Editing Cuneiform (section)

===Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform<span class="anchor" id="Summero-Akkadian cuneiform"></span>===
{{Further|Akkadian language}}
{{multiple image|perrow=2|total_width=400|caption_align=center
| align    = right
| direction =horizontal
| header=Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform syllabary<br /><small>(c.&nbsp;2200 BC)</small>
| image1   = Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform syllabary.jpg
| image2   = Inscription of Naram-Sin.jpg
| footer=Left: Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform syllabary, used by early Akkadian rulers.<ref name=":12" /> Right: Seal of [[Naram-Sin of Akkad]] (reversed for readability), c. 2250 BC. The name of Naram-Sin ({{langx|akk|𒀭𒈾𒊏𒄠𒀭𒂗𒍪}}: ''<sup>[[dingir|D]]</sup>Na-ra-am <sup>[[dingir|D]]</sup>[[Sin (mythology)|Sîn]]'', ''Sîn'' being written 𒂗𒍪 EN.ZU), appears vertically in the right column.<ref>{{cite book |title=Mémoires |date=1900 |publisher=Mission archéologique en Iran |page=[https://archive.org/details/mmoires02franuoft/page/53 53] |url=https://archive.org/details/mmoires02franuoft}}</ref> British Museum. These are some of the more important signs: the [[:Wikibooks:Sumerian/List|complete Sumero-Akkadian list of characters]] actually numbers about 600, with many more "values", or pronunciation possibilities.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Walker |first1=C. |title=Reading The Past: Cuneiform |pages=16–17 |url=https://archive.org/details/Walker.C.ReadingThePastCuneiform/page/n15/mode/2up |language=en}}</ref>
}}
The archaic cuneiform script was adopted by the [[Akkadian Empire]] from the 23rd century BC ([[short chronology]]). The [[Akkadian language]] being [[East Semitic languages|East Semitic]], its structure was completely different from Sumerian.<ref name="auto3" /> The Akkadians found a practical solution in writing their language phonetically, using the corresponding Sumerian phonetic signs.<ref name="auto3" /> Still, many of the Sumerian characters were retained for their logographic value as well: for example the character for "sheep" was retained, but was now pronounced {{tlit|akk|immerum}}, rather than the Sumerian {{tlit|sux|udu}}.<ref name="auto3" /> Such retained individual signs or, sometimes, entire sign combinations with logographic value are known as [[Sumerogram]]s, a type of [[Heterogram (linguistics)|heterogram]].

The East Semitic languages employed equivalents for many signs that were distorted or abbreviated to represent new values because the syllabic nature of the script as refined by the Sumerians was not intuitive to Semitic speakers.<ref name="auto3" /> From the beginning of the [[Short chronology timeline#Middle Bronze Age|Middle Bronze Age]] (20th century BC), the script evolved to accommodate the various dialects of Akkadian: Old Akkadian, Babylonian and Assyrian.<ref name="auto3" /> At this stage, the former pictograms were reduced to a high level of abstraction, and were composed of only five basic wedge shapes: horizontal, vertical, two diagonals and the ''Winkelhaken'' impressed vertically by the tip of the stylus. The signs exemplary of these basic wedges are:

* AŠ (B001, U+12038) <span lang="akk">{{Cuneiform|[[:wikt:𒀸|𒀸]]}}</span>: horizontal;
* DIŠ (B748, U+12079) <span lang="akk">{{Cuneiform|[[:wikt:𒁹|𒁹]]}}</span>: vertical;
* GE<sub>23</sub>, DIŠ ''tenû'' (B575, U+12039) <span lang="akk">{{Cuneiform|[[:wikt:𒀹|𒀹]]}}</span>: downward diagonal;
* GE<sub>22</sub> (B647, U+1203A) <span lang="akk">{{Cuneiform|[[:wikt:𒀺|𒀺]]}}</span>: upward diagonal;
* U (B661, U+1230B) <span lang="akk">{{Cuneiform|[[:wikt:𒌋|𒌋]]}}</span>: the ''[[Winkelhaken]]''.

{{multiple image|perrow=2|total_width=400|caption_align=center
| align    = right
| direction =horizontal
| header=2nd-millennium BC cuneiforms
| image1   = Votive monument to Hammurabi BM 22454 n01.jpg
| caption1 = The [[First Babylonian Dynasty|Babylonian]] king [[Hammurabi]] still used vertical cuneiform c.&nbsp;1750 BC.
| image2   = Babylonian tablet (time of Hammurabi, circa 1800 BCE).jpg
| caption2 = Babylonian tablets of the time of Hammurabi (c.&nbsp;1750 BC).
| footer= Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform, either in inscriptions or on clay tablets, continued to be in use throughout the 2nd millennium BC.
| footer_align = center
}}
Except for the ''Winkelhaken'', which has no tail, the length of the wedges' tails could vary as required for sign composition.

Signs tilted by about 45 degrees are called ''tenû'' in Akkadian, thus DIŠ is a vertical wedge and DIŠ ''tenû'' a diagonal one. If a sign is modified with additional wedges, this is called ''gunû'' or "gunification"; if signs are cross-hatched with additional ''Winkelhaken'', they are called ''šešig''; if signs are modified by the removal of a wedge or wedges, they are called ''nutillu''.

"Typical" signs have about five to ten wedges, while complex [[Typographic ligature|ligatures]] can consist of twenty or more (although it is not always clear if a ligature should be considered a single sign or two collated, but distinct signs); the ligature KAxGUR<sub>7</sub> consists of 31 strokes.

Most later adaptations of Sumerian cuneiform preserved at least some aspects of the Sumerian script. Written Akkadian included phonetic symbols from the Sumerian [[syllabary]], together with logograms that were read as whole words. Many signs in the script were polyvalent, having both a syllabic and logographic meaning. The complexity of the system bears a resemblance to [[Old Japanese]], written in a Chinese-derived script, where some of these Sinograms were used as logograms and others as phonetic characters.

This "mixed" method of writing continued through the end of the [[Babylonia]]n and [[Assyria]]n empires, although there were periods when "purism" was in fashion and there was a more marked tendency to spell out the words laboriously, in preference to using signs with a phonetic complement.{{clarify|date=March 2024}}<!--Isn't the addition of a phonetic complement to the logogram ''more'' laborious?--> Yet even in those days, the Babylonian syllabary remained a mixture of logographic and phonemic writing.