ha (cuneiform)

{{Short description|Cuneiform sign}}

File:B236ellst.png

File:Amarna letter mp3h8878.jpg-(Reverse), Biridiya to Pharaoh, "Furnishing Corvée Workers";Moran, William L. 1987, 1992. The Amarna Letters. EA 365, Furnishing Corvée Workers, p. 363.
line 2 (3rd sign, ha, (Type II)): Men-"City-Mayor"-(or Magistrate), "LÚ-MEŠ-ha-za-nu-ta-meš", Akkadian language for "hazannu"Rainey, 1970. El Amarna Tablets, 359-379, Glossary:Vocabulary, hazzanu, pp. 55-87, p. 64.
(ha defaced from surface scraping)
(high resolution expandable photo)]]

The cuneiform ha sign comes in two common varieties in the 1350 BC Amarna letters. It is also found in the large 12-chapter (Tablets I-XII) work of the Epic of Gilgamesh. Cuneiform ha is used as a syllabic for ha, and an alphabetic for h, or a; from the Epic of Gilgamesh it also has two sumerogramic uses (capital letter (majuscule)), for HA (Akkadian language zittu, for "share"), and KU₆, for nūnu, "fish".Parpola, 1971. The Standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, Glossary, pp. 119-145, zittu, p. 145, nūnu, p. 135.

The digitized version of ha has 4, short vertical strokes, 2-pairs-of-2, in a square; it is ligatured at the right, typically with a large, or medium-large sized wedge-stroke. The 2nd type of cuneiform ha is consistent as: 2-verticals, with a wedge between, and a (typical) large wedge ligatured at right; (thus both types contain the wedge at the right).

Type I of the sign with four short vertical strokes

100x42px, (1-pair, above another pair), is the za (cuneiform) sign, which is used for linguistic items like: ṣa, za, ZA,Parpola, 1971. The Standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, Sign List, pp. 155-165, Sign no. 589, sign za, etc., p. 165. ZA being a sumerogram.

In the Epic of Gilgamesh the usage numbers for the ha sign is as follows: ha-(145 times), HA-(2), KU₆-(4).Parpola, 1971. The Standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, Sign List, pp. 155-165, Sign no. 589, p. 165.