How did Sumerian cuneiform combine word signs with syllable signs?

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Sumerian cuneiform tablet — cuneiform An account of barley distribution, probably from Uruk, Mesopotamia, c. 3100–2900 bce; in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.

Sumerian cuneiform evolved from a system of pure pictographic word writing into a complex word-syllabic script by incorporating the rebus principle. This allowed pictographic signs to represent the sound of a word rather than just the object depicted.1

Because the Sumerian language was largely monosyllabic, these signs naturally functioned as phonetic syllables. This transition enabled the following combinations:

Phonetic Complements: Writers added phonetic symbols to logograms (word signs) to clarify grammatical elements.1
Polyphony: Since many logograms represented multiple related concepts, a single sign could possess several different phonetic values.1
Homophony: Because the language contained many words that sounded the same, different logograms could share identical phonetic values.1

By mixing these logograms and phonetic syllables, the Sumerians created a versatile system capable of expressing abstract ideas and grammatical structures beyond the limitations of simple pictographs.1