Tu (cuneiform) Tu (cuneiform) The cuneiform sign tu, and for TU-(the sumerogram, capital letter (majuscule), in the Hittite language and other cuneiform texts, is a common-use syllabic sign for ""tu"", and also with a syllabic use for ""t"", or ""u"". It is not a multi-use sign, with other alphabetic sub-varieties. The Sumerian language version is similar to the usage in the Amarna letters, with the 3-horizontal strokes connecting the 4-angled wedges on the left, and connected to the vertical horizontal single-stroke, at right. Varieties exist: for example Amarna letter EA 271 shows 4-hortizontal long-strokes, with 2 short-strokes, between the two long ones,
Cuneiform the number of characters in use grew smaller (Hittite cuneiform). The system consists of a combination of logophonetic, consonantal alphabetic and syllabic signs. The original Sumerian script was adapted for the writing of the Semitic Akkadian (Assyrian/Babylonian), Eblaite and Amorite languages, the language isolates Elamite, Hattic, Hurrian and Urartian, as well as Indo-European languages Hittite and Luwian; it inspired the later Semitic Ugaritic alphabet as well as Old Persian cuneiform. Cuneiform writing was gradually replaced by the Phoenician alphabet during the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–612 BC). By the second century AD, the script had become extinct, its last traces being found