Akkadian language

 

Akkadian lišānum akkadītum
Spoken in:	Assyria and Babylonia
Region:	Mesopotamia
Language extinction:	100 AD
Language family:	Afro-Asiatic  Semitic   East Semitic    Akkadian
Writing system:	Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform
Official status
Official language of:	initially Akkad (central Mesopotamia); lingua franca of the Middle East and Egypt in the late Bronze and early Iron Ages.
Regulated by:	no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	akk
ISO 639-3:	akk
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Akkadian (lišānum akkadītum) was a Semitic language (part of the greater Afro-Asiatic language family) spoken in ancient Mesopotamia, particularly by the Assyrians and Babylonians (also called Assyro-Babylonian).^[1] The earliest attested Semitic language, it used the cuneiform writing system derived ultimately from ancient Sumerian, an unrelated, language isolate. The name of the language is derived from the city of Akkad, a major center of Mesopotamian civilization.

Varieties

Akkadian is divided into several varieties based on geography and historical period: ^[2]

• Old Akkadian — 2500 – 1950 BC
• Old Babylonian/Old Assyrian — 1950 – 1530 BC
• Middle Babylonian/Middle Assyrian — 1530 – 1000 BC
• Neo-Babylonian/Neo-Assyrian — 1000 – 600 BC
• Late Babylonian — 600 BC – 100 AD

Writing system

Ancient Mesopotamia
Euphrates · Tigris
Cities / Empires
Sumer: Uruk · Ur · Eridu
Kish · Lagash · Nippur
Akkadian Empire: Akkad
Babylon · Isin · Susa
Assyria: Assur · Nineveh
Dur-Sharrukin · Nimrud
Babylonia · Chaldea
Elam · Amorites
Hurrians · Mitanni
Kassites · Urartu
Chronology
Kings of Sumer
Kings of Assyria
Kings of Babylon
Language
Aramaic
Sumerian · Akkadian
Elamite · Hurrian
Mythology
Enûma Elish
Gilgamesh · Marduk

Akkadian scribes wrote the language using cuneiform script, an earlier writing system devised by the Sumerians using wedge-shaped signs 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. 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 minus any vowels).

Phonology

As far as can be told from the cuneiform orthography of Akkadian, several Proto-Semitic phonemes are lost in Akkadian. The Proto-Semitic glottal stop *ʾ, as well as the fricatives *ʿ, *h, *ḥ, *ġ are lost as consonants, either by sound change or orthographically, but they gave rise to the vowel quality e not exhibited in Proto-Semitic. The interdental and the voiceless lateral fricatives (*ś, *ṣ́) merged with the sibilants as in Canaanite, leaving 19 consonantal phonemes:

b p d t ṭ š z s ṣ l g k q ḫ m n r w y.

	Bilabial	Dental		Palatal	Velar		Uvular
		plain	emphatic		plain	emphatic
Nasal	m	n
Plosive	p b	t d	tˁ <ṭ>		k g	kˁ <q>
Fricative	v <w>	s z	sˁ <ṣ>	ʃ <š>			χ <ḫ>
Rhotic		r
Approximant		l		j <y>

There are four vowel qualities, with distinctive vowel length:

a, e, i, u, ā, ē, ī, ū

Grammar

Akkadian is an inflected language, and as a Semitic language its grammatical features are highly similar to those found in Classical Arabic. It possesses two genders (masculine and feminine), distinguished in second person pronouns (you-masc., you-fem.) and verb conjugations; three cases for nouns and adjectives (nominative, accusative, and genitive); three numbers (singular, dual, and plural); and unique verb conjugations for each first, second, and third person pronoun.

Akkadian nouns are declined according to gender, number and case. There are three genders; masculine, feminine and common. Only a very few nouns belong to the common gender. There are also three cases (nominative, accusative and genitive) and three numbers (singular, dual and plural). Adjectives are declined exactly like nouns.

Akkadian verbs have thirteen separate root stems. The three basic modifications of the simple stem (numbered I, or called the Grundstamm, G-Stamm) are doubling of the second root-letter (II or Doppelungsstamm, D-Stamm), š-prefix (III or Š-Stamm) or n-prefix (IV or N-Stamm). A second series is created by infixing the syllable ta between the first two root letters, creating a generally reflexive set of stems. These two sets of four stems each are the most commonly used in Akkadian. A third set is created by the infixation of the syllable tan between the first two root letters. The final stem uses both the š-prefix and doubling of the second root letter. The stems, their nomenclature and examples of the third-person masculine singular permansive of the verb parāsum (root PRS: 'to decide, distinguish, separate') is shown below:

I.1	G	paris	the simple stem, used for transitive and intransitive verbs	corresponding to Arabic stem I (fa‘ala) and Hebrew qal
II.1	D	purrus	gemination of the second radical, indicating the intensive	corresponding to Arabic stem II (fa‘‘ala) and Hebrew pi‘el
III.1	Š	šuprus	š-preformative, indicating the causative	corresponding to Arabic stem IV (’af‘ala) and Hebrew hiph‘il
IV.1	N	naprus	n-preformative, indicating the reflexive/passive	corresponding to Arabic stem VII (infa‘ala) and Hebrew niph‘al
I.2	Gt	pitrus	simple stem with t-infix after first radical, indicating reciprocal or reflexive	corresponding to Arabic stem VIII (ifta‘ala) and Aramaic ’ithpe‘al
II.2	Dt	putarrus	doubled second radical preceded by infixed t, indicating intensive reflexive	corresponding to Arabic stem V (tafa‘‘ala) and Hebrew hithpa‘el
III.2	Št	šutaprus	š-preformative with t-infix, indicating reflexive causative	corresponding to Arabic stem X (istaf‘ala) and Aramaic ’ittaph‘al
IV.2	Nt	itaprus
I.3	Gtn	pitarrus	simple stem with tan-infix after first radical
II.3	Dtn	putarrus	doubled second radical preceded by tan-infix
III.3	Štn		š-preformative with tan-infix
IV.3	Ntn	itaprus	n-preformative with tan-infix

Akkadian verbs usually display the tri-consonantal root, though some roots with two- or four-consonant roots also exist. There are three tenses: present, preterite and permansive. Present tense indicates incomplete action and preterite tense indicates complete action, while permansive tense expresses a state or condition and usually takes a particle.

Akkadian, unlike Arabic, has mainly regular plurals (i.e. no broken plurals), although some masculine words take feminine plurals. In that respect, it is similar to Hebrew.

Word Order

Akkadian sentence order was Subject+Object+Verb (SOV), which sets it apart from most other ancient Semitic languages such as Arabic and Biblical Hebrew, which typically have a Verb-subject-object (VSO) word order. (Modern South Semitic languages in Ethiopia also have SOV order, but these developed within historical times from the classical SVO language Ge'ez.) It has been hypothesized that this word order was a result of influence from the Sumerian language, which was also SOV. There is evidence that native speakers of both languages were in intimate language contact, forming a single society for at least 500 years, so it is entirely likely that a sprachbund could have formed. Further evidence of an original VSO or SVO ordering can be found in the fact that direct and indirect object pronouns are suffixed to the verb. Word order seems to have shifted to SVO/VSO late in the 1st millennium BC to the 1st millennium AD, possibly under the influence of Aramaic.

Literature

See also: Babylonian literature

• Atrahasis Epic (early 2nd millennium BCE)
• Enûma Elish (ca. 18th century BCE)
• Amarna letters (14th century BCE)
• Epic of Gilgamesh (Sin-liqe-unninni' "standard" version, 13th to 11th century BCE)

Notes

1. ^ http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9005290/Akkadian-language#62711.hook
2. ^ Caplice, p.5 (1980)

Further reading

• Cherry, A. (2003). A basic neo-Assyrian cuneiform syllabary. Toronto, Ont: Ashur Cherry, York University.
• Cherry, A. (2003). Basic individual logograms (Akkadian). Toronto, Ont: Ashur Cherry, York University.
• Gelb, I. J. (1961). Old Akkadian writing and grammar. Materials for the Assyrian dictionary, no. 2. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226623041

References

• Bussmann, Hadumod (1996). Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-20319-8
• Caplice, Richard (1980). Introduction to Akkadian. Rome: Biblical Institute Press. (1983: ISBN 88-7653-440-7; 1988, 2002: ISBN 88-7653-566-7) (The 1980 edition is partly available online.)
• Huehnergard, John (2005). A Grammar of Akkadian (Second Edition). Eisenbrauns. ISBN 1-57506-922-9
• Marcus, David (1978). A Manual of Akkadian. University Press of America. ISBN 0-8191-0608-9
• Mercer, Samuel A B (1961). Introductory Assyrian Grammar. New York: F Ungar. ISBN 0-486-42815-X
• Soden, Wolfram von (1952). Grundriss der akkadischen Grammatik. Analecta Orientalia 33. Roma: Pontificium Institutum Biblicum. (3rd ed.: ISBN 88-7653-258-7)

External links

• Akkadian Language Sample
• A detailed introduction to Akkadian
• Sample pages of Introductory Assyrian Grammar by Samuel A B Mercer
• Akkadian-English-French Online Dictionary

Semitic languages
East Semitic	Akkadian · Eblaite
West/Central Semitic	Northwest: Amorite · Ugaritic · Canaanite: Ammonite · Moabite · Edomite Hebrew: Biblical · Mishnaic · Medieval · Mizrahi · Yemenite · Sephardi · Ashkenazi · Samaritan · Modern Hebrew Phoenician: Punic Aramaic: Western: Nabataean · Western Neo-Aramaic Western Middle: Jewish Middle Palestinian · Samaritan · Christian Palestinian Eastern: Biblical · Hatran · Syriac · Jewish Middle Babylonian · Chaldean Neo-Aramaic · Assyrian Neo-Aramaic · Senaya · Koy Sanjaq Surat · Hértevin · Turoyo · Mlahsô · Mandaic · Judeo-Aramaic Arabic languages: Ancient North Arabian Arabic: Literary: Classical - Middle Arabic - Modern Standard Arabic Arabic dialects: Eastern Arabic dialects: Sudanese Arabian Peninsular dialects: Dhofari · Hejazi · Najdi · Omani · Yemeni · Judeo-Yemenite Bedouin/Bedawi: Eastern Egyptian Bedawi Arabic · Peninsular Bedawi Arabic Central Asian dialects: Central Asian Arabic · Khuzestani Arabic · Shirvani Egyptian Arabic: Saidi Arabic Gulf dialects: Baharna Gulf Shihhi Levantine Arabic: Cypriot Maronite Arabic Lebanese Palestinian Iraqi Arabic: Judeo-Iraqi Arabic Maghrebi: Algerian Saharan Shuwa Hassānīya Andalusian Libyan Arabic: Judeo-Tripolitanian Siculo-Arabic: Maltese Moroccan Arabic: Judeo-Moroccan Tunisian Arabic: Judeo-Tunisian
South Semitic	Western: Old South Arabian: Sabaean · Minaean · Qatabanian · Hadhramautic Ethiopian: North: Ge'ez Tigrinya Tigre Dahlik South: Transversal: Amharic-Argobba: Amharic Argobba Harari-East Gurage: Harari East Gurage: Silt'e Zay Ulbare Wolane Inneqor Outer: n-group: Gafat Soddo tt-group: Mesmes Muher West Gurage: Masqan: CPWG Central Western Gurage: Ezha Chaha Gura Gumer Peripheral Western Gurage: Gyeto Ennemor Endegen Eastern: Bathari Harsusi Hobyot Jibbali Mehri Soqotri

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