Microstructure

Each LAD entry page is divided into three parts, side by side:

• Navigation pane (left): orientation within the entry and through the dictionary.
• LAD (middle): the entry itself, described part by part below.
• Print dictionaries (right): the entries of the CAD and the AHw that the LAD entry corresponds to, shown beside it for comparison.

Navigation paneLAD entryPrint dictionaries

On a phone the three parts become tabs above the entry (LAD, CAD and AHw), and the navigation pane opens as a drawer. How the navigation pane works is explained in How to use, Navigation pane. On the AHw and the CAD, how LAD relates to them and what their columns show, see AHw and CAD, and on each of them its own page: AHw and CAD.

Navigation paneTabs: LAD, CAD, AHw

LAD Entry

The entry itself stands in the middle of the page. From top to bottom it has the following parts.

1 Header

The header gives the word and what is known about it at a glance. Beside the headword stand the icons to share, download and cite the entry (see How to use).

1.1 Headword

The lemma headword (see Conventions, Citation Form). The headword may be accompanied by one or more of the following tags:

1.1.1 New

A word not previously documented in either AHw or CAD. It is still considered “new” if it had previously been included in other reference works, such as CDA or SAD (e.g. abratemu). It is not considered “new” if the relevant attestations had been documented in the earlier dictionaries, but reading or interpretation have since changed (e.g. massilātu, which used to be read bassilatu/baṣiltu).

1.1.2 Deleted

A word listed in CAD, AHw, or both, which is now struck based on improved understanding of the source material (e.g. gam). It is kept as a crossed-out entry in order to provide transparent documentation of LAD’s progress and aid in the navigation of older scholarly literature. In cases where an outdated CAD or AHw entry can simply be mapped to a LAD entry with a new reading or interpretation, explicit deletion is not necessary.

1.1.3 Hapax

The word is a hapax legomenon, i.e. it is attested only once in the entire corpus to our current knowledge.

1.1.4 Dis

The word is a dis legomenon, i.e. it is attested exactly twice in the entire corpus to our current knowledge. This also applies when both attestations come from the same text, or from two different manuscripts witnessing the same text passage.

1.1.5 All

All attestations currently known to us have been included in the LAD entry.

1.2 Editorial status

A tag indicating the current editorial status:

1.2.1 Draft

No or little new information has been added. The entry most likely represents the state of knowledge of AHw, CAD, and/or the eBL dictionary.

1.2.2 Review

Substantial new information has been added, including new references and bibliography. The entry may, however, still be subject to considerable alterations, corrections, and copy-editing.

1.2.3 Published

The entry has been carefully reviewed by the project leadership and is considered complete until new material becomes known. A published entry carries no status label: an entry without DRAFT or REVIEW beside its headword is published.

1.3 Meaning

The general meaning in English, in the future to be accompanied by German, French, and Arabic translations.

1.4 Variants

The variants of the word, including information on their historical or geographical distribution.

1.5 Logograms

The logograms of the word, where applicable. The reading of logograms generally follows Borger, MZL.

1.6 Distribution

Periods of attestation (see the full list in Abbreviations). LAD’s periodization basically follows CAD and AHw with some refinements:

• In the 3rd millennium, we differentiate Pre-Sargonic, Ebla, Old Akkadian (Sargonic), and Ur III.
• Only literary and lexical texts from the first millennium are labelled “Standard Babylonian” (SB). For earlier periods, we distinguish the period + Lit/Lex (OB-Lit, MB-Lex, etc.).
• In first-millennium Babylonia, we distinguish, following AHw, Neo-Babylonian (NB), up to Nabopolassar’s reign (626 BCE), and Late Babylonian (LB) thereafter.

1.7 Grammar

Grammatical information. What it contains depends on the part of speech:

1.7.1 Substantives and adjectives

Part of speech, gender, number (the plural form or forms, with the dialect or period where they differ), and the nominal pattern with its suffixes. For an adjective, the feminine form stands beside the headword.

1.7.2 Verbs

Part of speech, root (the radicals and the type of root, e.g. I/ʾ for a verb primae aleph), vowel class (the vowels of present and preterite, e.g. a/i), the stative where it deviates from the default PaRiS, and the verbal stems in which the verb is attested (G, Gt, Gtn, D, Dt, Š, N, …). The meanings and attestations of a verb are arranged by stem, each sense headed by its stem (e.g. “2. G”); a newly attested stem is marked with a superscript +.

1.8 Domain

Semantic domains according to LAD’s own catalogue (work in progress).

1.9 Etymology

LAD differentiates five types, described below. A short discussion and bibliography pertaining to etymology are added whenever possible.

1.9.1 Borrowing

An Akkadian word of foreign origin. If known, the language of origin is indicated.

1.9.2 Foreign

A word of foreign origin that retains its original morphology.

1.9.3 Inheritance

Part of the inherited Semitic lexicon.1

1.9.4 Derivation

The word derives from a different Akkadian word, frequently a verb, standing in for the root.

Denomination is indicated specifically: a verb derived from a noun is marked “Denominal”.

1.9.5 Compounding

Compounds of two or more (Akkadian) words.

1.10 Marks and links

Small marks in the header (and in the attestations) qualify the information they stand beside:

1.10.1 +

The information is new in LAD, i.e. not found in AHw or CAD: a variant, a logogram, a period of the distribution, a grammatical form or a verbal stem.

1.10.2 (?)

The information is uncertain.

1.10.3 Links to the attestations

A variant or a logogram that occurs in the attestations of the entry can be clicked. If it occurs once, the page goes straight to that attestation; if more often, a list of the attestations opens. A new variant with its +, such as gīzu in gizzu, thus leads to the attestation that documents it.

1.10.4 Abbreviations

A click on an abbreviation (a period, a stem, a grammatical term) shows it in full; all of them are listed in Abbreviations.

2 Attestations

On the types of attestations collected in LAD, see Procedure, Attestations. Attestations are given in full with English translations, with an optional commentary. If an online edition is available, a link is supplied for the user’s convenience. Note, however, that LAD’s readings and interpretations are always the respective authors’ own and may differ from the cited print or online editions. As work on individual lemmata progresses, attestations will be structured according to meaning, period, context, and any other criteria suggested by the data (see e.g. parû I). Attestations for verbs are always structured according to verbal stems as the first level of order (as in AHw and many volumes of CAD).

2.1 Parts of an attestation

Each attestation is one line, read from left to right:

• Period: the period and type of text, abbreviated (e.g. OB, SB-Lex); a click on it shows it in full. The coloured bar on the left of the attestation marks the period as well. For a verb the stem follows (e.g. D), and a label such as (comm.) marks a commentary.
• Transliteration: the passage itself, with logograms in small capitals and damaged signs in brackets (see Conventions).
• Reference: the edition of the text by its siglum, chapter and line; a click shows the full bibliographic reference, with a button to copy it and, where the work is online, a link to read it.
• Link: ↗ leads to the text in an online corpus such as ARCHIBAB, SEAL, SAAo or DCCLT; pointing at it shows the text’s number there.
• Translation: the English translation, in quotation marks.
• Note: an optional remark, e.g. a collation, a parallel passage (see also, cf.) or a different reading.
• new: the attestation is not in AHw or CAD.

PeriodTransliterationReferenceLinkTranslationNotenew

3 Discussion

The discussion collects what does not fit into the structured parts above: remarks on the reading, the meaning or the etymology of the word and on individual passages, with the relevant bibliography.

4 Cross-references

Cross-references within LAD: links to related entries, such as words of the same root or words to compare.

5 External resources

Pointers out of LAD to other digital corpora and dictionaries, for example further lexical references in DCCLT or the corresponding Sumerian word in ePSD2.

6 Authors

Contributors of individual attestations and the editors are mentioned by name. Most parts of a LAD entry are the product of many minds and not individually assigned. The responsibility for the published version always lies with Michael P. Streck and Janine Wende.