Editing Phonetic complement (section)

==In cuneiform==
In [[Sumerian language|Sumerian]], the single word ''kur'' ([[wikt:𒆳#Sumerian|𒆳]]) had two main meanings: '[[hill]]' and '[[country]]'.  [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]], however, had separate words for these two meanings: ''[[wikt:šadûm#Akkadian|šadú]]'' 'hill' and ''[[wikt:mātum#Akkadian|mātu]]'' 'country'. When [[Sumerian cuneiform]] was adapted (known as ''orthographic borrowing'') for writing Akkadian, this was ambiguous because both words were written with the same character (𒆳, conventionally transcribed KUR, after its Sumerian pronunciation). To alert the reader as to which Akkadian word was intended, the phonetic complement ''-ú'' was written after KUR if 'hill' was intended, so that the characters KUR-ú were pronounced ''šadú,'' whereas KUR without a phonetic complement was understood to mean ''mātu'' 'country'.

Phonetic complements also indicated the Akkadian [[Nominative case|nominative]] and [[Genitive case|genitive cases]]. Similarly, [[Hittite cuneiform]] occasionally uses phonetic complements to attach Hittite [[case endings]] to [[Sumerogram]]s and [[Akkadogram]]s.

Phonetic complements should not be confused with [[determinative]]s (which were also used to disambiguate) since determinatives were used specifically to indicate the [[Syntactic category|category]] of the word they preceded or followed.  For example, the sign [[Dingir|DINGIR]] ([[wikt:𒀭#Sumerian|𒀭]]) often precedes names of [[gods]], as [[Lugal|LUGAL]] ([[wikt:𒈗#Sumerian|𒈗]]) does for [[King|kings]].  It is believed that determinatives were not pronounced.  <!--TODO: List of phonetic complements in [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]]-->