Bad (cuneiform)


The cuneiform bad, bat, be, etc. sign is a common multi-use sign in the mid 14th-century BC Amarna letters, and the Epic of Gilgamesh. In the Epic it also has 5 sumerogram uses. From Giorgio Buccellati 'comparative graphemic analysis', of 5 categories of letters, the usage numbers of the bad sign are as follows: Old Babylonian Royal letters, OB non-Royal letters, Mari letters, Amarna letters, Ugarit letters.
The following linguistic elements are used for the bad sign in the 12 chapter Epic of Gilgamesh:
sumerograms:
The following usage numbers for the linguistic elements of sign bad in the Epic are as follows: bad,, bat,, be,, mid,, mit,, sun,, til,, ziz,, BE,, IDIM,, TIL,, ÚŠ,, ZIZ,.
Instead of a large horizontal, 100x28px as seen in the 100x28px, the sign is seen in the Amarna letters as composed of two opposite facing, the wedges. It can be seen here , Amarna letter EA 153-, for "King-Lord-mine", "LUGAL, Be-li-ia", or Be-lí-ia", where "bēlu" is Akkadian for "lord".

Literature examples

Amarna letters

The vassal city-state letters to the Pharaoh often reference the King, as: "King, Lord-mine", where king is represented by LUGAL (king Sumerogram), for Akkadian language šarru-. For the reverse of EA 362, Rib-Hadda to Pharaoh, cuneiform sign be is used for "lord", Akkadian "bēlu". In EA 362, be is only used for the spelling of "lord".
The entire topic of EA 362 is developed on the reverse side,. The listing of be uses, 10-times, on the reverse, are as follows:
For "King, Lord-mine" :
line 51
line 51
Besides be in EA 362, bat is used on the letter's obverse.

Form of BAD used in other signs

The BAD/BAT sign has been used in other signs:
  • With a Gesh2 sign going through it ?: for the Neo-Assyrian Cuneiform sign in Sumerian called MUŠEN, Akkadian: iṣṣūrum meaning bird, and giving the sound of ḪU.
  • ? as numeric value 2: A double BAD
  • ? AMAR meaning calf or Mar This sign is the base for many derivatives.
  • ? UŠUMX
  • ? UTUKI, in the suffix, again with a Gesh2 sign going through it.
  • ? KUL
  • ? NAGAR
  • ?, ? Elamite numerical 40 and 50
  • Inside various letters like ?, ?, ?