Die „Zeichenpaare“ im sargonischen Akkadisch aus sumerologischer Sicht

Abstract

Syllabic signs were derived from originally Sumerian logograms according to the rebus principle for both the Akkadian and Sumerian language. In the Sargonic Akkadian (circa 2275-2133 BCE) syllabary there exist syllabic signs that are assigned the same phonetic value in the conventional modern transliteration and which can be grouped together as sign pairs or triplets based on this property. It has been shown, though, that the signs of each pair must be given different syllabic values in quite a number of cases. Therefore the existence of pairs may be regarded as an expression of phonological opposition which traditional transliteration fails to represent. This article presents an overview on how the signs of Sargonic Akkadian sign pairs are used in the Old Sumerian texts from Lagas (circa 2340-2249 BCE) and what information can be gained about the exact syllabic values of these signs based on these texts. Subsequent to this overview, the syllabic values of the signs of both writing systems will be compared to each other and an attempt will be made at explaining the few observed differences.