Cuneiform Sign Ka

In Sumerian, KA usually means “mouth,” but context can change the reading.

Cuneiform developed in Uruk, southern Mesopotamia, around 3400–3300 BCE as institutions tracked goods, stores, and distributions. KA belongs to that evolving writing system, not to a single inventor. By the Early Dynastic period, scribes were already treating KA compounds in lexical lists.

Sumerian sign lists give KA (also transliterated kag) the meanings “mouth,” “opening,” and “beginning”; the sign can also represent a syllable. Cuneiform was later adapted for Akkadian and Hittite, so language and context matter. KA×BAD and KA×ME.GI are compounds: their full readings cannot be inferred from KA alone.

Why does 𒅗 change shape across fonts?

Fonts can draw the same sign in different historical styles.

A cuneiform font may show an Ur III, Old Babylonian, or Neo-Assyrian style. The strokes can look different while the encoded sign stays the same. A blank box usually means your font or app cannot display the character.