The Semantics of Clause Linking in Akkadian

Abstract

Abstract Akkadian is the earliest known Semitic language. It was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia, the ‘land between the rivers’ (Tigris and Euphrates), in an area which roughly corresponds to today’s Iraq. It was written in the cuneiform script, on clay tablets. Akkadian is one of the earliest and longest attested languages, with a history spanning more than two thousand years. The first written attestations are from around 2500 Bce, and the language was spoken until around 500 Bce, when it was displaced by Aramaic. From the second millennium Bce, two distinct dialects of Akkadian emerged, Babylonian and Assyrian.