type 2; (the long stroke of the sign is slightly, or majorly, foreshortened. In the
Amarna letters, often down to 50% of the "full stroke".). The high quality photo of
EA 364, line 8, shows the length about 3/4 of a full stroke-length.
See also
*
Glossenkeil (Amarna letters)
References
*
Moran, William L. 1987, 1992. ''The Amarna Letters.'' Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987, 1992. 393 pages.(softcover, )
* Parpola, 1971. ''The Standard Babylonian
Epic of Gilgamesh
The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' () is an epic poetry, epic from ancient Mesopotamia. The literary history of Gilgamesh begins with five Sumerian language, Sumerian poems about Gilgamesh (formerly read as Sumerian "Bilgames"), king of Uruk, some of ...
'',
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.
External links
{{commons category, Diš (cuneiform), position=left
Cuneiform signs