Cuneiform Sign U U

In Sumerian, it represents the number twenty.

Sign lists also give syllabic readings conventionally transcribed as niš and man. A syllabic reading gives a sign a sound value; a logographic reading uses it for a whole word. In Middle and Neo-Assyrian texts, MAN/20 could stand for the Akkadian words šarrum (“king”) or šarratum (“queen”). Language, period, and surrounding signs determine the reading.

Cuneiform first appears at Uruk around 3500–3200 BCE, where early tablets tracked quantities and goods. Scribes developed the wider system to represent numbers, syllables, and whole words; this sign's numeric form is associated with the Early Dynastic period.

Why do references show two U signs?

The doubled U names one historical sign.

Before Unicode encoding, references often represented it by repeating the single U sign. Unicode distinguishes 𒎙 from 𒌋, the one-U sign, and 𒌍, the three-U sign associated with 30.

Unicode guidance assigns 𒎙 to the Early Dynastic numeric form 2(u), meaning two U units. In that period, its two wedge impressions were normally stacked vertically, though fonts may render them differently. Use this character when an edition calls for the sign itself; use two U characters only when the source has a sequence.

What does it mean when someone sends 𒎙?

Treat it as a cuneiform reference, not a fixed chat meaning.

If someone sends it alone, ask which source or reading they intend: the number twenty, a syllabic value, or a word value. The “king” and “queen” readings belong to particular Assyrian contexts; the sign by itself cannot choose between them.