The origin of the Akkadian spatial prepositions is unknown. Other Semitic languages like Arabic, Hebrew and Aramaic have the prepositions bi/bə and li/lə (locative and dative, respectively). This group distinguishes itself from the Northwest and South Semitic languages by its subject–object–verb word order, while the other Semitic languages usually have either a verb–subject–object or subject–verb–object order.Īdditionally Akkadian is the only Semitic language to use the prepositions ina and ana ( locative case, English in/ on/ with, and dative-locative case, for/ to, respectively). Within the Near Eastern Semitic languages, Akkadian forms an East Semitic subgroup (with Eblaite). Akkadian and its successor Aramaic, however, are only ever attested in Mesopotamia and the Near East. British Museum.Īkkadian belongs with the other Semitic languages in the Near Eastern branch of the Afroasiatic languages, a family native to the Middle East, Arabian Peninsula, the Horn of Africa, parts of Anatolia, North Africa, Malta, Canary Islands and parts of West Africa ( Hausa). The name of Naram-Sin ( 𒀭𒈾𒊏𒄠𒀭𒂗𒍪: DNa-ra-am D Sîn, Sîn being written 𒂗𒍪 EN.ZU), appears vertically in the right column. Right: Seal of Akkadian Empire ruler Naram-Sin (reversed for readability), c. Left: Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform syllabary, used by early Akkadian rulers. 10.6 Technical literature on specific subjects.4.4.1.2 Suffixed (or enclitic) pronouns.4.1.3 Noun states and nominal sentences.The Kültepe texts, which were written in Old Assyrian, include Hittite loanwords and names, which constitute the oldest record of any Indo-European language.
Īkkadian is a fusional language with grammatical case and like all Semitic languages, Akkadian uses the system of consonantal roots. Mandaic and Assyrian are two (Northwest Semitic) Neo-Aramaic languages that retain some Akkadian vocabulary and grammatical features. The last known Akkadian cuneiform document dates from the 1st century AD. By the Hellenistic period, the language was largely confined to scholars and priests working in temples in Assyria and Babylonia. Its decline began in the Iron Age, during the Neo-Assyrian Empire, by about the 8th century BC ( Tiglath-Pileser III), in favour of Old Aramaic. In total, hundreds of thousands of texts and text fragments have been excavated, covering a vast textual tradition of mythological narrative, legal texts, scientific works, correspondence, political and military events, and many other examples.Ĭenturies after the fall of the Akkadian Empire, Akkadian (in its Assyrian and Babylonian varieties) was the native language of the Mesopotamian empires ( Old Assyrian Empire, Babylonia, Middle Assyrian Empire) throughout the later Bronze Age, and became the lingua franca of much of the Ancient Near East by the time of the Bronze Age collapse c. The bulk of preserved material is from this later period, corresponding to the Near Eastern Iron Age. By the 10th century BC, two variant forms of the language were in use in Assyria and Babylonia, known as Assyrian and Babylonian respectively. From about the 25th or 24th century BC, texts fully written in Akkadian begin to appear. Īkkadian proper names were first attested in Sumerian texts from around the mid 3rd-millennium BC. The mutual influence between Sumerian and Akkadian had led scholars to describe the languages as a Sprachbund. Akkadian is named after the city of Akkad, a major centre of Mesopotamian civilization during the Akkadian Empire (c. It used the cuneiform script, which was originally used to write the unrelated, and also extinct, Sumerian (which is a language isolate).
It is the earliest documented Semitic language.
For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.Īkkadian ( / ə ˈ k eɪ d i ən/, Akkadian: 𒀝𒅗𒁺𒌑 akkadû) was an East Semitic language, now extinct, that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia ( Akkad, Assyria, Isin, Larsa and Babylonia) from the third millennium BC until its gradual replacement by Akkadian-influenced Old Aramaic among Mesopotamians by the 8th century BC. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Initially Akkad (central Mesopotamia) lingua franca of the Middle East and Egypt in the late Bronze and early Iron Ages.
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