User:Raymond/Akkadian

__NOINDEX__ Text copied from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akkadian_cuneiform#Akkadian_cuneiform for testing purposes.

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) 𒀸 : horizontal;
 * DIŠ (B748, U+12079) 𒁹 : vertical;
 * GE23, DIŠ tenû (B575, U+12039) 𒀹 : downward diagonal;
 * GE22 (B647, U+1203A) 𒀺 : upward diagonal;
 * U (B661, U+1230B) 𒌋 : the Winkelhaken.

Except for the Winkelhaken which is tail-less, the length of the wedges' tails could vary as required for sign composition.

Syllabary
The tables below show signs used for simple syllables of the form CV or VC. As used for the Sumerian language, the cuneiform script was in principle capable of distinguishing 14 consonants, transliterated as
 * b, d, g, ḫ, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, š, t, z

as well as four vowel qualities, a, e, i, u. The Akkadian language needed to distinguish its emphatic series, q, ṣ, ṭ, adopting various "superfluous" Sumerian signs for the purpose (e.g. qe=KIN, qu=KUM, qi=KIN, ṣa=ZA, ṣe=ZÍ, ṭur=DUR etc.) Hittite as it adopted the Akkadian cuneiform further introduced signs for the glide w, e.g. wa=PI, wi5=GEŠTIN) as well as a ligature I.A for ya.