--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Patrick Ryan" <proto-language@...>
wrote:
> Cuneiform signs are syllabic so that a sign conventionally read V
should be correctly interpreted as ?V, VC as ?VC
Except when they are the second or third sign in a syllable.
Actually, the writing of word-internal glottal stop is more
complicated. Note for example that <ya> (Unicode U+12140 CUNEIFORM
SIGN I A) is the same as <i-a>. Although /-VC?V-/ could be
unambiguously written <VC-V>, at one stage in Akkadian there was a
single character for V?, ?V and Vx - for all vowels!
One might care to claim that this sign was the Akkadian symbol for
glottal stop! It's the same character as used for ax/ix/ux in
Hittite. (Unfortunately, I can't identify it from the Unicode charts!
In Neo-Assyrian, it's the same as <im> (Sumerian for 'clay') but
ending in three vertical wedges, not two.)
Richard.