The Urra=hubullu (đŻđ đ·đ§đ ur5-ra â áž«u-bul-lu4) is a major Babylonian glossary or "encyclopedia".[1] It consists of Sumerian and Akkadian lexical lists ordered by topic.[2][3] The canonical version extends to 24 tablets, and contains almost 10,000 words.[4] The conventional title is the first gloss, ur5-ra and áž«ubullu meaning "interest-bearing debt" in Sumerian and Akkadian, respectively. One bilingual version from Ugarit [RS2.(23)+] is Sumerian/Hurrian rather than Sumerian/Akkadian.
A partial table of contents:
- Tablet 4: naval vehicles
- Tablet 5: terrestrial vehicles
- Tablets 13 to 15: systematic enumeration of the names of domestic animals, terrestrial animals, and birds (including bats)[5]
- Tablet 16: stones
- Tablet 17: plants.[6]
- Tablet 22: star names[7]
The bulk of the collection was compiled in the Old Babylonian period (early 2nd millennium BC), with pre-canonical forerunner documents extending into the later 3rd millennium.[8]
Like other canonical glossaries, the Urra=hubullu was often used for scribal practice. Other Babylonian glossaries include:
- Ea: a family of lists that give the simple signs of the cuneiform writing system with their pronunciation and Akkadian meanings. (MSL volume 14)
- "Table of Measures": conversion tables for grain, weights and surface measurements. Again, it is not clear how these tablets were used.
- LĂș and LĂș=ĆĄa, a list of professions (MSL volume 12)
- Izi, a list of compound words ordered by increasing complexity
- Diri "limited to compound logograms whose reading cannot be inferred from their individual components; it also includes marginal cases such as reduplications, presence or absence of determinatives, and the like." (MSL volume 14)
- Nigga, ErimhuĆĄ and other school texts
References
- Benno Landsberger The Series HAR-ra="hubullu", Materials for the Sumerian lexicon (MSL), 5. 6, 7, 9, 10 and 11, Rome: Pontificium Institutum Biblicum, 1957-
- A. Poebel, The Beginning of the Fourteenth Tablet of Harra Hubullu, The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures, Vol. 52, No. 2 (Jan., 1936), pp. 111-114
- Soldt, W. H. van, "Babylonian Lexical, Religious and Literary Texts, and Scribal Education at Ugarit and its Implications for the Alphabetic Literary Texts," in: Ugarit: ein ostmediterranes Kulturzentrum in Alten Orient: Ergebnisse und Perspektiven der Forschung, Dietrich and Loretz eds., Abhandlungen zur Literatur Alt-Syrien-PalĂ€stinas, vol 7, MĂŒnster: Ugarit-Verlag, 1995, 171-212
References
- â Tarp, Sven; Gouws, Rufus H. (2023). "A Necessary Redefinition of Lexicography in the Digital Age: Glossography, Dictionography and Implications for the Future". Lexikos. 33. doi:10.5788/33-1-1826. ISSN 2224-0039.
- â Azevedo, Isabel Cristina Michelan de; Piris, Eduardo Lopes (June 2018). "Tradition of foreign language teaching and learning: focusing on the Brazilian Portuguese as a Foreign Language textbook". Revista Brasileira de LinguĂstica Aplicada. 18 (2): 417â443. doi:10.1590/1984-6398201812044. ISSN 1984-6398.
- â "Chapter Seven. Further Thoughts: The Cognitive Function Of Writing In MUL.APIN", Writing Science before the Greeks, BRILL, pp. 157â168, 2011-01-01, retrieved 2024-01-02
- â HOROWITZ, W (1988). "An Assur Source for Urra 21 : KAV 80 90 137 ( ) 89". An Assur Source for Urra 21 : KAV 80 90 137 ( ) 89. 35: 64â72.
- â Kroonen, Guus (2016-10-24). "Hittite kapart-/kapirt - 'small rodent' and Proto-Semitic *Ëkbr-t- 'mouse, jerboa'". Indogermanische Forschungen. 121 (1): 53â62. doi:10.1515/if-2016-0003. ISSN 1613-0405.
- â HeeĂel, Nils P. (2012-10-26). "Diagnosis, Mesopotamian". The Encyclopedia of Ancient History. doi:10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah21106.
- â HĂ€tinen, Aino (2023-01-01). "BM 33878: A Uranology Fragment from Babylon". Journal of Cuneiform Studies. 75: 189â195. doi:10.1086/725225. ISSN 0022-0256.
- â Steele, Colin (October 2016). "You could look it up: the reference shelf from ancient Babylon to Wikipedia". The Australian Library Journal. 65 (4): 342â343. doi:10.1080/00049670.2016.1242103. ISSN 0004-9670.
External links
- How to Recognize a Scribal School Archived 2019-02-19 at the Wayback Machine