Ni (cuneiform)

The cuneiform sign ni, is a common-use sign of the Amarna letters, the Epic of Gilgamesh, and other cuneiform texts. It has a secondary sub-use in the Amarna letters for addressing the Pharaoh, from the vassal states of Canaan. The address to the Pharaoh is often 'King-Lord-Mine': LUGAL, EN-ia which has many varieties of expression. "LUGAL" is Akkadian language for "Šarru", English "king", and EN in Akkadian is bēlu,[1] for "Lord", (thus "King, Lord-Mine"). In some Amarna letters the sub-use of ni is lí, for spelling "bēlu", be-lí often .

Cuneiform ni.
(digitized form ni)
Amarna letter EA 367-(titled: "Pharaoh to a Vassal").
A common Amarna letter that uses cuneiform ni.

There are other sub-uses of ni (see Epic of Gilgamesh usage below). It is also found in some Amarna letters, EA 9, and EA 252, for example where ni or lí is scribed in a "flourish" format (an over-lengthened version of the 2-horizontals that construct the sign), similar to tab, . In EA 9 especially, there is a 'scribe margin line', both left and right on the clay tablet obverse. For the right margin, some words in the lower paragraphs of the obverse (Para 4-7), some words ending with ni/lí, have the sign lengthened, and sitting upon the right margin line-(the cuneiform text, in EA 9, reads: left-to-right).

Epic of Gilgamesh usage

The ni sign usage in the Epic of Gilgamesh is as follows: lí-(5) times, né-(42), ni-(326), ṣal-(8), zal-(1), Ì-(9) times. Ì, the Sumerogram is Akkadian language "šamnu", for English "oil".[2]

Because of its multiple usages in the Epic, ni, or lí, can be used as a syllabic for " "ne", "ni", or "li"/"lí", etc. It also can be used as a syllabic for combinations related to: "sal", "ṣal", or "zal"; (in Akkadian many consonants, or the 4-vowels, a, e, i, u can be interchanged, for performing the final Akkadian language 'dictionary word').

gollark: I copy-pasted that from above, yours won't do that if you don't rely on it, no.
gollark: It does not need to know if people are hovering over things. It's just annoying and gets in the way.
gollark: Imagine how your "cool" hover-based UI will look if:- it completely fails to operate on the second-latest CC:T version- it breaks horribly with multiple players using it- it runs slowly because of the mouse_move throttling and/or the server having to process significantly more events- mousing over a button hides important stuff under it (this tends to happen a lot)- someone is using a remote access thing or whatever which does not support it
gollark: PLEASE!
gollark: DON'T USE IT!

References
  1. Parpola, 197l. The Standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, Glossary, pp. 119-145, bēlu, šarru, p. 122, p. 141.
  2. Parpola, 197l. The Standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, Sign List, pp. 155-165, no. 231, p. 159.
  • Moran, William L. 1987, 1992. The Amarna Letters. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987, 1992. 393 pages.(softcover, ISBN 0-8018-6715-0)
  • Parpola, 197l. The Standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, 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.



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