Cuneiform stylus or incised in stone. This early style lacked the characteristic wedge shape of the strokes. Certain signs to indicate names of gods, countries, cities, vessels, birds, trees, etc., are known as determinatives and were the Sumerian signs of the terms in question, added as a guide for the reader. Proper names continued to be usually written in purely "logographic" fashion. The earliest known Sumerian king whose name appears on contemporary cuneiform tablets is Enmebaragesi of Kish. Surviving records only very gradually become less fragmentary and more complete for the following reigns, but by the end of the pre-Sargonic period,
Ab (cuneiform) Ab (cuneiform) The cuneiform ab, and ap sign, (in the Akkadian language world, 'b' is unaspirated, formed with the lips, and 'p' is "aspirated"-(aspirated consonant, with the breath)) is the cuneiform sign used for the syllables "ab", or "ap", or the vowel and consonant usages of a, b, or p. In the Akkadian language b-and-p are interchangeable; also in cuneiform texts, any vowel of the "a, e, i, u" (no "o" in Akkadian) can be interchanged with another. Also for the 'ab/ap' sign, there is a capital letter (majuscule) usage as a sumerogram, found in the "Epic of Gilgamesh" for