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08/11/2016 Ancient Scripts: Akkadian
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Quick Facts
Topics Type Logophonetic
Introduction Genealogy Cuneiform

Origins Location West Asia > Mesopotamia
Types
Families Time 2500 BCE to 100 CE
Regions
Timeline Direction Variable
A to Z
While the cuneiform writing system was created and used at first only by the Sumerian, it did not take long
before neighboring groups adopted it for their own use. By about 2500 BCE, the Akkadian, a Semitic
Related Scripts speaking people that dwelled north of the Sumerians, starting using cuneiform to write their own language.
However, it was the ascendency of the Akkadian dynasty in 2300 BCE that positioned Akkadian over
Sumerian
Cuneiform Sumerian as the primary language of Mesopotamia. While Sumerian did enjoy a quick revival, it eventually
Hittite became a dead language used only in literary contexts, whereas Akkadian would continue to be spoken for
the next two millenium and evolved into later (more famous) forms known as Babylonian and Assyrian.
Related Links Syllabic Writing
Akkadian language Sumerian and Akkadian are vastly different languages. Sumerian is a more agglutinative language, where
phonetically unchanging words and particles are joined together to form phrases with increasingly complex
meaning. Akkadian, however, is infectional, meaning that the basic form of a word, called a root, can be
modified in a myriad of ways to create words of related but different meanings. In particular, the basis of
Semitic languages is the triconsonantal root, which is a sequence of three consonants representing the
most basic and abstract form of a word. Inflections include added vowels between consonants of the root
as well as added prefixes and suffixes to the root. For example, in Arabic, the triconsonantal root ktb
represent the idea of writing, but by itself it doesn't mean anything. Inflections of this root, however,
creates a breadth of words, such as /kitāb/ "book", /kutub/ "books", /ketib/ "writer", /kataba/ "he writes",
and so on.
The implication of this is that whereas it was acceptable to simply juxtapose logographic signs in Sumerian
to write out a sentence, using the same logograms in Akkadian would not convey the exact meaning of a
word. In order to more faithfully reproduce the correct inflection of a word, some signs were used for their
phonetic values rather than their meanings. Eventually, Akkadians came to regularly use a group of signs
for their phonetic values. We call these signs phonograms. Many of these signs are "simple" These signs
became the Akkadian "syllabary", as illustrated below:
http://www.ancientscripts.com/akkadian.html 1/6
Note that the first four columns (with headings "Ca", "Ce", "Ci", and "Cu") represent syllabic signs that
start with a consonant on the left side of the chart, the exception being the first row which are pure vowels.
The last four columns ("aC", "eC", "iC", and "uC") are signs that end with a consonant.
Also, recall in Sumerian very often different signs represent the same sound, a phenomenon called
homophony, due to the fact that words in the Sumerian language tends to be monosyllabic. Since Akkadian
adopted the Sumerian writing system, it also inherited all its homophonous sounds. For simplicity sake, I
only listed one sign per syllable in the previous chart, but in fact it is possible to have multiple signs for the
same syllable. In the traditional transliteration scheme, the first homophone of a sign has an acute accent
over the vowel, like á. The second homophone has a grave accent over its vowel, like à. All other
homophones have a subscript at the end starting with 4, such as a4, a5, a6, etc.
In addition, there are signs that represent a syllable of the structure consonant, vowel, and consonant
(CVC). Another way to write these CVC syllables is to write a consonantinitial sign followed by a
consonantfinal sign, where the vowels of both signs being equal. The following example shows some
CVC phonograms on the first row, and the same CVC syllable written as sequences of CvVC signs.
However, even though the Akkadian language can be wholly written by phonetic signs, tradition dictated
that the full spectrum of signs, namely logograms and determinatives, be used in conjunction.
Logograms and Determinatives
Logograms are signs that represent words or morphemes. Determinatives are unpronounced signs used to
denote the general meaning or categorization of following words. However, logograms and determinatives
do not form separate groups of signs. In fact, nearly all determinatives are taken from logograms.
Moreover, a good amount of phonetic signs also double as logograms and, by extension, determinatives. A
sign that has more than one function is polyvalent. Only through the context in which a polyveant sign
occurs can one tell if it functions as a phonetic sign, a logogram, or a determinative.
One common sign that can be used as all three types of signs is , which is a phonetic sign denoting the
syllable an. In addition, it also stands for three logograms: the word ilum which means "god" (but
transliterated as DINGIR, the Sumerian word for "god"), the god of heaven Anum, and then by extension
the word šamû which means "heaven". And on top of all this, it can also function as a determinative for
names of deities. The following example illustrates this polyvalency:
Quick note on the traditional transliteration of Akkadian signs: Phonograms are written in italic. Logograms
are written in capitals, often transcribing Sumerian words, but also sometimes Akkadian if the logogram
has more meanings in Akkadian than in Sumerian. The superscripts are determinatives, and they tend to
use the same convention as logograms (capital letters transcribing Sumerian words). The only exception is
the determinative for deity names, which is shortened to D instead of DINGIR.
Going back to the example, you have most likely noticed that the same sign can represent different words.
This polyvalency originated in Sumerian when the same logogram was used to write related words that had
vastly different pronunciations. To distinguish between different readings, contextual information is
extremely important. One kind of hint to indicate which word the logogram referes is the phonetic
complement. It is a phonogram that spells out part of the word that the logogram represents, and so allow
the reader to identify the word. In the example, the sign sequence ANú identifies the word šamû, not the
deity Anum. Another form of hint is the determinative. The sequence KÁDINGIRRA is followed by the
determinative KI, meaning that is must be the name of a city. Only one city is written as KÁDINGIRRA,
and that would be Babylon. In fact, the logogram KÁ represents the word babu ("gate"), DINGIR resolves
to ilum ("god"), and RA is the genitive case in Sumerian for dingir. Together the sequence gives Babilum, or
"Gate of the God", where the god in question would be Marduk, the patron god of Babylon.
Because of the inflected nature of the Akkadian language, a logogram often only represents the root, or
basic form, of a word. To derive other forms of the word, phonetic complements are added to the logogram
to indicate inflectional endings.
Note that the logogram for "king", šarrum in Akkadian, is transliterated as LUGAL, which is Sumerian for
"king".
As you have no doubtly gathered by now, the Akkadian script was an extremely complex writing system.
The number of signs used hover from 200 to 400 (although the total number of signs is between 700 and
800), and homophony and polyvalency give Akkadian scribes multiple ways to spell the same sequence of
sounds. However, it remained as one of the great writing systems of the ancient Middle East, preserving
the history, literature, and science of the ancient Mesopotamians for the modern world.
Related Links
Akkadian language.
18 Comments Ancient Scripts  Winspector Fire
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Join the discussion…
Dragon Born • 4 years ago
I do not know if any of you knew this; but this is the language of the dragons! This is
the language of the Dovah. Ah, Skyrim is awesome. Using real languages.
6 △ ▽ • Reply • Share ›
Andres Hernandez > Dragon Born • 2 years ago
In Dovah, each symbol represents a sound, the strokes never touch each
other, and it has dots. Akkadian is a syllabary, has no dots, and strokes are
written on top of others. Also, Dovah is much simpler.
Paradox > Andres Hernandez • 2 years ago
"Simpler" as in simpler grammar?
Know anywhere I can read up on Akkadian?
Much appreciated!
△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›
Michael • 5 years ago
Fascinating. I have used it once years agar.
Alex Townsend • 5 years ago
Thanks for this
Thanks for this
Tyler B. • 5 years ago
I have read the 1980's necronomicon originally named Al Azif and written by the mad
poet Abdhul Alhazred I think it could have been 500 A.D.? Anyhow there is a text in
the book of the worm that has no translation that I would like to know the meaning
to... "mu unna te". Thank you.
Crystal Pegasus > Tyler B. • 4 years ago
The book you speak of was written by "Simon" aka Anton Szandor LaVey,
world famous satanist. It is a fake based on the tales of H.P Lovecraft.
karmapolice > Crystal Pegasus • 9 months ago
actually no, there are many fake necronomicons, however the original
book AL AZIF is known all over Morocco where I lived, as a genuine
original book, very old, that is used by many magicians stillyou can
find the original in occult shops in Casablanca
Jae23 • 5 years ago
no probs
Anewwoods • 5 years ago
this is the true teaching or math that has been hidden from the blackman and woman
the language that the annunakkq,s spoke and taught to the oringinal beings on tiamat
before it was called earth but this is not there the annunakkiq,s original way of
communication we the dark race or what you call us the blackman and woman have
been on the planet tiamat when there was know such thing as time,time only exisist
when the whiteman was created because you along with azzizel was given a
appointed time, we communicated with our ancestors the annunakkiq,s through our
berathary gland, you the whiteman called this a myth because you are the new
beings on the planet earth we gave you melinin recessive beings one book when
there are thousands that the essence order have and taught look into the many
books that your bible speak of that was talked about that never came to light
because it would let the blackman and woman know that we are the gods on the
planet and the many ships that come from the planet illywumn called nibiru that can
not be recorded they have superior technology and sciences, we were the blackman
and woman created trillions of years ago for the mineing of the planet terra or what
you call earth and we will always be those of us the blackman and woman who still
have there souls if not they to will dissapate alon with the whiteman and woman but
they have to give back all faulse teachings of the whiteman,s spell ,his religion, and
see more
Straelbora > Anewwoods • 4 years ago
I think you've been sniffing the fumes from Louis Farrakhan's pomade.
SHINEHIGHLIG > Straelbora • a year ago
SHINEHIGHLIG > Straelbora • a year ago
He just read (or saw a youtube vid about) Sitchin. He made up some
hilarious story about aliens coming to earth because the gold in their
atmosphere was depleting. Yes, right, their gold ^^ well, it's BS from
start to finish, Sitchin' was a very confused old man
brian • 4 years ago
I need to write "belongs to god" or some variation of "slave for god" or "gods servent"
in
Akkadian. please help.
BobGriffin > brian • 4 years ago
Arad ili would be 'slave of god'. Do not leave out the sign AN, which is the
determinative for gods. You could write it as AR AD AN AN LI (where the LI
shows that the second AN should be read as IL). The first AN (standing for
the Sumerian word DINGIR or the Assyrian IL) is silent, and means that the
following sign is the name of a god.
college essay writer • 7 months ago
Today more people start to write in cuneiform language. The implication of this is that
whereas it was acceptable to simply juxtapose logographic signs in Sumerian to
write out a sentence and i hope in future it will be expended. ..
cyborg • 8 months ago
I really enjoyed reading this article, very informative, thank you! Just a small nitpick
'kataba' in Arabic is actually he wrote, in the past, while 'he writes' could be
transliterated as 'yaktub'.
Michael • 2 years ago
Hello, I want to translate a poem in cuneiform and I was wondering if you might be
able to help me?
AniRave • 3 years ago
I'm trying to get a translation but I don't know if I'm making any progress. I wanted to
find the translation for "Grant the power to protect" but I never could find "the" (figured
it doesn't exist) and what I found was "enēnu danānu (ak) ḫaṣānu". I work all the
time so it's really hard to get time to look into. If someone could assist it would really
help.
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08/11/2016 Ancient Scripts: Akkadian

Writing Systems Phonetics Historical Linguistics Interactive Resources Social About

Introduction Genealogy Cuneiform

18 Comments Ancient Scripts  Winspector Fire

 Recommend 1 ⤤ Share Sort by Best

1 △ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

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