Akkadian (/əˈkeɪdiən/ akkadû, 𒀝𒅗𒁺𒌑 ak-ka-du-u2; logogram: 𒌵𒆠 URIKI)[2][3] is

an extinct East Semitic language 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 eighth
century BC.
It is the earliest attested Semitic language.[4] It used the cuneiform script, which was originally used
to write the unrelated, and also extinct, Sumerian (which is a language isolate). Akkadian was
named after the city of Akkad, a major centre of Mesopotamian civilization during the Akkadian
Empire (c. 2334–2154 BC), but the language itself precedes the founding of Akkad by many
centuries.
The mutual influence between Sumerian and Akkadian had led scholars to describe the languages
as a Sprachbund.[5]
Akkadian proper names were first attested in Sumerian texts from around the mid 3rd-millennium
BC.[6] From the second half of the third millennium BC (c. 2500 BC), texts fully written in Akkadian
begin to appear. Hundreds of thousands of texts and text fragments have been excavated to date,
covering a vast textual tradition of mythological narrative, legal texts, scientific works,
correspondence, political and military events, and many other examples. By the second millennium
BC, two variant forms of the language were in use in Assyria and Babylonia, known
as Assyrian and Babylonian respectively.
For centuries, Akkadian was the native language in Mesopotamian nations such as Assyria and
Babylonia. Because of the might of various Mesopotamian empires, such as the Akkadian
Empire, Old Assyrian Empire, Babylonia, and Middle Assyrian Empire, Akkadian became the lingua
franca of much of the Ancient Near East. However, it began to decline during the Neo-Assyrian
Empire around the eighth century BC, being marginalized by Aramaic during the reign of Tiglath-
Pileser III. By the Hellenistic period, 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 first century AD.[7] Neo-
Mandaic spoken by the Mandaeans, and Assyrian Neo-Aramaic spoken by the Assyrian people, are
two of the few modern Semitic languages that contain some Akkadian vocabulary and grammatical
features.[8][9] Akkadian is a fusional language with grammatical case; and like all Semitic languages,
Akkadian uses the system of consonantal roots. The Kültepe texts, which were written in Old
Assyrian, include Hittite loanwords and names, which constitute the oldest record of any language of
the Indo-European languages.[10]

Classification[edit]
Akkadian 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 to parts of West Africa (Hausa). Akkadian and
its successor Aramaic however are only ever attested in Mesopotamia and the Near East.
Within the Near Eastern Semitic languages, Akkadian forms an East Semitic subgroup (with Eblaite).
This group distinguishes itself from the Northwest and South Semitic languages by its subject–
object–verb, while the other Semitic languages usually have either a verb–subject–object or subject–
verb–object order. This novel word order is due to the influence of the Sumerian substratum, which
has an SOV order.[citation needed]
Additionally 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). Other Semitic languages
like Arabic and Aramaic have the prepositions bi/bə and li/lə (locative and dative, respectively). The
origin of the Akkadian spatial prepositions is unknown.
In contrast to most other Semitic languages, Akkadian has only one non-sibilant fricative: ḫ [x].
Akkadian lost both the glottal and pharyngeal fricatives, which are characteristic of the other Semitic
languages. Until the Old Babylonian period, the Akkadian sibilants were exclusively affricated.[3]

History and writing[edit]

Writing[edit]
Main article: Akkadian cuneiform

Cuneiform writing (Neoassyrian script)

(1 = Logogram (LG) "mix"/syllabogram (SG) ḫi,
2 = LG "moat",
3 = SG aʾ,
4 = SG aḫ, eḫ, iḫ, uḫ,
5 = SG kam,
6 = SG im,
7 = SG bir)

Old Akkadian is preserved on clay tablets dating back to c. 2500 BC. It was written using cuneiform,
a script adopted from the Sumerians using wedge-shaped symbols pressed in wet clay. As
employed by Akkadian scribes, the adapted cuneiform script could represent either
(a) Sumerian logograms (i.e., picture-based characters representing entire words), (b) Sumerian
syllables, (c) Akkadian syllables, or (d) phonetic complements. However, in Akkadian the script
practically became a fully fledged syllabic script, and the original logographic nature of cuneiform
became secondary, though logograms for frequent words such as 'god' and 'temple' continued to be
used. For this reason, the sign AN can on the one hand be a logogram for the word ilum ('god') and
on the other signify the god Anu or even the syllable -an-. Additionally, this sign was used as
a determinative for divine names.
Another peculiarity of Akkadian cuneiform is that many signs do not have a well-defined phonetic
value. Certain signs, such as AḪ, do not distinguish between the different vowel qualities. Nor is
there any coordination in the other direction; the syllable -ša-, for example, is rendered by the
sign ŠA, but also by the sign NĪĜ. Both of these are often used for the same syllable in the same
text.
Cuneiform was in many ways unsuited to Akkadian: among its flaws was its inability to represent
important phonemes in Semitic, including a glottal stop, pharyngeals, and emphatic consonants. In
addition, cuneiform was a syllabary writing system—i.e., a consonant plus vowel comprised one
writing unit—frequently inappropriate for a Semitic language made up of triconsonantal roots (i.e.,
three consonants plus any vowels).