Cuneiform Translator (Write Your Name in Cuneiform)

How to use the cuneiform translator

1. Type a name or a single word. Cuneiform name writing works by sound, so spell the name the way it is pronounced if its spelling is unusual.
2. Choose a determinative if you like. Scribes put a silent sign before personal names and gods’ names to tell the reader what kind of word followed.
3. Press “Write in cuneiform”. You get the signs, the transliteration Assyriologists would use (for example sa-am), and a table of every sign with its reading.
4. Copy the signs to use them anywhere that supports Unicode.

How cuneiform name writing works

Cuneiform is not an alphabet. Most signs stand for whole syllables, such as ba, ki or an, and many also stand for whole words. This tool uses the syllabic signs of Akkadian, the language of Babylon and Assyria, in their Neo-Assyrian shapes as encoded in Unicode. That is the same method scribes used to write foreign names.

The tool goes through three steps:

1. English spelling to sounds. Akkadian had four vowels (a, e, i, u) and no o, f, v or j. So o becomes u, f becomes p, v becomes w, j becomes y, and sh or ch becomes š. A silent final e is dropped (Jane, Mike).
2. Sounds to syllables. A consonant followed by a vowel takes a CV sign (sa). A consonant that closes a syllable takes a VC sign that repeats the vowel (am). That gives the typical “broken” spelling CV-VC: Sam is written sa-am. Where two consonants meet at the start of a word, the first gets an echo vowel (Brian becomes bi-ri-an), as Babylonian scribes did with foreign names.
3. Syllables to signs. Each syllable is matched to the standard sign for it. Several Akkadian syllables beginning with b, d, g, k, l, p, r, s or z had no separate e-sign, so scribes used the i-sign; the tool does the same (be is written with BI).

Gilgamesh → gi-il-ga-me-eš → 𒄀𒅋𒂵𒈨𒂠

This produces a sound spelling, not the historical one. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the hero’s name is usually written with word signs: ^dGIŠ.GÍN.MAŠ. A syllabic spelling such as gi-il-ga-me-eš would still have been readable to a scribe, but it is not how the epic writes it.

Common cuneiform syllable signs

The signs below are the vowels and the most frequent consonant-plus-vowel syllables. The sign name is how the sign is listed in Unicode and in sign lists such as Borger’s Mesopotamisches Zeichenlexikon.

And the closing (VC) signs used after a vowel:

Examples

Sarah, with the woman’s determinative

Choose “Woman’s name” and type Sarah. The tool writes ᶠsa-ra-aḫ: the silent sign 𒊩 (MUNUS, “woman”), then sa, ra and aḫ. The final h becomes ḫ, the throaty Akkadian h.

Daniel and Babylon

Daniel becomes da-ni-el. Babylon becomes ba-bi-lu-un: y as a vowel becomes i, o becomes u, and the closing n is written with the UN sign. The city’s own name was Bābilim, usually written with word signs KÁ.DINGIR.RA, “gate of the god”.

A god’s name

Choose “God’s name” for Ishtar and the tool adds 𒀭 (DINGIR), the star-shaped sign written before every deity’s name: ^diš-ta-ar.

Things to know about cuneiform

• Cuneiform was written for over 3,000 years, from the late 4th millennium BC in Uruk to the 1st century AD. It was used for Sumerian, Akkadian, Hittite, Elamite and other languages.
• Sign shapes changed a lot. Early signs were pictures drawn in clay; later, scribes pressed wedges with a reed stylus, which gives the script its name (Latin cuneus, “wedge”). Unicode fonts usually show the later Neo-Assyrian style.
• Our How Cuneiform Works: Word Signs, Syllables and Determinatives guide explains word signs, syllable signs and determinatives in more depth.