Hittite cuneiform is the implementation of cuneiform script used in writing the Hittite language. The surviving corpus of Hittite texts is preserved in cuneiform on clay tablets dating to the 2nd millennium BC. Hittite orthography was directly adapted from Old Assyrian cuneiform. The HZL of Rüster and Neu lists 375 cuneiform signs used in Hittite documents, compared to some 600 signs in use in Old Assyrian. About half of the signs have syllabic values, the remaining are used as ideograms or logograms to represent the entire word—much as the characters "$", "%" and "&" are used in contemporary English. Cuneiform signs can be employed in three functions: syllabograms, Akkadograms or Sumerograms. Syllabograms are characters that represent a syllable. Akkadograms and Sumerograms are ideograms originally from the earlier Akkadian or Sumerian orthography respectively, but not intended to be pronounced as in the original language; Sumerograms are mostly ideograms and determiners. Conventionally,
Thus, the sign GI can be used in three ways, as the Hittite syllable gi ; in the Akkadian spelling QÈ-RU-UB of the preposition "near" as QÈ, and as the Sumerian ideogram GI for "tube" also in superscript, GI, when used as a determiner.
Syllabary
The syllabary consists of single vowels, vowels preceded by a consonant, vowels followed by a consonant, or consonants in both locations. This system distinguishes the following consonants, combined with the vowels a, e, i, u. Additional ya, wa and wi signs are introduced. The contrast of the Assyrian voiced/unvoiced series is not used to express the voiced/unvoiced contrast in Hittite; they are used somewhat interchangeably in some words, while other words are spelled consistently. The contrast in these cases is not entirely clear, and several interpretations of the underlying phonology have been proposed. Similarly, the purpose of inserting an additional vowel between syllabograms is not clear. Examples of this practice include the -a- in iš-ḫa-a-aš "master" or in la-a-man "name", ú-i-da-a-ar "waters". In some cases, it may indicate an inherited long vowel, but it may also have other functions connected with 'word accentuation'.
are Sumerograms that are not pronounced but indicate the class or nature of a noun for clarity, e.g. in URUḪa-at-tu-ša ; the URU is a determiner marking the name of a city, and the pronunciation is simply /hattusa/. Sumerograms proper on the other hand are ideograms intended to be pronounced in Hittite.
