Concordance between Borger's signlist and the Unicode Cuneiform character set

This table correlates the signs listed in Borger, Mesopotamisches Zeichenlexikon (2003) with the Unicode Cuneiform character set. You may find it helpful to read the pages on cuneiform fonts, sign lists, and computer cuneiform before using this table. Alternatively, you can easily generate cuneiform characters from alphabetic transliteration using the Cuneify page.

Some points to note:

• The signs are given here in the order that they appear in Borger.
• In several cases Borger treats as a single sign signs that are listed separately in the Unicode character set (e.g., Borger sign 20). This is usually because the signs in Borger are organised by their Neo-Assyrian forms, by which time some separate but visually similar signs had merged into one.
• In a few cases, Borger understands as separate signs those which the Unicode character set treats as sign variants (e.g., Borger signs 905 and 906).
• In column 2 (Borger Value(s)), the name given to each sign follow's Borgers's second chapter, with some minor typographic variations to conform with ATF's compound sign-naming conventions. For instance:
  • component signs that appear over each other are connected with &;
  • signs that are crossing (Borger: "gekreuzt") are connected with %;
  • signs that confront (Borger: "SIGN.SIGNinversum") each other are connected with @;
  • and signs that are squared (Borger: "4mal", four times) are preceded by 4×.
  • Where Borger uses hyphens, we write full stops;
  • but inside signs, Borger's hyphens are our + signs (e.g., Borger's "KA× AD-KUG" is ATF KA×AD+KUG);
  • where he writes SIGNgunû, SIGNšeššig, SIGNtenû, we write SIGN@g, SIGN@s, SIGN@t.
• There are some signs in Borger that do not yet appear in the Unicode Cuneiform character set. As a rule, these are rarely occurring composite signs, including some signs whose identity is uncertain.
• Where column 4 (Unicode Number) is empty, that is because the sign is compound. The component Unicode characters are given in column 5.
• There are further Unicode Cuneiform characters that are not in Borger's signlist, which we have not listed here. For the full set, see the official Unicode Cuneiform [http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U12000.pdf] [1.8 MB PDF file] and Unicode Cuneiform Numbers [http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U12400.pdf] [188 KB PDF file] code charts.
• Borger's listing follows Neo-Assyrian sign order, but you may find it useful and interesting to switch between OB and NA fonts while viewing this table.