Cuneiform ú-(digital form, inside surrounding cuneiform).Alphabetic u (ú), third line from botton, last cuneiform character.
The
cuneiform sign ú is a common-use sign of the
Amarna letters, the Epic of Gilgamesh, and other cuneiform texts (for example
Hittite texts). It has a secondary sub-use in the Epic of Gilgamesh for šam.[1]
Linguistically, it has the alphabetical usage in texts for u, but can replace any of the four vowels, so also used for a, or e, or i.
Epic of Gilgamesh usage
The ú sign usage in the Epic of Gilgamesh is as follows: (šam, 45 times, ú, 493, KÚŠ, 2, and Ú, 4 times).[1]Ú is
logogram, for
Akkadian "tullal", a soapwort.
The following words use the
syllabicšam as the first syllable in the word entries under š in the glossary.[2]
šamhatu, for English, "harlot".
šamhiš, "proudly, stoutly",.
šammmu, "drug, plant, grass".
References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ú (cuneiform).
^
abParpola, 1971. The Standard Babylonian
Epic of Gilgamesh, Sign List, pp. 155-165, sign no. 318, p. 160.
^Parpola, 1971. The Standard Babylonian
Epic of Gilgamesh, Glossary, pp. 119-145, šamhatu, šamhiš, and šammmu, p. 140; English, "harlot", "proudly, stoutly", and "drug, plant, grass".