Dingir

Dingir (usually transliterated diĝir, pronounced /diŋir/) is a Sumerican word for "god." Its cuneiform sign is most commonly employed as the determinative for "deity" although it has related meanings as well. As a determinative, it is not pronounced, and is conventionally transliterated as a superscript "D" as in e.g. ^DInanna. Generically, dingir can be translated as "god" or "goddess".

The sign in Sumerian cuneiform (DIĜIR, 𒀭) by itself represents the Sumerian word an ("sky" or "heaven"), the ideogram for An or the word diĝir ("god"), the supreme deity of the Sumerian pantheon. In Assyrian cuneiform, it (AN, DIĜIR, ) could be either an ideogram for "deity" (ilum) or a syllabogram for an, or ìl-. In Hittite orthography, the syllabic value of the sign was again an.

The concept of "divinity" in Sumerian is closely associated with the heavens, as is evident from the fact that the cuneiform sign doubles as the ideogram for "sky", and that its original shape is the picture of a star. The original association of "divinity" is thus with "bright" or "shining" hierophanies in the sky. A possible loan relation of Sumerian dingir with Turkic Tengri "sky, sky god" has been suggested.

Dingir (album)

Dingir (pronounced /dɪn'dʒir/) is the second album by American deathcore band Rings of Saturn. It was produced by Bob Swanson at Mayhemness Studios located in Sacramento, California. It was originally due for a release on November 20, 2012, but due to legal issues, the release of the physical CD was pushed to February 5, 2013. In response to the legal push back and a pre-production version of the album leaking, the vocalist uploaded the completed album, it its entirety, on his YouTube channel, along with a download link. It is the first album with Ian Bearer on vocals, Joel Omans on guitar, Sean Martinez on bass, and Ian Baker on drums after the departure of Peter Pawlak and Brent Silletto, the band's founding vocalist and drummer.

Legal issues

The album was originally planned for a release on November 20, 2012, but legal issues had pushed the album back to February 5, 2013. It turned out that the trademark of their name was owned by another group. Trademark law exists to protect the brands that businesses spend money and sweat equity developing. The band commented on their struggle with this lesson in a post to Facebook on November 17.