Akkadian language

Akkadian was an <a href="/facts/East_Semitic_languages/ot6b9nSy">East Semitic language</a> that is attested in ancient <a href="/facts/Mesopotamia/f0mmbhTK">Mesopotamia</a> (<a href="/facts/Akkad_(region)/TktUbgAf">Akkad</a>, <a href="/facts/Assyria/n9pMP48S">Assyria</a>, <a href="/facts/Isin/WM00jJFS">Isin</a>, <a href="/facts/Larsa/Nz2HuF60">Larsa</a>, <a href="/facts/Babylonia/J4jjdUua">Babylonia</a> and perhaps <a href="/facts/Dilmun/7MaD1Xyy">Dilmun</a>) from mid <a href="/facts/3rd_millennium_BC/csYpGrX5">third millennium BC</a> until its gradual replacement in common use by <a href="/facts/Old_Aramaic_language/JMK0kG0D">Old Aramaic</a> among Assyrians and Babylonians from the 8th century BC.
Akkadian, which is the earliest documented <a href="/facts/Semitic_languages/WCYrz4Qm">Semitic language</a>, is named after the city of <a href="/facts/Akkad_(city)/TktUbgAf">Akkad</a>, a major centre of Mesopotamian civilization during the <a href="/facts/Akkadian_Empire/kWx9zFF6">Akkadian Empire</a> (c. 2334–2154 BC). It was written using the <a href="/facts/Cuneiform_script/MgIQoGu8">cuneiform script</a>, originally used for <a href="/facts/Sumerian_language/LM6x88vp">Sumerian</a>, but also used to write multiple languages in the region including <a href="/facts/Eblaite_language/GuBooU5A">Eblaite</a>, <a href="/facts/Hurrian_language/aUBltaSp">Hurrian</a>, <a href="/facts/Elamite_language/ebpHtDtc">Elamite</a>, <a href="/facts/Old_Persian/gxx47Ul7">Old Persian</a> and <a href="/facts/Hittite_language/Pc8YGhRU">Hittite</a>. The influence of Sumerian on Akkadian went beyond just the cuneiform script; owing to their close proximity, a lengthy span of contact and the <a href="/facts/Prestige_(sociolinguistics)/PCApCH33">prestige</a> held by the former, Sumerian significantly impacted Akkadian phonology, vocabulary and syntax. This mutual influence of Akkadian and Sumerian has also led scholars to describe the languages as a <a href="/facts/Sprachbund/e96F1Sd8">Sprachbund</a>.
Akkadian proper names are first attested in Sumerian texts in the mid-3rd millennium BC, and inscriptions ostensibly written in Sumerian but whose character order reveals that they were intended to be read in East Semitic (presumably early Akkadian) date back to as early as c. 2600 BC. From about the 25th century BC, texts fully written in Akkadian begin to appear. By the 20th century BC, two variant dialectic forms of the same language were in use in Assyria and Babylonia, known as Assyrian and Babylonian respectively. The bulk of preserved material is from this later period, corresponding to the <a href="/facts/Near_East/gD1vyGQI">Near Eastern</a> <a href="/facts/Iron_Age/mpQYShI0">Iron Age</a>. In total, hundreds of thousands of texts and text fragments have been excavated, covering a vast textual tradition of religious and mythological narrative, legal texts, scientific works, personal correspondence, political, civil and military events, economic tracts and many other examples.
Centuries after the fall of the Akkadian Empire, Akkadian, in its Assyrian and Babylonian varieties, was the native language of the Mesopotamian empires (<a href="/facts/Old_Assyrian_Empire/moco6EwN">Old Assyrian Empire</a>, <a href="/facts/Babylonia/J4jjdUua">Babylonia</a>, <a href="/facts/Middle_Assyrian_Empire/LmFx7j63">Middle Assyrian Empire</a>) throughout the later Bronze Age, and became the <a href="/facts/Lingua_franca/dlGrD7ra">lingua franca</a> of much of the Ancient <a href="/facts/Near_East/gD1vyGQI">Near East</a> by the time of the <a href="/facts/Bronze_Age_collapse/gk2FrXGv">Bronze Age collapse</a> c. 1150 BC. However, its gradual decline began in the Iron Age, during the <a href="/facts/Neo-Assyrian_Empire/GzQ9HoXb">Neo-Assyrian Empire</a> when in the mid-eighth century BC <a href="/facts/Tiglath-Pileser_III/qH7Gh0g1">Tiglath-Pileser III</a> introduced <a href="/facts/Imperial_Aramaic/wVD0NTqx">Imperial Aramaic</a> as a lingua franca of the Assyrian empire. By the <a href="/facts/Hellenistic_period/q6BgQsaF">Hellenistic period</a>, the language was largely confined to scholars and priests working in temples in Assyria and Babylonia. The last known Akkadian cuneiform document dates from the 1st century AD.
<a href="/facts/Neo-Mandaic/WfSwjgdy">Mandaic</a> spoken by <a href="/facts/Mandaeans/lAVGX7tJ">Mandean</a> <a href="/facts/Gnostics/gVGVzaAN">Gnostics</a> and the dialects spoken by the extant <a href="/facts/Assyrian_people/qfHqDhDc">Assyrians</a> (<a href="/facts/Suret_language/QcY8Smky">Suret</a>) are three extant <a href="/facts/Neo-Aramaic_languages/tTUddtXu">Neo-Aramaic languages</a> that retain Akkadian vocabulary and grammatical features, as well as personal and family names. These are spoken by Assyrians and Mandeans mainly in northern <a href="/facts/Iraq/pqYSFJw8">Iraq</a>, southeast <a href="/facts/Turkey/KIYAWAs0">Turkey</a>, northeast <a href="/facts/Syria/7pDXGzq8">Syria</a>, northwest <a href="/facts/Iran/24yukge8">Iran</a>, the southern <a href="/facts/Caucasus/sE8P8Ejg">Caucasus</a> and by communities in the <a href="/facts/Assyrian_diaspora/sFkTkLQv">Assyrian diaspora</a>.
Akkadian is a <a href="/facts/Fusional_language/VHVxrPAv">fusional language</a> with <a href="/facts/Grammatical_case/5caTQalU">grammatical case</a>. Like all Semitic languages, Akkadian uses the system of <a href="/facts/Semitic_root/S73FvfPz">consonantal roots</a>. The <a href="/facts/K%C3%BCltepe_texts/bIxFUFLV">Kültepe texts</a>, which were written in <a href="/facts/Old_Assyrian_language/esQDlrFw">Old Assyrian</a>, include <a href="/facts/Hittite_language/Pc8YGhRU">Hittite</a> loanwords and names, which constitute the oldest record of any <a href="/facts/Indo-European_languages/L34TfgSr">Indo-European language</a>.

Akkadian language open-in-new

Akkadian language