Cuneiform Sign Il2

Its reading changes with the language and surrounding words. In Sumerian, il₂ can mean “to carry,” “to raise,” or “to bear”; it also names a carrier and dupsik, a basket for carrying bricks and earth. In Akkadian, another Mesopotamian language, the sign can stand for a verb meaning “to lift or carry.” Sign lists also give values such as gur₃ and gil₃.

Early records tie the sign to carrying and raising: the action, the worker, and the container. The verb’s spelling is attested from Early Dynastic I–II through the Hellenistic period; an Early Dynastic administrative tablet records an IL₂ sequence. Later spellings include IL₂.DUB₂ and the repeated IL₂.IL₂; dots separate sign values in scholarly transliteration. The nearby 𒅋 is a different sign, called il; the subscript in il₂ distinguishes the scholarly label.

Why does the same sign look different?

Its outline varies by period, region, and writing style. Unicode—the standard that assigns codes to text characters—identifies the sign, while each font draws a representative outline. Cuneiform has period-specific styles, including Old Babylonian cursive and Neo-Assyrian writing; a tablet photograph can look unlike 𒅍 without showing a different encoded sign.

To enter the sign, use a Unicode character picker or input method that supports cuneiform. Typing il2 or il₂ produces the scholarly transliteration as ordinary text, not 𒅍. In a digital edition, the sign sequence preserves the written characters; transliteration records the scholar’s reading. They are complementary representations, not substitutes.