Akkadian language

Not to be confused with Acadian French or Cajun French.

Akkadian
𒀝𒅗𒁺𒌑 akkadû
Native to	Assur and Babylon
Region	Mesopotamia
Era	mid-3rd millennium BC–8th centuries BC; academic or liturgical use until 100 AD
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.
Language codes
ISO 639-2	akk
ISO 639-3	akk
Glottolog	akka1240

Akkadian (/əˈkeɪdiən/ akkadû, 𒀝𒅗𒁺𒌑 ak-ka-du-u₂; logogram: 𒌵𒆠 URI^KI ) is an extinct East Semitic language that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia (Akkad, Assyria, Isin, Larsa and Babylonia) from the 30th century BC until its gradual replacement by Akkadian-influenced Eastern Aramaic among Mesopotamians between the 8th century BC and its final extinction by the 1st to 3rd centuries AD.

It is the earliest attested Semitic language, and used the cuneiform writing system, 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, being first attested in the 29th century BC.

The mutual influence between Sumerian and Akkadian had led scholars to describe the languages as a sprachbund. Akkadian proper names were first attested in Sumerian texts from around the mid 3rd-millennium BC. 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, Babylonian Empire, 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 8th 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 1st century AD. Neo-Mandaic spoken by the Mandeans of Iraq and Iran and Assyrian Neo-Aramaic spoken by the Assyrian people of northern Iraq, southeast Turkey, northeast Syria and northwest Iran, are two of the few modern Semitic languages that contain some Akkadian vocabulary and grammatical features. Akkadian is an inflected language with grammatical cases; and as a Semitic language. Also, like all Semitic languages, Akkadian uses the system of consonantal roots.

Classification

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, parts of Asia Minor, North Africa, Malta, Canary Islands and the Horn of Africa, which then later spread to parts of West Africa (Hausa).

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.

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.

History and writing

Writing

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).

Development

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

• 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

One of the earliest known Akkadian inscriptions was found on a bowl at Ur, addressed to the very early pre-Sargonic king Meskiagnunna of Ur (c. 2485–2450 BC) by his queen Gan-saman, who is thought to have been from Akkad.

The Akkadian Empire, established by Sargon of Akkad, 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 BC.

Old Akkadian, which was used until the end of the 3rd millennium BC, differs from both Babylonian and Assyrian, and was displaced by these dialects. By the 21st century BC Babylonian and Assyrian, which were to become the primary dialects, were easily distinguishable. Old Babylonian, along with the closely related dialect Mariotic, is clearly more innovative than the Old Assyrian dialect and the more distantly related Eblaite language. For this reason, forms like lu-prus ('I will decide') are first encountered in Old Babylonian instead of the older la-prus (even though it was archaic compared to Akkadian). On the other hand, Assyrian developed certain innovations as well, such as the "Assyrian vowel harmony" (which is not comparable to that found in Turkish or Finnish). Eblaite is even more archaic, retaining a productive dual and a relative pronoun declined in case, number and gender. Both of these had already disappeared in Old Akkadian.

Old Babylonian was the language of king Hammurabi and his code, which is one of the oldest collections of laws in the world. (see Code of Ur-Nammu.)

The Middle Babylonian (or Assyrian) period started in the 16th century BC. The division is marked by the Kassite invasion of Babylonia around 1550 BC. The Kassites, who reigned for 300 years, gave up their own language in favor of Akkadian, but they had little influence on the language. At its apogee, Middle Babylonian was the written language of diplomacy of the entire ancient Orient, including Egypt. During this period, a large number of loan words were included in the language from North West Semitic languages and Hurrian; however, the use of these words was confined to the fringes of the Akkadian speaking territory.

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 chancellery language, being marginalized by Old Aramaic. Under the Achaemenids, Aramaic continued to prosper, but Assyrian continued its decline. The language's final demise came about during the Hellenistic period when it was further marginalized by Koine Greek, even though 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 75 AD. The youngest texts written in Akkadian date from the 3rd century AD.

An Akkadian inscription

Old Assyrian developed as well during the second millennium BC, but because it was a purely popular language — kings wrote in Babylonian — few long texts are preserved. From 1500 BC onwards, the language is termed Middle Assyrian.

During the first millennium BC, Akkadian progressively lost its status as a lingua franca. In the beginning, from around 1000 BC, Akkadian and Aramaic were of equal status, as can be seen in the number of copied texts: clay tablets were written in Akkadian, while scribes writing on papyrus and leather used Aramaic. From this period on, one speaks of Neo-Babylonian and Neo-Assyrian. Neo-Assyrian received an upswing in popularity in the 10th century BC when the Assyrian kingdom became a major power with the Neo-Assyrian Empire, but texts written 'exclusively' in Neo-Assyrian disappear within 10 years of Nineveh's destruction in 612 BC.

After the end of the Mesopotamian kingdoms, which fell due to the Persian conquest of the area, Akkadian (which existed solely in the form of Late Babylonian) disappeared as a popular language. However, the language was still used in its written form; and even after the Greek invasion under Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC, Akkadian was still a contender as a written language, but spoken Akkadian was likely extinct by this time, or at least rarely used. The latest positively identified Akkadian text comes from the 1st century AD.

Decipherment

Georg Friedrich Grotefend

Edward Hincks

Sir Henry Rawlinson

The Akkadian language began to be rediscovered when Carsten Niebuhr in 1767 was able to make extensive copies of cuneiform texts and published them in Denmark. The deciphering of the texts started immediately, and bilinguals, in particular Old Persian-Akkadian bilinguals, were of great help. Since the texts contained several royal names, isolated signs could be identified, and were presented in 1802 by Georg Friedrich Grotefend. By this time it was already evident that Akkadian was a Semitic language, and the final breakthrough in deciphering the language came from Edward Hincks, Henry Rawlinson and Jules Oppert in the middle of the 19th century. The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago recently completed a 21 volume dictionary of the Akkadian language, which is available commercially and online.

The Deluge tablet of the Gilgamesh epic in Akkadian.

Dialects

The following table summarises the dialects of Akkadian identified with certainty so far.

Known Akkadian dialects

Dialect	Location
Assyrian	Northern Mesopotamia
Babylonian	Central and Southern Mesopotamia
Mariotic	Central Euphrates (in and around the city of Mari)
Tell Beydar	Northern Syria (in and around Tell Beydar)

Some researchers (such as W. Sommerfeld 2003) believe that the Old Akkadian variant used in the older texts is not an ancestor of the later Assyrian and Babylonian dialects, but rather a separate dialect that was replaced by these two dialects and which died out early.

Eblaite, formerly thought of as yet another Akkadian dialect, is now generally considered a separate East Semitic language.

Phonetics and phonology

Because Akkadian as a spoken language is extinct and no contemporary descriptions of the pronunciation are known, little can be said with certainty about the phonetics and phonology of Akkadian. Some conclusions can be made, however, due to the relationship to the other Semitic languages and variant spellings of Akkadian words.

Consonants

The following table gives the consonant sounds distinguished in the Akkadian use of cuneiform, with the presumed pronunciation in IPA transcription according to Huehnergard and Woods, which most closely corresponds to recent reconstructions of Proto-Semitic phonology. The parenthesised symbol following is the transcription used in the literature, in the cases where that symbol is different from the phonetic symbol. This transcription has been suggested for all Semitic languages by the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft (DMG), and is therefore known as DMG-Umschrift.

Akkadian consonantal phonemes

		Labial	Dental/Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n
Plosive	voiceless	p	t		k	ʔ ⟨[ʾ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 1) (help)⟩
	voiced	b	d		ɡ
	emphatic		tʼ ⟨ṭ⟩		kʼ ⟨q⟩
Fricative	voiceless		s ~ ʃ ⟨š⟩		x ⟨ḫ⟩
	voiced				ɣ ~ ʁ ⟨r⟩
Affricate	voiceless		t͡s ⟨s⟩
	voiced		d͡z ⟨z⟩
	emphatic		t͡s’ ⟨ṣ⟩
Approximant			l	j ⟨y⟩	w

Reconstruction

Akkadian emphatic consonants are typically reconstructed as ejectives, which are thought to be the oldest realization of emphatics across the Semitic languages. For the sibilants, traditionally /š/ has been held to be postalveolar [ʃ], and /s/, /z/, /ṣ/ analyzed as fricatives; but attested assimilations in Akkadian suggest otherwise. For example, when the possessive suffix -šu is added to the root awat ('word'), it is written awassu ('his word') even though šš would be expected. The most straightforward interpretation of this shift from tš to ss is that /s, ṣ/ form a pair of voiceless coronal affricates [t͡s t͡sʼ], *š is a voiceless coronal fricative [s], and *z is a voiced coronal affricate or fricative [d͡z~z]. The assimilation is then [awat+su] > [awatt͡su]. In this vein, an alternative transcription of *š is *s̠, with the macron below indicating a soft (lenis) articulation in Semitic transcription. Other interpretations are possible, however. [ʃ] could have been assimilated to the preceding [t], yielding [ts], which would later have been simplified to [ss].

The phoneme /r/ has traditionally been interpreted as a trill but its pattern of alternation with /ḫ/ suggests it was a velar (or uvular) fricative. In the Hellenistic period, Akkadian /r/ was transcribed using the Greek ρ, indicating it was pronounced similarly as an alveolar trill (though Greeks may also have perceived a uvular trill as ρ).

Descent from Proto-Semitic

Several Proto-Semitic phonemes are lost in Akkadian. The Proto-Semitic glottal stop *ʾ, as well as the fricatives *ʿ, *h, *ḥ 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 voiceless lateral fricatives (*ś, *ṣ́) merged with the sibilants as in Canaanite, leaving 19 consonantal phonemes. Old Akkadian preserved the /*ś/ phoneme longest but it eventually merged with /*š/, beginning in the Old Babylonian period. The following table shows Proto-Semitic phonemes and their correspondences among Akkadian, Modern Standard Arabic and Tiberian Hebrew:

Proto-Semitic	Akkadian	Arabic		Hebrew
*b	b	ب	b	ב	b
*d	d	د	d	ד	d
*g	g	ج	ǧ	ג	g
*p	p	ف	f	פ	p
*t	t	ت	t	ת	t
*k	k	ك	k	כ	k
[*ʾ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 2) (help)	(Ø)/ [ʾ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 1) (help)	ء	[ʾ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 1) (help)	א	[ʾ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 1) (help)
*ṭ	ṭ	ط	ṭ	ט	ṭ
*ḳ	q	ق	q	ק	q
*ḏ	z	ذ	ḏ	ז	z
*z		ز	z
*ṯ	š	ث	ṯ	שׁ	š
*š		س	s
*ś		ش	š	שׂ	ś
*s	s	س	s	ס	s
*ṱ	ṣ	ظ	ẓ	צ	ṣ
*ṣ		ص	ṣ
*ṣ́		ض	ḍ
*ġ	ḫ	غ	ġ	ע	[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 1) (help) [ʕ]
[*ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 2) (help)	(e)	ع	[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 1) (help) [ʕ]
*ḫ	ḫ	خ	ḫ [x]	ח	ḥ
*ḥ	(e)	ح	ḥ [ħ]
*h	(Ø)	ه	h	ה	h
*m	m	م	m	מ	m
*n	n	ن	n	נ	n
*r	r	ر	r	ר	r
*l	l	ل	l	ל	l
*w	w	و	w	ו י	w y
*y	y	ي	y [j]	י	y
Proto-Semitic	Akkadian	Arabic		Hebrew

Vowels

Akkadian vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Closed	i		u
Mid	e
Open		a

The existence of a back mid-vowel /o/ has been proposed, but the cuneiform writing gives no good proof for this. There is limited contrast between different u-signs in lexical texts, but this scribal differentiation may reflect the superimposition of the Sumerian phonological system (for which an /o/ phoneme has also been proposed), rather than a separate phoneme in Akkadian.

All consonants and vowels appear in long and short forms. Long consonants are represented in writing as double consonants, and long vowels are written with a macron (ā, ē, ī, ū). This distinction is phonemic, and is used in the grammar, for example iprusu ('that he decided') versus iprusū ('they decided').

Stress

The stress patterns of Akkadian are disputed, with some authors claiming that nothing is known of the topic. There are however certain points of reference, such as the rule of vowel syncope (see the next paragraph), and some forms in the cuneiform that might represent the stressing of certain vowels; however, attempts at identifying a rule for stress have so far been unsuccessful.

Huenergard (2005:3-4) claims that stress in Akkadian is completely predictable. In his syllable typology there are three syllable weights: light (V, CV); heavy (CVC, CV̄, CV̂), and superheavy (CV̂C). If the last syllable is superheavy, it is stressed, otherwise the rightmost heavy syllable is stressed. If a word contains only light syllables, the first syllable is stressed.

A rule of Akkadian phonology is that certain short (and probably unstressed) vowels are dropped. The rule is that the last vowel of a succession of syllables that end in a short vowel is dropped, for example the declinational root of the verbal adjective of a root PRS is PaRiS-. Thus the masculine singular nominative is PaRS-um (< *PaRiS-um) but the feminine singular nominative is PaRiStum (< *PaRiS-at-um). Additionally there is a general tendency of syncope of short vowels in the later stages of Akkadian.

Grammar

Morphology

Consonantal root

Most roots of the Akkadian language consist of three consonants (called the radicals), but some roots are composed of four consonants (so-called quadriradicals). The radicals are occasionally represented in transcription in upper-case letters, for example PRS (to decide). Between and around these radicals various infixes, suffixes and prefixes, having word generating or grammatical functions, are inserted. The resulting consonant-vowel pattern differentiates the original meaning of the root. Also, the middle radical can be geminated, which is represented by a doubled consonant in transcription (and sometimes in the cuneiform writing itself).

The consonants ʔ, w, j and n are termed "weak radicals" and roots containing these radicals give rise to irregular forms.

Case, number and gender

Formally, Akkadian has three numbers (singular, dual and plural) and three cases (nominative, accusative and genitive). However, even in the earlier stages of the language, the dual number is vestigial, and its use is largely confined to natural pairs (eyes, ears, etc.), and adjectives are never found in the dual. In the dual and plural, the accusative and genitive are merged into a single oblique case.

Akkadian, unlike Arabic, but like Hebrew, has only "sound" plurals formed by means of a plural ending (i.e. no broken plurals formed by changing the word stem). As in all Semitic languages, some masculine nouns take the prototypically feminine plural ending (-āt).

The nouns šarrum (king), šarratum (queen) and the adjective dannum (strong) will serve to illustrate the case system of Akkadian.

Noun and adjective paradigms

	Noun (masc.)	Noun (fem.)	Adjective (masc.)	Adjective (fem.)
Nominative singular	šarr-um	šarr-at-um	dann-um	dann-at-um
Genitive singular	šarr-im	šarr-at-im	dann-im	dann-at-im
Accusative singular	šarr-am	šarr-at-am	dann-am	dann-at-am
Nominative dual	šarr-ān	šarr-at-ān
Oblique dual	šarr-īn	šarr-at-īn
Nominative plural	šarr-ū	šarr-āt-um	dann-ūt-um	dann-āt-um
Oblique plural	šarr-ī	šarr-āt-im	dann-ūt-im	dann-āt-im

As is clear from the above table, the adjective and noun endings differ only in the masculine plural. Certain nouns, primarily those referring to geography, can also form a locative ending in -um in the singular and the resulting forms serve as adverbials. These forms are generally not productive, but in the Neo-Babylonian the um-locative replaces several constructions with the preposition ina.

In the later stages of Akkadian the mimation (word-final -m) - along with nunation (dual final "-n") - that occurs at the end of most case endings has disappeared, except in the locative. Later, the nominative and accusative singular of masculine nouns collapse to -u and in Neo-Babylonian most word-final short vowels are dropped. As a result, case differentiation disappeared from all forms except masculine plural nouns. However many texts continued the practice of writing the case endings (although often sporadically and incorrectly). As the most important contact language throughout this period was Aramaic, which itself lacks case distinctions, it is possible that Akkadian's loss of cases was an areal as well as phonological phenomenon.

Noun States and Nominal Sentences

As is also the case in other Semitic languages, Akkadian nouns may appear in a variety of "states" depending on their grammatical function in a sentence. The basic form of the noun is the status rectus (the Governed state), which is the form as described above, complete with case endings. In addition to this, Akkadian has the status absolutus (the Absolute state) and the status constructus (Construct state). The latter is found in all other Semitic languages, while the former appears only in Akkadian and some dialects of Aramaic.

The status absolutus is characterised by the loss of a noun's case ending (e.g. awīl < awīlum, šar < šarrum). It is relatively uncommon, and is used chiefly to mark the predicate of a nominal sentence, in fixed adverbial expressions, and in expressions relating to measurements of length, weight, and the like.

(1) Awīl-um šū šarrāq

Awīl-um	šū			šarrāq.
Man (Masculine, nominative)	he (3rd masc. personal pronoun)			thief (status absolutus)

Translation: This man is a thief

(2) šarrum lā šanān

šarr-um	lā			šanān.
King (Status rectus, nominative)	not (negative particle)			oppose (verbal infinitive, status absolutus)

Translation: The king who cannot be rivaled

The Status Constructus is a great deal more common, and has a much wider range of applications. It is employed when a noun is followed by another noun in the genitive, a pronominal suffix, or a verbal clause in the subjunctive, and typically takes the shortest form of the noun which is phonetically possible. In general, this amounts to the loss of case endings with short vowels, with the exception of the genitive -i in nouns preceding a pronominal suffix, hence:

(3) māri-šu

māri-šu

Son (status constructus) + his (3rd person singular possessive pronoun

Translation: His son, its (masculine) son

but

(4) mār šarr-im

mār	šarr-im
Son (Status constructus)	king (genitive singular)

Translation: The king's son

There are numerous exceptions to this general rule, usually involving potential violations of the language's phonological limitations. Most obviously, Akkadian does not tolerate word final consonant clusters, so nouns like kalbum (dog) and maḫrum (front) would have illegal construct state forms *kalb and *maḫr unless modified. In many of these instances, the first vowel of the word is simply repeated (e.g. kalab, maḫar). This rule, however, does not always hold true, especially in nouns where a short vowel has historically been elided (e.g. šaknum < *šakinum "governor"). In these cases, the lost vowel is restored in the construct state (so šaknum yields šakin).

(5) kalab belim

kalab	bel-im
dog (Status constructus)	master (genitive singular)

Translation: The master's dog

(6) šakin ālim

šakin	āl-im
Governor (Status constructus)	city (genitive singular)

A genitive relation can also be expressed with the relative preposition ša, and the noun that the genitive phrase depends on appears in status rectus.

(7) salīmātum ša awīl Ešnunna

salīmātum	ša			awīl	Ešnunna
Alliances (Status rectus, nominative)	which (relative particle)			man (status constructus)	Ešnunna (genitive, unmarked)

Translation: The alliances of the Ruler of Ešnunna (literally "Alliances which man of Ešnunna (has)")

The same preposition is also used to introduce true relative clauses, in which case the verb is placed in the subjunctive mood.

(7) awīl-um ša māt-am i-kšud-Ø-u

Awīl-um	ša			māt-am	i-kšud-Ø-u
Man (Masculine, nominative)	that (relative pronoun)			land (singular, accusative)	3rd person - conquer (preterite) - singular, masculine - subjunctive

Translation: The man who conquered the land

Verbal morphology

Verb aspects

The Akkadian verb has six finite verb aspects (preterite, perfect, present, imperative, precative and vetitive) and three infinite forms (infinitive, participle and verbal adjective). The preterite is used for actions that are seen by the speaker as having occurred at a single point in time. The present is primarily imperfective in meaning and is used for concurrent and future actions as well as past actions with a temporal dimension. The final three finite forms are injunctive where the imperative and the precative together form a paradigm for positive commands and wishes, and the vetitive is used for negative wishes. Additionally the periphrastic prohibitive, formed by the present form of the verb and the negative adverb lā, is used to express negative commands. The infinitive of the Akkadian verb is a verbal noun, and in contrast to some other languages the Akkadian infinitive can be declined in case. The verbal adjective is an adjectival form and designates the state or the result of the action of the verb, and consequently the exact meaning of the verbal adjective is determined by the semantics of the verb itself. The participle, which can be active or passive, is another verbal adjective and its meaning is similar to the English gerund.

The following table shows the conjugation of the G-stem verbs derived from the root PRS ("to decide") in the various verb aspects of Akkadian:

	Preterite	Perfect	Present	Imperative	stative	Infinitive	Participle (active)	Verbal adjective
1st Person singular	aprus	aptaras	aparras		parsāku	parāsum	pārisum (masc.) pāristum (fem.)	parsum (masc.) paristum (fem.)
1st Person plural	niprus	niptaras	niparras		parsānu
2nd Person singular masc.	taprus	taptaras	taparras	purus	parsāta
2nd Person singular fem.	taprusī	taptarsī (< *taptarasī)	taparrasī	pursi	parsāti
2nd Person plural	taprusā	taptarsā	taparrasā	pursa	parsātunu (masc.) / parsātina(fem.)
3rd Person singular	iprus	iptaras	iparras		paris (masc.) /parsat (fem.)
3rd Person plural masc.	iprusū	iptarsū (< *iptarasū)	iparrasū		parsū
3rd Person plural fem.	iprusā	iptarsā(< *iptarasā)	iparrasā		parsā

The table below shows the different affixes attached to the preterite aspect of the verb root PRS "to decide"; and as can be seen, the grammatical genders differ only in the second person singular and third person plural.

	G-Stem	D-Stem	Š-Stem	N-Stem
1st Person singular	a-prus-Ø	u-parris-Ø	u-šapris-Ø	a-pparis-Ø
1st Person plural	ni-prus-Ø	nu-parris-Ø	nu-šapris-Ø	ni-pparis-Ø
2nd Person singular masc.	ta-prus-Ø	tu-parris-Ø	tu-šapris-Ø	ta-pparis-Ø
2nd Person singular fem.	ta-prus-ī	tu-parris-ī	tu-šapris-ī	ta-ppars-ī
2nd Person plural	ta-prus-ā	tu-parris-ā	tu-šapris-ā	ta-ppars-ā
3rd Person singular	i-prus-Ø	u-parris-Ø	u-šapris-Ø	i-pparis-Ø
3rd Person plural masc.	i-prus-ū	u-parris-ū	u-šapris-ū	i-ppars-ū
3rd Person plural fem.	i-prus-ā	u-parris-ā	u-šapris-ā	i-ppars-ā

Verb moods

Akkadian verbs have 3 moods:

1. Indicative, used in independent clauses, is unmarked.
2. Subjunctive, used in dependent clauses. The subjunctive is marked in forms which do not end in a vowel by the suffix -u (compare Arabic and Ugaritic subjunctives), but is otherwise unmarked. In the later stages of most dialects, the subjunctive is indistinct, as short final vowels were mostly lost
3. Venitive or allative. The venitive is not a mood in the strictest sense, being a development of the 1st person dative pronominal suffix -am/-m/-nim. With verbs of motion, it often indicates motion towards an object or person (e.g. illik, "he went" vs. illikam, "he came"). However, this pattern is not consistent, even in earlier stages of the language, and its use often appears to serve a stylistic rather than morphological or lexical function.

The following table demonstrates the verb moods of verbs derived from the root PRS ("to decide","to separate"):

	Preterite.	Stative.
Indicative	iprus	paris
Subjunctive	iprusu	parsu
Venitive	iprusam	parsam

Verb patterns

Akkadian verbs have thirteen separate derived stems formed on each root. The basic, underived, stem is the G-stem (from the German Grundstamm, meaning "basic stem"). Causative or intensive forms are formed with the doubled D-stem, and it gets its name from the doubled middle radical that is characteristic of this form. The doubled middle radical is also characteristic of the present, but the forms of the D-stem use the secondary conjugational affixes, so a D-form will never be identical to a form in a different stem. The Š-stem is formed by adding a prefix š-, and these forms are mostly causatives. Finally, the passive forms of the verb are in the N-stem, formed by adding a n- prefix. However the n- element is assimilated to a following consonant, so the original /n/ is only visible in a few forms.

Furthermore, reflexive and iterative verbal stems can be derived from each of the basic stems. The reflexive stem is formed with an infix -ta, and the derived stems are therefore called Gt, Dt, Št and Nt, and the preterite forms of the Xt-stem are identical to the perfects of the X-stem. Iteratives are formed with the infix -tan-, giving the Gtn, Dtn, Štn and Ntn. Because of the assimilation of n, the /n/ is only seen in the present forms, and the Xtn preterite is identical to the Xt durative.

The final stem is the ŠD-stem, a form mostly attested only in poetic texts, and whose meaning is usually identical to either the Š-stem or the D-stem of the same verb. It is formed with the Š prefix (like the Š-stem) in addition to a doubled middle radical (like the D-stem).

An alternative to this naming system is a numerical system. The basic stems are numbered using Roman numerals so that G, D, Š and N become I, II, III and IV, respectively, and the infixes are numbered using Arabic numerals; 1 for the forms without an infix, 2 for the Xt, and 3 for the Xtn. The two numbers are separated using a solidus. As an example, the Štn-stem is called III/3. The most important user of this system is the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary.

There is mandatory congruence between the subject of the sentence and the verb, and this is expressed by prefixes and suffixes. There are two different sets of affixes, a primary set used for the forms of the G and N-stems, and a secondary set for the D and Š-stems.

The stems, their nomenclature and examples of the third-person masculine singular stative of the verb parāsum (root PRS: 'to decide, distinguish, separate') is shown below:

#	Stem	Verb	Description	Correspondence
I.1	G	PaRiS	the simple stem, used for transitive and intransitive verbs	Arabic stem I (fa‘ala) and Hebrew pa'al
II.1	D	PuRRuS	gemination of the second radical, indicating the intensive	Arabic stem II (fa‘‘ala) and Hebrew pi‘el
III.1	Š	šuPRuS	š-preformative, indicating the causative	Arabic stem IV (’af‘ala) and Hebrew hiph‘il
IV.1	N	naPRuS	n-preformative, indicating the reflexive/passive	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	Arabic stem VIII (ifta‘ala) and Aramaic ’ithpe‘al (tG)
II.2	Dt	PutaRRuS	doubled second radical preceded by infixed t, indicating intensive reflexive	Arabic stem V (tafa‘‘ala) and Hebrew hithpa‘el (tD)
III.2	Št	šutaPRuS	š-preformative with t-infix, indicating reflexive causative	Arabic stem X (istaf‘ala) and Aramaic ’ittaph‘al (tC)
IV.2	Nt	itaPRuS	n-preformative with a t-infix preceding the first radical, indicating reflexive passive
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	šutaPRuS	š-preformative with tan-infix
IV.3	Ntn	itaPRuS	n-preformative with tan-infix
	ŠD	šuPuRRuS	š-preformative with doubled second radical

Stative

A very often appearing form which can be formed by nouns, adjectives as well as by verbal adjectives is the stative. Nominal predicatives occur in the status absolutus and correspond to the verb "to be" in English. The stative in Akkadian corresponds to the Egyptian pseudo-participle. The following table contains an example of using the noun šarrum (king), the adjective rapšum (wide) and the verbal adjective parsum (decided).

	šarrum	rapšum	parsum
1st Person singular	šarr-āku	rapš-āku	pars-āku
1st Person plural	šarr-ānu	rapš-ānu	pars-ānu
2nd Person singular masc.	šarr-āta	rapš-āta	pars-āta
2nd Person singular fem.	šarr-āti	rapš-āti	pars-āti
2nd Person plural masc.	šarr-ātunu	rapš-ātunu	pars-ātunu
2nd Person plural fem.	šarr-ātina	rapš-ātina	pars-ātina
3rd Person singular masc.	šar-Ø	rapaš-Ø	paris-Ø
3rd Person singular fem.	šarr-at	rapš-at	pars-at
3rd Person plural masc.	šarr-ū	rapš-ū	pars-ū
3rd Person plural fem.	šarr-ā	rapš-ā	pars-ā

Thus, the stative in Akkadian is used to convert simple stems into effective sentences, so that the form šarr-āta is equivalent to: "you were king", "you are king" and "you will be king". Hence, the stative is independent of time forms.

Derivation

Beside the already explained possibility of derivation of different verb stems, Akkadian has numerous nominal formations derived from verb roots. A very frequently encountered form is the maPRaS form. It can express the location of an event, the person performing the act and many other meanings. If one of the root consonants is labial (p, b, m), the prefix becomes na- (maPRaS > naPRAS). Examples for this are: maškanum (place, location) from ŠKN (set, place, put), mašraḫum (splendour) from ŠRḪ (be splendid), maṣṣarum (guards) from NṢR (guard), napḫarum (sum) from PḪR (summarize).

A very similar formation is the maPRaSt form. The noun derived from this nominal formation is grammatically feminine. The same rules as for the maPRaS form apply, for example maškattum (deposit) from ŠKN (set, place, put), narkabtum (carriage) from RKB (ride, drive, mount).

The suffix - ūt is used to derive abstract nouns. The nouns which are formed with this suffix are grammatically feminine. The suffix can be attached to nouns, adjectives and verbs, e.g. abūtum (paternity) from abum (father), rabutum (size) from rabum (large), waṣūtum (leaving) from WṢY (leave).

Also derivatives of verbs from nouns, adjectives and numerals are numerous. For the most part, a D-stem is derived from the root of the noun or adjective. The derived verb then has the meaning of "make X do something" or "becoming X", for example: duššûm (let sprout) from dišu (grass), šullušum (to do something for the third time ) from šalāš (three).

Pronouns

Personal pronouns

Independent personal pronouns

Independent personal pronouns in Akkadian are as follows:

		Nominative		Oblique		Dative
Person		singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
1st		anāku "I"	nīnu "we"	yāti	niāti	yāšim	niāšim
2nd	masculine	atta "you"	attunu "you"	kāti (kāta)	kunūti	kāšim	kunūšim
	feminine	atti "you"	attina "you"	kāti	kināti	kāšim	kināšim
3rd	masculine	šū "he"	šunu "they"	šātilu (šātilu)	šunūti	šuāšim (šāšim)	šunūšim
	feminine	šī "she"	šina "they"	šiāti (šuāti;šāti)	šināti	šiāšim (šāšim, šāšim)	šināšim

Suffixed (or enclitic) pronouns

Suffixed (or enclitic) pronouns (mainly denoting the genitive, accusative and dative) are as follows:

		Genitive		Accusative		Dative
Person		singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
1st		-i, -ya	-ni	-ni	-niāti	-am/-nim	-niāšim
2nd	masculine	-ka	-kunu	-ka	-kunūti	-kum	-kunūšim
	feminine	-ki	-kina	-ki	-kināti	-kim	-kināšim
3rd	masculine	-šū	-šunu	-šū	-šunūti	-šum	-šunūšim
	feminine	-ša	-šina	-ši	-šināti	-šim	-šināšim

Demonstrative pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns in Akkadian differ from the Western Semitic variety. The following table shows the Akkadian demonstrative pronouns according to near and far deixis:

	Deixis
	Proximal	Distal
Masc. singular	annū "this"	ullū "that"
Fem. Singular	annītu "this"	ullītu "that"
Masc. plural	annūtu "these"	ullūtu "those"
Fem. plural	annātu "these"	ullātu "those"

Relative pronouns

Relative pronouns in Akkadian are shown in the following table:

	Nominative	Accusative	Genitive
Masc. singular	šu	ša	ši
Fem. Singular	šāt	šāti
Dual	šā
Masc. plural	šūt
Fem. plural	šāt

Unlike plural relative pronouns, singular relative pronouns in Akkadian exhibit full declension for case. However, only the form ša (originally accusative masculine singular) survived, while the other forms disappeared in time.

Interrogative pronouns

The following table shows the Interrogative pronouns used in Akkadian:

Akkadian	English
mannu	who?
mīnū	what?
ayyu	which?

Prepositions

Akkadian has prepositions which consist mainly of only one word. For example: ina (in, on, out, through, under), ana (too, for, after, approximately), adi (to), aššu (because of), eli (up, over), ištu/ultu (of, since), mala (in accordance with), itti (also, with). There are, however, some compound prepositions which are combined with ina and ana (e.g. ina maḫar (forwards), ina balu (without), ana ṣēr (up to), ana maḫar (forwards). Regardless of the complexity of the preposition, the following noun is always in the genitive case.

Examples: ina bītim (in the house, from the house), ana dummuqim (to do good), itti šarrim (with the king), ana ṣēr mārīšu (up to his son).

Numerals

Since numerals are written mostly as a number sign in the cuneiform script, the transliteration of many numerals is not well ascertained yet. Along with the counted noun, the cardinal numerals are in the status absolutus. Because other cases are very rare, the forms of the status rectus are known only by isolated numerals. The numerals 1 and 2 as well as 21–29, 31–39, 41–49 correspond with the counted in the grammatical gender, while the numerals 3–20, 30, 40 and 50 show gender polarity, i.e. if the counted noun is masculine, the numeral would be feminine and vice versa. This polarity is typical of the Semitic languages and appears also in classical Arabic for example. The numerals 60, 100 and 1000 do not change according to the gender of the counted noun. Counted nouns more than two appear in the plural form. However, body parts which occur in pairs appear in the dual form in Akkadian. e.g. šepum (foot) becomes šepān (two feet).

The ordinals are formed (with a few exceptions) by adding a case ending to the nominal form PaRuS (the P, R and S. must be substituted with the suitable consonants of the numeral). It is noted, however, that in the case of the numeral "one", the ordinal (masculine) and the cardinal number are the same. A metathesis occurs in the numeral "four". The following table contains the masculine and feminine forms of the status absolutus of some of the Akkadian cardinal numbers, as well as the corresponding ordinals.

#	Cardinal numeral (masc.)	Cardinal numeral (fem.)	Congruence (Gender agreement of the cardinal numeral)	Ordinal (masc.)	Ordinal (fem.)
1	ištēn	išteʾat, ištāt	Congruent (no gender polarity)	ištēn	išteʾat
2	šinā	šittā	Congruent	šanûm	šanītum
3	šalāš	šalāšat	Gender polarity	šalšum	šaluštum
4	erbē	erbēt	Gender polarity	rebûm	rebūtum
5	ḫamiš	ḫamšat	Gender polarity	ḫamšum	ḫamuštum
6	šediš	šiššet	Gender polarity	šeššum	šeduštum
7	sebē	sebēt	Gender polarity	sebûm	sebūtum
8	samānē	samānat	Gender polarity	samnum, samnûm	samuntum
9	tešē	tišīt	Gender polarity	tišûm, tešûm	tišūtum, tešūtum
10	ešer	ešeret	Gender polarity	ešrum	ešurtum
60	šūš		No gender distinction
100	meʾat, māt		No gender distinction
1000	līm		No gender distinction

Examples: erbē aššātum (four wives) (male numeral), meʾat ālānū (100 towns).

Syntax

Nominal phrases

Adjectives, relative clauses and appositions follow the noun. While numerals precede the counted noun. In the following table the nominal phrase erbēt šarrū dannūtum ša ālam īpušū abūya 'the four strong kings who built the city are my fathers' is analyzed:

Word	Meaning	Analysis	Part of the nominal phrase
erbēt	four	feminine (gender polarity)	Numeral
šarr-ū	king	nominative plural	Noun (Subject)
dann-ūtum	strong	nominative masculine plural	Adjective
ša	which	relative pronoun	Relative clause
āl-am	city	accusative singular
īpuš-ū	built	3rd person masculine plural
ab-ū-ya	my fathers	masculine plural + possessive pronoun	Apposition

Sentence syntax

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 verb–subject–object (VSO) 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.

Vocabulary

The Akkadian vocabulary is mostly of Semitic origin. Although classified as 'East Semitic', many elements of its basic vocabulary find no evident parallels in related Semitic languages. For example: māru 'son' (Semitic *bn), qātu 'hand' (Semitic *yd), šēpu 'foot' (Semitic *rgl), qabû 'say' (Semitic *qwl), izuzzu 'stand' (Semitic *qwm), ana 'to, for' (Semitic *li).

Due to extensive contact with Sumerian and Aramaic, the Akkadian vocabulary contains many loan words from these languages. Aramaic loan words, however, were limited to the 1st centuries of the 1st millennium BC and primarily in the north and middle parts of Mesopotamia, whereas Sumerian loan words were spread in the whole linguistic area. Beside the previous languages, some nouns were borrowed from Hurrian, Kassite, Ugaritic and other ancient languages. Since Sumerian and Hurrian, two non-Semitic languages, differ from Akkadian in word structure, only nouns and some adjectives (not many verbs) were borrowed from these languages. However, some verbs were borrowed (along with many nouns) from Aramaic and Ugaritic, both of which are Semitic languages.

The following table contains examples of loan words in Akkadian:

Akkadian	Meaning	Source	Word in the language of origin
dû	hill	Sumerian	du
erēqu	flee	Aramaic	ʿRQ (root)
gadalû	dressed in linen	Sumerian	gada lá
isinnu	firmly	Sumerian	ezen
kasulatḫu	a device of copper	Hurrian	kasulatḫ-
kisallu	court	Sumerian	kisal
laqāḫu	take	Ugaritic	LQḤ( root)
paraššannu	part of horse riding gear	Hurrian	paraššann-
purkullu	stone cutter	Sumerian	bur-gul
qaṭālu	kill	Aramaic	QṬL (root)
uriḫullu	conventional penalty	Hurrian	uriḫull-

Akkadian was also a source of borrowing to other languages, above all Sumerian. Some examples are: Sumerian da-ri ('lastingly', from Akkadian dāru), Sumerian ra gaba ('riders, messenger', from Akkadian rākibu).

Sample text

The following is the 7th section of the Hammurabi law code, written in the mid-18th century BC:

Akkadian	šumma	awīl-um	lū	kasp-am	lū	ḫurāṣ-am	lū	ward-am	lū	amt-am
English	if	Man (nominative)	or	silver (accusative)	or	gold (accusative)	or	slave (masculine, accusative)	or	Slave (feminine, accusative)
Akkadian	lū	alp-am	lū	immer-am	lū	imēr-am	ū lū	mimma šumšu		ina
English	or	Cattle, oxen (accusative)	or	sheep (accusative)	or	donkey (accusative)	and or	something		from
Akkadian	qāt	mār	awīl-im	ū lū	warad	awīl-im	balum	šīb-ī		u
English	hand (status constructus)	son (status constructus)	man (genitive)	and or	slave (status constructus)	man (genitive)	without	witnesses (genitive)		and
Akkadian	riks-ātim		i-štām-Ø		ū lū	ana	maṣṣārūt-im		i-mḫur-Ø
English	contracts (genitive)		bought (3rd person singular, perfect)		and or	for	safekeeping (genitive)		received (3rd person singular, preterite)
Akkadian	awīl-um		šū		šarrāq		i-ddāk
English	man (nominative)		(3rd person masculine singular independent pronoun)		stealer (status absolutus)		is killed (3rd person singular in passive present tense)

Translation: If a man has bought silver or gold, a male or a female slave, an ox, a sheep, or a donkey—or anything for that matter—from another man or from another man’s slave without witnesses or contract, or if he accepted something for safekeeping without same, then this man is a thief and hence to be killed.

Akkadian literature

Main article: Akkadian literature

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

Sources

• 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.)
• Dolgopolsky, Aron (1999). From Proto-Semitic to Hebrew. Milan: Centro Studi Camito-Semitici di Milano.
• Gelb, I.J. (1961). Old Akkadian Writing and Grammar. Second edition. 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
• Sabatino Moscati (1980). An Introduction to Comparative Grammar of Semitic Languages Phonology and Morphology. Harrassowitz Verlag. ISBN 3-447-00689-7.
• Soden, Wolfram von (1952). Grundriss der akkadischen Grammatik. Analecta Orientalia 33. Roma: Pontificium Institutum Biblicum. (3rd ed., 1995: ISBN 88-7653-258-7)
• Woodard, Roger D. The Ancient Languages of Mesopotamia, Egypt and Aksum. Cambridge University Press 2008. ISBN 978-0-521-68497-2

Further reading

General description and grammar

• Gelb, I. J. (1961). Old Akkadian writing and grammar. Materials for the Assyrian dictionary, no. 2. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-62304-1
• Hasselbach, Rebecca. Sargonic Akkadian: A Historical and Comparative Study of the Syllabic Texts. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag 2005. ISBN 978-3-447-05172-9
• Huehnergard, J. A Grammar of Akkadian (3rd ed. 2011). Harvard Semitic Museum Studies 45. ISBN 978-1-57506-922-7
• Huehnergard, J. (2005). A Key to A Grammar of Akkadian . Harvard Semitic Studies. Eisenbrauns.
• Soden, Wolfram von: Grundriß der Akkadischen Grammatik. Analecta Orientalia. Bd 33. Rom 1995. ISBN 88-7653-258-7
• Streck, Michael P. Sprachen des Alten Orients. Wiss. Buchges., Darmstadt 2005. ISBN 3-534-17996-X
• Ungnad, Arthur: Grammatik des Akkadischen. Neubearbeitung durch L. Matouš, München 1969, 1979 (5. Aufl.). ISBN 3-406-02890-X
• Woodard, Roger D. The Ancient Languages of Mesopotamia, Egypt and Aksum. Cambridge University Press 2008. ISBN 978-0-521-68497-2

Textbooks

• Rykle Borger: Babylonisch-assyrische Lesestücke. Rom 1963.(3., revidierte Auflage, 2006 Teil. I-II)
  • Part I: Elemente der Grammatik und der Schrift. Übungsbeispiele. Glossar.
  • Part II: Die Texte in Umschrift.
  • Part III: Kommentar. Die Texte in Keilschrift.
• Richard Caplice: Introduction to Akkadian. Biblical Institute Press, Rome 1988, 2002 (4.Aufl.). ISBN 88-7653-566-7
• Kaspar K. Riemschneider: Lehrbuch des Akkadischen. Enzyklopädie, Leipzig 1969, Langenscheidt Verl. Enzyklopädie, Leipzig 1992 (6. Aufl.). ISBN 3-324-00364-4
• Martin Worthington: "Complete Babylonian: Teach Yourself" London 2010 ISBN 0-340-98388-4

Dictionaries

• Jeremy G. Black, Andrew George, Nicholas Postgate: A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian. Harrassowitz-Verlag, Wiesbaden 2000. ISBN 3-447-04264-8
• Wolfram von Soden: Akkadisches Handwörterbuch. 3 Bde. Wiesbaden 1958-1981. ISBN 3-447-02187-X
• Martha T. Roth, ed.: The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. 21 vols. in 26. Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Chicago 1956-2010. (available free online)

Akkadian cuneiform

• 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.
• Rykle Borger: Mesopotamisches Zeichenlexikon. Alter Orient und Altes Testament (AOAT). Bd 305. Ugarit-Verlag, Münster 2004. ISBN 3-927120-82-0
• René Labat: Manuel d'Épigraphie Akkadienne. Paul Geuthner, Paris 1976, 1995 (6.Aufl.). ISBN 2-7053-3583-8

Technical literature on specific subjects

• Ignace J. Gelb: Old Akkadian Writing and Grammar. Materials for the Assyrian dictionary. Bd 2. University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1952, 1961, 1973. ISBN 0-226-62304-1 ISSN 0076-518X
• Markus Hilgert: Akkadisch in der Ur III-Zeit. Rhema-Verlag, Münster 2002. ISBN 3-930454-32-7
• Walter Sommerfeld: Bemerkungen zur Dialektgliederung Altakkadisch, Assyrisch und Babylonisch. In: Alter Orient und Altes Testament (AOAT). Ugarit-Verlag, Münster 274.2003. ISSN 0931-4296

External links

• Introduction to Cuneiform Script and the Akkadian language on The Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus (Oracc)
• Akkadian cuneiform on Omniglot (Writing Systems and Languages of the World)
• Wilford, John Noble (7 June 2011). "After 90 Years, a Dictionary of an Ancient World". The New York Times. p. 2.
• Akkadian Language Samples
• A detailed introduction to Akkadian
• Assyrian grammar with chrestomathy and glossary (1921) by Samuel A B Mercer
• Akkadian-English-French Online Dictionary
• Old Babylonian Text Corpus (includes dictionary)
• The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (CAD)
• Old Akkadian Writing and Grammar, by I. J. Gelb, 2nd Ed. (1961)
• Glossary of Old Akkadian, by I. J. Gelb (1957)
• List of 1280 Akkadian roots, with a representative verb form for each
• Recordings of Assyriologists Reading Babylonian and Assyrian
• Unicode Fonts for Ancient Scripts and Akkadian font for Ubuntu Linux-based operating system (ttf-ancient-fonts)
• The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (CAD)
• Akkadian in the wiki Glossing Ancient Languages (recommendations for the Interlinear Morphemic Glossing of Akkadian texts)