Gunû, $e$$ig, Tenû, Etc.
Version of 23 January, 2004.

The terms "Gunû", $e$$ig, "Tenû", and others are long traditional. They have served well in the naming of signs so that Assyriologists can distinguish two signs with a similar base, and recognize what is being referred to. They do however have some vagueness and limitations when we are discussing the unification of signs across time periods, which depends on a more precise analysis of the etymology of Cuneiform signs. Here follows a careful separation of the usages of such terms, and suggestions for additional terms to reflect these distinctions.

One previous treatment of a part of this topic is Ellen Seton Ogden's 1911 :*The Origin of the Gunu-Signs in Babylonian*. Other citations will be added. There was an earlier treatment I posted on the web site that Karljürgen Feuerherm and I maintained a couple of years ago, but the listing below benefits from my greater knowledge of sign etymology after more intensive study, even if it is not yet a comprehensive listing of examples.

For the Tenû family, the CDLI and PSD projects use a notation @90, @180, @270, which distinguishes degrees of rotation (Tenû), alongside @t (tenû), @k (kabatenu), @z (zidatenu), @v (vertically flipped), @h (horizontally flipped).

The ambiguity problem may be represented in its strongest form by a few signs with names like "DUN3 gunû gunû", in which the two occurrences of "gunû" refer to different phenomena added to a base sign. So a name "SIGN gunû" is ambiguous as to which of those additions is referred to. By specific agreement of assyriologists, some ambiguities such as the next one have been resolved.
Both GI4 'return, turn back' (GA2 x GI4 'cloister') and ZI 'true; life, spirit' (doubled NUMUN2 French 'graminée'), which are quite different, have each been referred to as "GI gunû". Neither one of these is typical gunû.

Gunû:

This term groups marks which generally overlap a part of their base sign, though a few are attached to it on the outside, and in one sign named using the term "gunû" the marks were originally completely outside and not touching the base sign.

1. PART The most typical use of gunû is to mark particular *parts* of a sign, as when from the sign DU 'foot' B350 L206 is derived the sign SUHU$ = DU GUNÛ 'foundation; root’ B351 L201. These marks typically highlight a small area on a base sign, and need not span its width or height.

2. STRIPES This is close to typical gunû, yet I believe it may sometimes be distinguishable. These marks are generally longer and span the full width or height of a base sign to which they are added. Lists of these are postponed for now.

3. ENERGETIC A common use of markings, normally longer lines than the typical gunû, is to indicate what we can loosely call energy of some kind. This occurs at the top of the original sign (before the 90-degree rotation) in signs for NE = IZI 'fire, fireplace', archaic lexical lists also 'red'; $UR2 = SAG energetic 'angry', B512 L329 LAK317 ZATU543; an "energetic" modified form of KUG 'pure, silver, precious metal' ZATU310 B745 L468; SIG7 = IGI energetic 'yellow-green, yellowish, pale' B564 L351 ZATU455 LAK167 LAK437; etc.

4. VEGETAL PROFUSION The same visual graphic may also represent a prominent flower at the top of a plant stalk in GI4, which has sometimes been called "GI GUNÛ", and conceivably something similar in EN energetic ZATU137 (also not "EN GUNÛ"), in ZATU492 (SUKKAL ?) and in ZATU 399 (NIMGIR ?). Another example may be HA$HUR in comparison with MA (for fruit), possibly heavy fruit? The sign SHA may conceivably relate to that word's meaning 'to dry up', which would be quite a different usage.

5. STROKES ABOVE It is commonly recognized that some archaic signs have strokes above deriving from a numerical concept, but not themselves being independent numbers in the syntax. Some of these might be regarded as ligatures, but they can also be regarded as independent signs, just as 'yearling' (etymologically in this case with number 'one' below rather than above, speculatively from birth, as 'during first year of birth') is distinct from 'one [animal]'. Examples are AB2 WITH TWO STROKES ABOVE (ZATU14), $UBUR WITH TWO STROKES ABOVE and some which are not on animals so cannot have that interpretation In one case, added to GAR, the result may be fractions of a container (so suggested for strokes added to sign ZATU196; perhaps this info is in supplementary images on Englund's CD (check this reference)).

6. SEEDS This occurs in only a couple of closely related signs, distinguishing sign ZI and its derivatives from GI with derivatives. Originally this was a series of small marks *below* the basic sign GI for a stalk of grain in ZI (doubled NUMUN2) contrasted with GI. The most accurate solution is simply to refer to this sign by its independent name, ZI or NUMUN2. This is distinct from the FALLING category separated from $e$$ig, see below.

7. MANE and certain animals MALE This occurs in signs DUN = SHAH2 'wild pig; boar' L467, B744, KWU 348, 549, 539, LAK40, ZATU508 and SHAH with one stroke above 'boar in first year, yearling' L53, B022, KWU 43, 67, ZATU (additional). Contrast SHUBUR ZATU 539 (neither mane nor stroke above; UTC #122DD) and ZATU 540 SHUBUR with one stroke above (also versions with two and three strokes above).

8. SIGN x SHE Small markings can sometimes reflect an original SHE 'grain' superimposed on a base sign. Examples include URUDU x SHE3 (not "URUDU GUNÛ"), and probably Z530a SHITA x SHE (not "SHITA GUNÛ").

9. TEXTURE Sometimes small markings, parallel short strokes, may have been used to indicate texture, as of earth, fur, etc. Examples include the sign LU3 = GUG2 (marks in a circle) ZATU237.

10. SMALL MARKINGS Some gunû-like uses descend into a set of three Winkelhaken, appearing like the number sign E$ '30' and named by Steve Tinney as "U.U.U". Tinney was correct in an earlier proposal in distinguishing these from '30' – indeed they have a different trajectory across time, but they are also not a sequence "U.U.U". They occur in later signs perhaps (?) only as infixes inside a container, or in analogous situations, not independently with this kind of meaning, if there is a meaning. They are not a juxtaposition of three independent "U" signs, that is to say, they do not look that way across any substantial range of time. I have no suggestion yet for a name for this element of Cuneiform signs. It may not be a unit of its own in earlier signs, and may be simply a common result of mergers of a variety of earlier forms into this single recognizable later form. Examples include DE2 = SIMUG 'blacksmith' (B547, L338b, contrasting with L338a lacking the marks), which also has the ENERGETIC element (see paragraph above) and thus shows these two contrastively.

$e$$ig:

This category groups marks which generally occur outside of their base sign, even if attached to it.

10. GROWTH MARKS One of the most typical uses of $e$$ig is illustrated by DU 'foot' B351 L206 vs. DU $e$$ig 'run, rapid' B352 L202 (?< 'walks fast' or 'long legs' ?)

11. TALL MARKS Some archaic signs contain what looks like vegetal stalks or branches, similar to the sign GI. They may refer to tall or high things (gates, mountains, etc.). A possible relation to the preceding item might be hypothesized, and intermediate sign forms (Gudea, "classical" show $e$$ig in the first of the examples here -- KA2 'great gate' (thus < 'tall gate' ?) L275, ZATU 275) and I$11 ZATU329 or LAM ZATU328a. possibly 'high mountains' formed as KUR with $e$$ig or TALL MARKS.

12. FALLING MARKS A second usage of $e$$ig is illustrated by LU2 $e$$ig, (and (LU2 $e$$ig) x BAD) which in later Cuneiform is represented by LU2+GAM (and (LU2+GAM) x BAD). The sign GAM refers to 'kneel, bend, fall, descend'. These marks probably occur also in the sign NAM 'strain, filter' and abstracts B134 L79 (possibly from 'down' feathers ??) derived from HU = MU$EN 'bird' B132 L78.

13. KASKAL is a sign which sometimes alternates with or reflects earlier marks in this grouping. It may simply be the common result of merging a variety of earlier forms into this recognizable later form. The sign called "UDU.KASKAL" and referring to a female goat was originally a single sign which we can call "UDU with TEATS". Rosengarten's *Répertoire...* may have several examples where instead of KASKAL or $e$$ig there appear crossed wedges as PAP, twice.

Tenû:

Rotation of sign components may occur because the rotated form is a distinctive sign on its own, or may occur when one sign is superposed over another, to keep the lines distinct, or may occur when one sign is infixed inside another, to fit the available space. Such rotations are therefore "neutralized", in linguists' terminology, and may not be distinctive in combinations even when distinctive in independent signs.

14. Distinctive rotations in base signs. One of the clearest contrasts from the earliers period on is the sign SHE for grain generally, vertical before the 90-degree rotation, horizontal after it, and the sign NAGA probably for cut grain, horizontal before the 90-degree rotation, vertical after it.

15. Rotation to make superimposition clearer. This occurred for some early signs with superimposed SHE3 (a textile strip, much longer than it is wide).

16. Rotations to fit the available space when infixed. Examples include DAG x AB (???check reference) and most signs with infixed GAN2, which can derive from either original GAN2 or KAR2, the latter being a diagonal sign very similar to GAN2. Sign unifications and names must therefore be chosen carefully to recognize this.