Sumerogram

Several ancient Near Eastern texts made cross references so as to cause readers to apprehend more than one text or theme at a time. Sumerograms in Akkadian literature or biblical quotations in Qumran pesharim are clear examples.

Often the context will be clear enough and leave little room for doubt, but in many cases the need was felt to make the function of the Sumerogram in a particular clause explicit. This was done by adding the Hittite case ending to the Sumerogram: e.g., išḫaš is the subject case, išḫan the object case, and išḫi the indirect object case. These could be written ᴇɴ-aš, ᴇɴ-an, and ᴇɴ-i respectively. Such endings attached to a Sumerogram are known as phonetic complements.