Akkadian language

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Akkadian
lišānum akkadītum
Spoken in: Assyria and Babylonia 
Region: Mesopotamia
Language extinction: 100 CE
Language family: Afro-Asiatic
 Semitic
  East Semitic
   Akkadian 
Writing system: Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform 
Official status
Official language in: 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) or Assyro-Babylonian[1] was a Semitic language (part of the greater Afro-Asiatic language family) spoken in ancient Iraq. 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 centre of Mesopotamian civilization.

Attested since the later 3rd millennium BCE and in continued use throughout the 2nd millennium BCE, its use declined from the 8th century BCE or so, and it was largely extinct during the Hellenistic period.

Contents

[edit] History

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

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

The Akkadian Empire established by Sargon I introduced the Akkadian language (the "language of Akkad") as a written language, adapting Sumerian cuneiform orthography for the purpose. During the Middle Bronze Age Old Assyrian and Old Babylonian period, the language virtually displaced Sumerian, which is assumed to have been extinct as a living language by the 18th century BCE.

Middle Assyrian served as a lingua franca in much of the Ancient Near East of the Late Bronze Age (Amarna period). During the Neo-Assyrian Empire, Neo-Assyrian began to turn into a chancellary language, being marginalized by Old Aramaic. Under the Achaemenids, Aramaic continued to prosper, but Assyrian continued its decline, with a brief revival under the Chaldean Empire. The language's final demise came about during the Hellenistic period when it was further marginalized by Koine Greek, although Neo-Assyrian cuneiform remained in use in literary tradition well into Parthian times. The latest known text in cuneiform Babylonian is an astronomical text dated to CE 75.[citation needed] After this, the language and its literary tradition was forgotten until the decipherment of cuneiform in the 1850s.

[edit] Writing system

Ancient Mesopotamia
Euphrates • Tigris
Cities / Empires
Sumer: Eridu • Kish • Uruk • Ur • Lagash • Nippur • Ngirsu
Elam: Susa
Akkadian Empire: Akkad • Mari
Amorites: Isin • Larsa
Babylonia: Babylon • Chaldea
Hittites • Kassites • Hurrians/Mitanni
Assyria: Assur • Nimrud • Dur-Sharrukin • Nineveh
Chronology
History of Mesopotamia
History of Sumer • Kings of Sumer
Kings of Assyria
Kings of Babylon
Mythology
Enûma Elish • Gilgamesh
Assyro-Babylonian religion
Language
Sumerian • Elamite
Akkadian • Aramaic
Hurrian • Hittite

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).

[edit] 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

[edit] Grammar

 Please help improve this section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.
The Deluge tablet of the Gilgamesh epic in Akkadian.
The Deluge tablet of the Gilgamesh epic in Akkadian.

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 in 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 (tG)
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 (tD)
III.2 Št šutaprus š-preformative with t-infix, indicating reflexive causative corresponding to Arabic stem X (istaf‘ala) and Aramaic ’ittaph‘al (tC)
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 and Maltese.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Literature

See also: Babylonian literature

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Akkadian language - Britannica Online Encyclopedia
  2. ^ Caplice, p.5 (1980)

[edit] 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

[edit] References

  • Aro, Jussi (1957). Studien zur mittelbabylonischen Grammatik. Studia Orientalia 22. Helsinki: Societas Orientalis Fennica.
  • Buccellati, Giorgio (1996). A Structural Grammar of Babylonian. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
  • Buccellati, Giorgio (1997). "Akkadian," The Semitic Languages. Ed. Robert Hetzron. New York: Routledge. Pages 69-99.
  • 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.)
  • Gelb, I.J. (1961). Old Akkadian Writing and Grammar. Second editon. Materials for the Assyrian Dictionary 2. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  • 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)

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akkadian_language"
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