Zu (cuneiform)

Cuneiform zu, (also sú, ṣú, and Sumerogram ZU (capital letter majuscule)), is an uncommon-use sign in the 1350s BC Amarna letters, the Epic of Gilgamesh, and other cuneiform texts. Alphabetically, it could conceivably be used for letters z, s, ṣ, or u; however in the Amarna letters it is used mostly for personal names or geographical names.

Digitized form of cuneiform zu, sú, ṣú, or Sumerogram ZU.
EA 364, Obverse.
Line 18, city Hazor: (Ha-sǘ-ra)
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In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Sumerogram ZU is used to spell the name of god Ninazu, (a name of god Tammuz, two times, Chapter XII, 28, 47). In the Epic, ZU is also used as a logogram, ZU.AB, for Akkadian language "apsû",[1][2] English language "abyss"; it is used twice in Chapter VIII, and twice in Chapter XI, the Gilgamesh flood myth. It was also used to name Giant Squid Studios' game, Abzû.

Uses of zu

Epic of Gilgamesh

The usage numbers for zu in the Epic of Gilgamesh are as follows:[3] sú-(1) time, ṣú-(0), zu-(41), and ZU-(7) times.

Partial list of uses in Amarna letters


gollark: Also, micropython doesn't have them.
gollark: Yes, but there's no "language spec" with those as far as I know. I mean, there's probably a PEP somewhere for them.
gollark: It's inconsistent, only has old not very good libraries, often requires third-party libraries to be remotely usable (HTTP, datetimes) and is vastly bloated.
gollark: Python's standard library is big but mostly just really bad.
gollark: But not ones for the entire stdlib. Java *might*, Python almost certainly doesn't because it has so many random bad modules.

References
  1. Parpola, 197l. The Standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, Logograms and Their Readings, pp. 117-118, ZU.AB, p. 118.
  2. Parpola, 197l. Glossary, pp. 119-145, apsû, p. 121.
  3. Parpola, 197l. The Standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, Sign List, pp. 155-165, Sign No. 006, zu, p. 155.
  • 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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