am A.AN ‘(s)he/it is’
sˇe-em 3 A.AN ‘rain’The signs in this list are grouped according to similarity of shape. Signs progress by
the addition or removal of wedges.^6 After the readings of a single sign have been
covered, the text proceeds to list repetitions of the sign, modifications of it, and then
sometimes combinations of the sign with others to form new signs. Students would
already previously have encountered the use of signs with different readings but here
they learned these in a systematic fashion. A more comprehensive version of this list,
known as Proto-Aa, is also found.
There was also a list for other, more complex, signs; these were combinations of
the simple signs. The list is known as Proto-Diri, and such compounds are named
‘Diri-compounds’ after it. Proto-Diri taught the student how to read combinations
of signs where the reading was not predictable from the component parts. For example:
reading sign translation meaning
si 2 -is-kur AMARxSˇE.AMARxSˇE niqû ‘offering, sacrifice’
kara ̄ bum ‘to praise, pray’
ikribum ‘blessing, prayer’Another important list was Proto-Izi, which contained miscellaneous groups of
vocabulary that did not fit easily into Urra or Proto-Lu. It made extensive use of a
technique called acrography, whereby each entry in a group contains a sign in common
with the others. This principle is applied more strictly as the list advances. The list
begins with the NE-sign, for which izi, ne and bi 2 are all readings:
izi ‘fire’
NE ‘brazier’
NE ‘embers’
NE ‘flame’
NE ‘ashes’
izi-gar ‘furnace’
i-bi 2 ‘smoke’
ne-mur ‘glowing ashes’
sag-izi ‘torch’The list continues with related terms, including ganzer 2 (written with the signs
NE.SI.A) ‘flame’ and an-bar 7 (bar 7 is another reading of the NE-sign) ‘midday’, before
moving on to terms including the AN-sign, and so on through the list. There were
further, less commonly used lists employing this technique more systematically; these
are known as Kagal, Nigga and the SAG-tablet. Kagal, for example, begins with
terms related to gates and buildings, before moving onto terms beginning with the
A-sign, then those beginning with the GISˇ-sign.
— Jon Taylor —