The cuneiform ma sign, is found in both the 14th century BC Amarna letters and the Epic of Gilgamesh.
In the Epic it is also used as the Sumerogram MA, (for Akkadian language "mina", manû, a weight measure, as MA.NA, or MA.NA.ÀM).
[1] The ma sign is often used at the end of words, besides its alphabetic usage inside words as syllabic ma, elsewhere for m, or a.
[2] The high usage for a is partially a result of the prepositional use for a-na-(Akkadian "ana", to, for, etc.
); "i", also has an increased prepositional use of i (cuneiform), for Akkadian ina, (i-na), for in, into, etc.