Cuneiform Sign Tum

It can stand for “hip” or help spell a sound. In Old Sumerian texts from Lagash, the cuneiform sign TUM writes the Sumerian word íb (“hip”) and also appears at the start of spellings for éb. The sign-list name identifies the character; it is not a translation for every occurrence.

On its own, 𒌈 identifies a sign but does not tell you which reading a tablet intends. In a longer spelling, neighboring signs, language, and period show whether it writes a whole word or the final sound of a syllable.

How did TUM come to spell syllable endings?

Scribes reused its word-sign value for sound spelling. Gudea-era texts put TUM after a sign for a consonant-vowel syllable, making TUM supply the final b in syllables scholars transliterate as ib or eb. Here it marks a sound, not the word “hip.”

In Ur III Sumerian cuneiform, the separate sign IB, 𒅁, became the usual sign for syllable-final eb; TUM usually wrote syllable-final ib but still sometimes eb. These final-sound spellings remained optional until the Old Babylonian period.

Why does 𒌈 look different in fonts?

The chart drawing is a guide, not one fixed tablet hand. Unicode's cuneiform chart uses representative glyphs; historical sign forms vary across periods, and fonts can draw them differently. If you see a blank box, your font lacks a glyph for this character.