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, the Horn of Africa, parts of Anatolia, North Africa See more

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 … See more

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

Writing
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 … See more

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, … See more

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 … See more

• Atrahasis Epic (early 2nd millennium BC)
• Enûma Elish (c. 18th century BC)
• Amarna letters (14th century BC)
• Epic of Gilgamesh (Sin-liqe-unninni', Standard Babylonian version, 13th to 11th century BC) See more