Akkadian language alphabet. The Akkadian Empire dates to c.

One of the reasons was the victorious progress of the Phoenician script in the western sections of the Middle East and the Sumerian Sumerian was spoken in Sumer in southern Mesopotamia (part of modern Iraq) from perhaps the 4th millennium BC, when it was replaced by Akkadian as a spoken language, though continued to be used in writing for religious, artistic and scholarly purposes until about the 1st century AD. Texts written in Akkadian date back as early as 2800 BC, and although it hasn Jul 4, 2023 · Take ancient Akkadian. Used in ancient Mesopotamia, Akkadian utilizes the same cuneiform alphabet as Sumerian. – A timeline of the evolution of the western Greek and Latin alphabet traced back in its ancestral line to the Sumerian cuneiform symbols. Configurate display. Sumerian cuneiform is the earliest known writing system. Hugenberger with Nancy L. As the Akkad dynasty proliferated, Akkadian replaced Sumerian , the world’s oldest-known written language, as the spoken Akkadian is written with signs which apparently were originally devised for Sumerian. The transliterated script reads as a nonsensical collection of letters and numbers to the untrained eye, but is a common “language” that allows archaeologists Feb 28, 2020 · Akkadian is written in cuneiform, a script that the speakers of Akkadian took over from Sumerian and adapted for writing their own language. When the cuneiform script was adapted to writing Hittite, a layer of Akkadian logographic spellings was added to the script, with the result that we no longer know the pronunciations of many Hittite words conventionally written by logograms. Hittite (natively: 𒌷𒉌𒅆𒇷, romanized: nešili, lit. Overview of corpus. Assyria in the first millennium BC was a diverse country made up of peoples from all parts of the empire. The sound system of the language had 20 consonants and 8 vowels (both long and short a, i, e, and u ). The Assyrian language and it's dialects are usually classified as belonging to the Aramaic branch of Semitic languages, which belong to the Afro-Asiatic language family. Throughout this series I will be using Old Monumental Babylonian script. The phonemic system and structure of Sumerian is Blissymbols – A constructed ideographic script used primarily in Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC). Erickson, is a one-semester introductory textbook to the Akkadian language. Jun 17, 2023 · The language split into Assyrian Akkadian, and Babylonian Akkadian around the year 2000 BCE. Menu Close Home; Arts + Culture In the Akkadian language, for example, a cuneiform sign may have a phonetic Assyrian is also known as Assyrian Neo-Aramaic. It was written in the cuneiform script, which was also used to write Sumerian, Elamite, Hurrian, and Hittite. wedge-shaped) script, deciphered by Henry Rawlinson and other scholars in the 1850s. It was discovered in Ugarit, modern Ras Al Shamra, Syria, in 1928. Named after the city of Akkad in northern Babylonia, Akkadian was the most important language spoken and written in the ancient Near East between the third and first millennia BCE. , Civil 1992; Michalowski 1996; Gragg 1996 May 9, 2019 · The Sumerian language was developed in ancient Mesopotamia and is the oldest known written language. In the second half students consolidate their knowledge of the language by reading selections from classic Babylonian The script’s wedge-shaped let­ters (cuneus is Latin for wedge) are formed by impress­ing a cut reed into soft clay. 3cm. No suggestion. 2800 BC, preserved in later king lists. Raw. It was used by speak­ers of sev­er­al Near East­ern lan­guages includ­ing Sumer­ian, Akka­di­an, Urart­ian and Hit­tite; depend­ing on the lan­guage and date of a giv­en script, its alpha­bet could con­sist of Hello, I am a graduate student at the University of Cambridge hoping to share my love of the Akkadian language!Learning to read cuneiform opens up a huge num This form of writing together with the Akkadian language spread throughout Mesopotamia and became dominant in the ancient Near East until the 1st Millennium BCE, when they were gradually replaced by the Aramaic language and its alphabetic script (Streck 2007, 47). ” (Kono 1980; my translation) The examples below illustrate how similar the Japanese and Akkadian writing systems are: 1 Kojiki (古事記) or Records of Ancient Matters dates to 712 A. From the 26th century BCE, this script was adapted to the Akkadian language, and from there to others, such as Hurrian and Hittite. Its name, akkadûm, derives from that of the city of Akkad or Agade, the capital of the empire of the Semitic dynasty of Sargon of Akkad. Detailed. Apr 15, 2024 · This App aims at scholars, students as well as any body interested in Cuneiform writing. In the modern world, paper (and various Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures Old Persian cuneiform is a semi-alphabetic cuneiform script that was the primary script for Old Persian. Cuneiform was written on clay tablets that were baked in Akkadian is the world’s oldest written Semitic language and the first connected texts (in Old Akkadian) date from about 2400 BC. g. The Eastern Semitic Akkadian language is first attested in proper names of the kings of Kish c. 1). (maximum 3 letters; do not use periods or spaces) Inscribe. the Semitic languages i$ based on their geographical location: Akkadian is the Akkadian. This is a translation network that understands Sumerian and Akkadian languages written in cuneiform. Nov 7, 2015 · The Sumerian Language was spoken in southern Mesopotamia before the 2nd millennium BCE and was the first language to be written in the cuneiform script. b. The first known Sumerian-Akkadian bilingual tablet dates from the reign of Rimush. Louvre Museum AO 5477. 'the language of Neša', or nešumnili lit. Centered on the city of Akkad (/ ˈ æ k æ d /) and its surrounding region, the empire would unite Akkadian and Sumerian speakers under one rule and exercised significant influence across Mesopotamia, the Levant, and Anatolia, sending military Nov 22, 2022 · Basics of Akkadian: A Complete Grammar, Workbook, and Lexicon, by Gordon P. · A ··traditional •. 3200 BCE and allowed for the creation of literature. It also provides links to teaching resources on the Akkadian language and cuneiform script. Despite dying out as a language two millennia ago, Akkadian’s decipherment in the 18th century unlocked a vast treasure trove of information on the history and peoples of the ancient Near East and Jul 4, 2024 · Sumerian language, language isolate and the oldest written language in existence. An operating instruction with examples for this is integrated in the module (?). · Akkadian is a member of the Semitic language family, indeed one of its earliest and overWhehningly its best attested ai1cient member. Such trade required a common written language in order to function. Recherches sur l'origine de l'écriture cunéiforme. 3500 BCE. It was known across the ancient Near East, with versions also found at Hattusas (capital of the Hittites), Emar in Syria, and Megiddo in the Levant. ' classification ·6f . For example: written in transcribed cuneiform to English. opportunities for contemplating the essence of writing. It did not originate in the scribal tradition. Originally the Sumerians made small tokens out of clay to represent the items. This early Semitic language is one of the best attested from the ancient world. D. Texts written in this cuneiform have been found in Iran ( Persepolis, Susa, Hamadan, Kharg Island ), Armenia, Romania ( Gherla ), [1] [2] [3] Turkey ( Van Fortress ), and along the Suez Canal. In the middle of the third millennium, the writing system was adapted for writing Akkadian, a Semitic language in use in approximately the same area. Hundreds of thousands, by some accounts more than a million, Akkadian texts have been . This is a new non-official edition of The Sumerian Language, rebuilt from third edition (reprinted of 1st edition). Linear B also incorporates ideograms. 1re partie, Les formes archaïques et leurs équivalents modernes (E. We can distinguish: 1. Jul 3, 2023 · The oldest surviving literary work, the Epic of Gilgamesh, discovered in 1853, was written over 4,000 years ago in the Akkadian language using cuneiform script. 2500 BC. The principal languages of ancient Mesopotamia were Sumerian, Babylonian and Assyrian (together sometimes known as 'Akkadian'), Amorite, and - later - Aramaic. They have come down to us in the "cuneiform" (i. The Epic of Gilgamesh is a huge work, the longest piece of literature in Akkadian (the language of Babylonia and Assyria). 1. In the English - Akkadian dictionary you will find phrases with translations, examples, pronunciation and pictures. Written Akkadian utilized cuneiform writing, a system of wedge-shaped writing (Figure 1), that was primarily a syllabic and logogramic written language. Elamite is regarded by the vast majority of linguists as a language isolate, as it has no demonstrable relationship to the neighbouring Semitic languages, Indo-European languages, or to Sumerian, despite having adopted the Sumerian-Akkadian cuneiform script. It was written in cuneiform (wedge-shaped) script, which developed from a pictorial forerunner first attested in the area in c. Sep 13, 2018 · The first lists of letters that can be deemed alphabetic date to between the 14th and 12th centuries BC and were discovered in Ugarit. 15, 1853, Hannover, Hanover) was a German teacher and language scholar who made the first major breakthrough in the decipherment of ancient Persian cuneiform script. Its origins can be traced back to about 8,000 BC and it developed from the pictographs and other symbols used to represent trade goods and livestock on clay tablets. 3300 to 3000 BC. The impact was perhaps the greatest on Akkadian, whose grammar and The Akkadian cuneiform, which was used in the Ancient Near East from the third millennium BC to the first century of the Christian era to encode the Akkadian language and its dialects, is a mixed system of syllables and logograms of around 600 signs. Akkadian, written in a cuneiform script developed from that of the Sumerians, contained about 600 word and syllable signs. This led to cultural mixing and exchange that make their relationship hard to define. AD 100) to write a variety of languages such as Sumerian, Akkadian, Eblaite, Elamite, Old Persian, Hurrian, Hittite, Palaic, Luvian, Urartian, and Ugaritic (e. [4] They were mostly inscriptions from the time û ( 8) ĝ ( gh) Duplicate long vowels Middle point. It has 30 letters. As the Akkadian Empire and other Mesopotamia states spread their influence in the 3rd millennium BC, the Akkadian language spread to different regions of the ancient Near East, including The Sargonic period, on the other hand, witnesses an increase in Old Akkadian sources and is therefore often considered to be the quintessential “Old Akkadian period. 3300 BC. The most widely-known Semitic languages are Arabic , Hebrew, Aramaic and Amharic. It is an isolate language meaning we know of no other languages that relate to it ancestrally. At the time being, the App can provide: a) Syllabic writing using the Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform. Akkadian is an inflected language. Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like Cuneiform, Hieroglyphs, alphabet and more. Most cuneiform texts were written with a reed stylus on clay tablets but other Feb 3, 2021 · History of the Akkadian Language (2 vols) Series: Handbook of Oriental Studies. Though close geographically, sharing space on the Tigris and However, their languages and scripts differed in significant ways. It gave voice to royal epics, divine myths, treaties, covenants, adoption contracts, oaths and so much more. This section explores the principal languages and scripts which were spoken and written in Assyria, and the contexts in which they were used. The signs used are Cuneiform Unicode standard. The three major dialects are Old Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian. the twelfth century BCE. The writing system of Akkadian (Akkadian cuneiform) is derived from that that was created by the Sumerian scribes to write their language, the Sumerian. Starting around 600 BCE, Aramaic slowly began to replace Akkadian, until it became much more widely spoken. This language was written in a script known as cuneiform, which was later adapted by other languages that emerged in Mesopotamia and its neighboring regions, including Akkadian, Elamite, and Hittite. Aramaic is thought to have first appeared among the we find texts fully written in Akkadian. E. It was the language of empires and peasants. The grammar provides students with essential tools in order to quickly grasp the Akkadian language and move into translation. 3200 BC to ca. The better term for it would be "Ashuric" or "Ashuro-Mesopotamian", however scholars are still debating its proper classification. and written using a cuneiform script from Sumeria, according to Britannica. The cuneiform script, originally used for Sumerian, was widely adopted by numerous regional languages such as Akkadian, Elamite, Eblaite, Hittite, Hurrian, Luwian and Urartian; it similarly inspired the Old Persian alphabet which was used to write the eponymous language. Writing is the principal technology humankind invented to collect, manipulate, store, retrieve, communicate, and disseminate information. Nov 8, 2017 · Sumero-Akkadian Cuneiform: Ancient Scripts [English]• Time Period: 2900 – 1950 B. Fig. Shai Gordin of Ariel University, and others published a paper about using AI to translate Akkadian cuneiform to a transliterated Latin script. That makes it the longest-lasting writing system in known history-longer than the Chinese writing system, which has existed for about 3,200 years. Feb 28, 2020 · The golden age of Akkadian as a lingua franca and the language of diplomacy in the Ancient Near East lasted throughout the second half of the second millennium BCE, especially during the so-called “Amarna period” (fourteenth century BCE) and until ca. Historians and linguists generally agree that Sumerian, Akkadian and Egyptian are the oldest languages with a clear written Akkadian. Hittite cuneiform is an adaptation of the Old Assyrian cuneiform of c. First attested about 3100 bce in southern Mesopotamia, it flourished during the 3rd millennium bce. ” Old Akkadian writing, like other languages that adapted the cuneiform writing system, contains all the features of the Sumerian system: logograms, syllabograms, and auxiliary Aug 24, 2023 · Samia Bouzid, Katie Hafner & The Lost Women of Science Initiative. It was most closely related to Hebrew, Syriac, and Phoenician and was written in a script derived from the Phoenician alphabet. Leroux, 1898), by F. Because of its wide geographical and chronological spread, Akkadian is commonly divided into several dialects. Illustration by August Tao. Decipherment of Akkadian and Sumerian Sumerian was the last and most ancient language to be deciphered. This course offers an introduction to Akkadian, the language of ancient Babylon. This is a large family, with languages spoken today throughout the Middle East and North Africa. ' the language of the people of Neša '), also known as Nesite (Nešite/Neshite, Nessite), is an extinct Indo-European language that was spoken by the Hittites, a people of Bronze Age Anatolia who created an empire centred on Hattusa, as well as parts of the northern Levant and Upper Evolution of the Akkadian cuneiform 2334 BC - 2154 BC. Indeed, after its invention by Sumerian speakers, cuneiform script was employed during a period of about 3,300 years (from ca. Filed under Akkadian is the world’s oldest written Semitic language and the first connected texts (in Old Akkadian) date from about 2400 BC. Type Your Full Name 2. There are texts written entirely in Old Akkadian dating from c. Preserved in cuneiform tablets, is the language of the Semitic peoples who dominated the Mesopotamian civilization from about 2300 B. Ugarit’s alphabet was written on a finger-length clay tablet 5. It consisted of 30 cuneiform symbols based on a ‘one sound, one sign’ system. May 10, 2020 · Akkadian ( / əˈkeɪdiən / akkadû, 𒀝 𒅗 𒁺 𒌑 ak-ka-du-u2; logogram: 𒌵 𒆠 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 Jul 4, 2024 · Georg Friedrich Grotefend (born June 9, 1775, Münden, Hanover [Germany]—died Dec. There are over 150 published Old Akkadian letters ( go here for the Old Akkadian letters on CDLI ), coming primarily from Girsu, Adab, Gasur, Kish, Eshnunna, Mugdan, and the “Mesag” archive (from the Sumerian city Sagub, located in the Umma-Lagash area). iConji – A constructed ideographic script used primarily in social networking. Sale of a number of fields, probably from Isin, c. Written Luwian. Alphabetic writing began as a memory aid device for working people such as traders, mercenaries, and local priests. Pinterest. Sumerians created cuneiform script over 5000 years ago. It can be divided into a number of dialects, the most important of Details of the Akkadian cuneiform script, which was used to write Akkadian, a semitic language spoken in Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq and Syria) until about 500 AD. The Ugaritic writing system is a cuneiform abjad (consonantal alphabet) with syllabic elements used from around either 1400 BCE [1] or 1300 BCE [2] for Ugaritic, an extinct Northwest Semitic language. Search for a word. The Akkadian Empire (/ ə ˈ k eɪ d i ən /) was the first known ancient empire of Mesopotamia, succeeding the long-lived civilization of Sumer. 5cm x 1. When Grotefend began teaching at the Göttingen city school in 1797, Europe was already Nov 17, 2022 · Cuneiform is a system of writing first developed by the ancient Sumerians of Mesopotamia c. to the Hittite language. The Sumerian language is one of the earliest known written languages. Each of these has a long literary tradition. • Languages: Sumerian, Akkadian and English• Total Akkadian Dictionary. The oldest document of the proto-literate period is the Kish tablet. Feb 9, 2023 · In this video I cover the basics of reading cuneiform script. When Akkadian ceased to be a spoken language is debated by scholars; but it continued to be used as a written medium of literature and scholarship until at least the first century CE (see Hackl 2021b). Mesopotamian Languages. In 2000 BCE, the cities of Sumer and Akkad were flourishing in what is now Iraq. 1. Cuneiform uses word signs (logograms) and syllable signs (phonograms), using between 600 and 900 individual sign forms; the number fluctuates due to mergers and splits. 1800 B. This book has not any word in cuneiform script, is a We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us. Cuneiform was primarily used for Sumerian, Akkadian, and other Mesopotamian languages, while Old Persian was specific to the Achaemenid Persian Empire, and Ugaritic represented the language of the ancient city-state of Ugarit in modern-day Syria. Akkadian Language Program. The tokens were kept together in sealed clay See your monogram in Cuneiform, the way an ancient Babylonian might have written it. About 2000 bce, Sumerian was replaced as a spoken language by Semitic Akkadian (Assyro-Babylonian) but continued in written usage almost to the end of the life of Akkadian is a member of the eastern branch of the Semitic language family. The first Akkadian texts were written perhaps Jan 1, 2021 · A Brief Timeline From Cuneiform, Hieroglyphics To Alphabet. It is considered the most significant among the many cultural contributions of the Sumerians and the greatest among those of the Sumerian city of Uruk, which advanced the writing of cuneiform c. List all entries. Cuneiform was the most widespread and historically significant writing system in the ancient Middle East. It was revived as a spoken language in the 19th and 20th centuries and is the official language of Israel. Akkadian is attested in writing from the mid-third millennium BCE until the early first millennium CE, and during this long span of time it became the vehicle for Oct 5, 2017 · The writing form is still revealing amazing stories, from literature to mathematics. Mediterranean and Alphabetic Akkadian Lexicon 2 nd Edition -February 2021. Most cuneiform texts were written with a reed stylus on clay tablets but other Feb 17, 2023 · Akkadian was a language spoken in Mesopotamia from around 2000 to 1 B. The Akkadian Empire dates to c. These texts are in alphabetic Akkadian using a script which derives from Minoan Linear A and leads to the modern alphabet. 2600 BC. Primary sources, consisting of inscriptions written in the Akkadian language. Spoken in ancient times in Palestine, Hebrew was supplanted by the western dialect of Aramaic beginning about the 3rd century BCE. 2234 –2154 BC (middle chronology), founded by Sargon of Akkad. Alphabetic Akkadian texts have been mislabeled as Paleo-Hebrew, Aramaic, Moabite, Phoenician, Etruscan, and even early Greek (texts prior to 480 BCE). This book was printed in 1984 and now is some outdated in any few things but still is a reference book among Sumeriologist and Assyriologist who wants to learn Sumerian. Cuneiform was invented by the Sumerians, who lived in what is now southern, relatively Jul 3, 2024 · Hebrew language, Semitic language of the Northern Central group. How to use the dictionary (read me first) References. Secondary sources, such as Akkadian proper names and loan words appearing in Sumerian inscriptions. Linguists first deciphered Akkadian in the 19th May 2, 2023 · In this paper, we define translation as the process of taking a source language encoded in its own script and re-encoding it into a target language and script (see also the conventions of the NMT pipeline in Fig. Section 1 The Near and Middle East, Volume: 152 Sumerian and Akkadian Cuneiform Language Translator. Akkadian as a written language predominated in Elam throughout Native to: Assur and Babylon Region: Mesopotamia Official language in: initially Akkad (central Mesopotamia); lingua franca of the Middle East and Egypt in the late Bronze and early Iron Ages. Akkadian. Download PDF. Although there are some theories that Sumerian is a member of the Uralic languages like Hungarian Akkadian. The Minoan Linear A tablets from Malia on Crete (1700 BCE) mention envy release rituals performed by magic crafters, something that is apparently suppressed at this time. Many ancient creation myth texts are written in Akkadian such as the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Enuma Elish creation myth. The existence of Akkadian in the Mediterranean is due to the commercial trade which developed during the Bronze Age. In May, an Italian research team published a paper detailing how AI can be used to detect ancient sites for archaeological discovery in the Mesopotamian floodplains. It was the world's first written language. About 2600 BCE, cuneiform began to represent syllables of the Sumerian language. Access PDF breakdowns Akkadian is the Semitic language that dominated ancient Mesopotamia and much of Ancient West Asia (also known as the Ancient Near East) for nearly two millennia. It preserves the mythology, the language and the traditional history of ancient Japan. Translation is fast and saves you time. Nov 3, 2023 · Courtesy Nathan Steinmeyer. Sep 13, 2016 · Akkadian: Spoken between 2800 BCE and 500 CE, this language is reminiscent of alien writing found in many science fiction movies. Akkadian (Babylonian and Assyrian) belongs to the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic language family. Jun 13, 2024 · Aramaic language, Semitic language of the Northern Central, or Northwestern, group that was originally spoken by the ancient Middle Eastern people known as Aramaeans. e. The same fate overtook cuneiform generally with astonishing swiftness and completeness. The name, a coinage from Latin and Middle French roots meaning “wedge-shaped,” has been the modern designation from the early 18th century onward. Cuneiform Rendering. The application of the Sumerian system to Akkadian resulted in a mixed method of writing: on the one hand with logograms and, on the other, with syllables of the type vC, Cv, or CvC (C = consonant; v = vowel). Isotype (picture language) A wide variety of notations. Most of the letters are between 10 and 25 lines long, and concern Jun 17, 2011 · Akkadian, or Assyro-Babylonian, is the oldest attested written language – the code for the cuneiform writing system. David Olmsted. Jul 4, 2024 · Cuneiform - Sumerian, Akkadian, Scripts: Many of the cultures employing cuneiform (Hurrian, Hittite, Urartian) disappeared one by one, and their written records fell into oblivion. Cuneiform was a writing system used between roughly 5,300 and 1,950 years ago, so for more than 3,300 years. Today Akkadian ( /əˈkeɪdiən/; Akkadian: 𒀝𒅗𒁺𒌑, romanized:Akkadû) is an extinct East Semitic language that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia ( Akkad, Assyria, Isin, Larsa, Babylonia and perhaps Dilmun) from the third millennium BC until its gradual replacement in common use by Old Aramaic among Assyrians and Babylonians from the 8th Sep 7, 2017 · Akkadian is a Semitic language, and it was written in a cuneiform script. The Luwian hieroglyphic script was used in Anatolia and Syria between 1300 and 600 BC. Type Your Initials. Thureau-Dangin (page images at HathiTrust) Items below (if any) are from related and broader terms. It was trained on cuneiform transcribed in the CDLI ATF format. The network requires a prompt telling it the direction of translation. It was used by the Hittites and other Anatolian peoples for monumental inscriptions and on personal seals. 2. Hittite was written with a cuneiform script adapted from a version of Akkadian cuneiform from northern Syria and was deciphered during the early 20th century mainly by Bedřich Hrozný, with contributions by Jørgen Alexander Knudtzon, and Hugo Winckler, who discovered many tablets written in Hittite at the village of Boğazköy in Turkey. In this period, records are purely logographic, with phonological content. Jun 26, 2023 · In 2020, Gutherz, archaeologist Prof. . The Akkadian sources of the Pre-Sargonic Period are limited in size and number. After the demise of Akkadian both the language and its complicated writing system were forgotten for over a millennium and a half. C. Go to the online resources. Finally, cuneiform writing became a general purpose writing system for logograms, syllables, and numbers. The origins of this script are uncertain: some scholars suggest that it might be connected to other Aegan scripts, particularly Cretan Mar 21, 2019 · The otherwise unrelated ancient languages of Sumerian and Akkadian share a writing system. 1). E Although the fundamentals of the decipherment of these syllabic clay tablets were achieved in the mid-nineteenth century, the cuneiform writing system is so complex that the reading of cuneiform Semitic languages -- Alphabet; Alphabet; Filed under: Akkadian language -- Alphabet. Nouns occurred in three cases (nominative, genitive, and accusative), three numbers (singular, dual, and plural), and Jul 4, 2024 · cuneiform, system of writing used in the ancient Middle East. The first half of the course introduces students to the basic concepts of Akkadian (old Babylonian) grammar and the cuneiform script. This, the eleventh tablet of the Epic, describes the meeting of Gilgamesh Department of Archaeology. The "proto-literate" period of Sumerian writing spans c. Akkadian, the language of the ancient Babylonians and Assyrians, was once the lingua franca of the entire Near East. It was used in ancient Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq) and the neighbouring regions of present-day Syria, Southern Turkey and Western Iran between the third millennium BCE and the first century CE. Given that Akkadian is a dead language and its oral form is not recorded, our results are based only on its written form. Akkadian belongs to the Semitic language family and is related to Arabic and Hebrew. Akkadian was the major Semitic language of ancient Mesopotamia. oo lh qy qp gl rh oa yx sy kg