Dingir (also transliterated diĝir) is a cuneiform sign, most commonly the determinative for "deity" although it has related meanings as well. As a determinative, it is not pronounced, and is conventionally transliterated as a superscript "D" as in e.g. ^DInanna. Generically, dingir can be translated as "god" or "goddess".^[1]

In Sumerian, (DINGIR, DIGIR, 𒀭 )^[2] by itself represents the Sumerian word an (sky or heaven)^[3] or the ideogram for An, the supreme deity of the Sumerian pantheon. In Akkadian, (AN, DINGIR, ) could be either an ideogram for "deity" or a syllabogram for an, or ìl-. In Hittite orthography, the syllabic value of the sign was again an.

[edit] Cuneiform sign

A list of Sumerian deities, ca. 2400 BC. Each list entry is prefixed by the DINGIR determinative. For example, the third line would be autographed as 𒀭𒈹, transliterated as ^DInanna, transcribed as Inanna, and translated as "goddess Inanna" or simply "Inanna".

[edit] Sumerian

The Sumerian sign DINGIR originated as a star-shaped ideogram indicating a god in general, or the Sumerian god An, the supreme father of the gods. Dingir also meant sky or heaven in contrast with ki which meant earth. Its emesal pronunciation was dimer.

The plural of dingir is dingir dingir.

[edit] Akkadian

The Akkadian sign DINGIR could mean:

• the Akkadian nominal stem il- meaning "god" or "goddess", derived acrophonically from the Semitic ʾil-
• the god Anum
• the Akkadian word šamû meaning "sky"
• the syllables an and il
• a preposition meaning "at" or "to"
• a determinative indicating that the following word is the name of a god

The phonetic similarity between Old Turkish word for God and sky, 'Tengri' and Sumerian DİNGİR is also interesting.

According to one interpretation, DINGIR could also refer to a priest or priestess although there are other Akkadian words ēnu and ēntu that are also translated priest and priestess. For example, nin-dingir (lady divine) meant a priestess who received foodstuffs at the temple of Enki in the city of Eridu.^[4]

[edit] Digital encoding

The cuneiform sign is encoded in Unicode (as of version 5.0) under its name AN at U+1202D 𒀭.

[edit] See also

Ancient Near East portal

Look up 𒀭 in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Religions of the Ancient Near East
• Mesopotamian mythology
• Sumerian language
• Akkadian language
• Hittite language
• Eblaite language

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

Edzard, Dietz Otto (2003). Sumerian Grammar. Handbook of Oriental Studies. 71. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature. ISBN 1-58983-252-3. 

Hayes, John L. (2000). A Manual of Sumerian Grammar and Texts. Aids and Research Tools in Ancient Near Eastern Studies (Second revised ed.). Malibu: Undena Publications. ISBN 0-89003-508-1.