Article by Simonetta Graziani, University of Naples "L'Orientale"
Language Family and Linguistic Characteristics
Akkadian (lišānum akkadītum) belongs to the Semitic language family, within which it is part of the East Semitic branch. Like the other Semitic languages, Akkadian is an inflectional language: it indicates grammatical relations through phonological modifications within words (Soden 1952; Huehnergard 1997).
The influence of Sumerian on Akkadian is manifested in the Subject-Object-Verb syntax, unusual for Semitic languages, and in the vocabulary.
Writing System
From its first attestation in the Fara period (c.2800 BCE), Akkadian was written in cuneiform on clay tablets (Michalowski 1996; Charpin 2008).
Cuneiform writing is a mixed writing system where signs can be:
- Logograms or ideograms, where each sign represents a word or an idea;
- Phonograms, where each sign represents a syllable (of the type CV, VC, CVC). Certain signs are employed to facilitate readings;
- Determinatives, which precede or follow a word to idenfity which category it belongs to (divine, human, plants, wooden objects, stone, etc.);
- Phonetic complements added to logograms to specify their pronunciation or their reading.
Furthermore, two or more signs can have the same sound (homophony), and the same sign may have more than one sound (polyphony, in particular among the voiceless/ voiced/ emphatic series).
"Invented” in Lower Mesopotamia in the middle of the millennium century BCE, cuneiform writing was first used to write Sumerian; it later served to write Akkadian, and spread throughout the Near East. Over the course of three millennia, cuneiform writing was adapted to write Elamite, Eblaite, Hurrite, Hittite, Ugaritic (see the article on Ugaritic), and Old Persian. The last text written in cuneiform dates to the first century of the common era (Geller 1997; Westenholz 2007).
Chronological and Geographical Extent
Akkadian is first attested in Sumerian texts from the Fara Period containing proper names. Texts written entirely in Akkadian begin to appear from c.2500 BCE.
Epigraphic attestations of Akkadian are found up until the first century of the common era (Geller 1997; Westenholz 2007), but it is important to stress that Akkadian as a spoken language was increasingly replaced by Aramaic over the course of the first millennium BCE, but it survived as an educated language.
In some periods, Akkadian spread beyond Mesopotamia: to Persia, Syria, and Anatolia. In the fourteenth century BCE (the Amarna period), Akkadian was the lingua franca of the ancient Near East: the archives of El-Amarna in Egypt attest that diplomatic correspondence between the Near Eastern Great Kings and the Pharaoh was written in cuneiform Akkadian.
Evolution of the Language and Idiomatic Variation
Over the course of the 3000 years of its use, the Akkadian language evolved in a natural manner. We may distinguish several stages of this evolution:
- Old Akkadian: 2600-2350 BCE
- Akkadian: 2350-2000 BCE
- Akkadian was the official language of the empire of Akkad, which extended across northern Mesopotamia (Assyria).
In the twentieth century BCE, Akkadian became the dominant language, and divided into two “dialects”, Babylonian in the south, and Assyrian in the north of Mesopotamia. From a chronological point of view, we can distinguish:
- Babylonian
- Old Babylonian: 1950-1530 BCE
- Middle Babylonian: 1530-1000 BCE
- Neo-Babylonian 1000-625 BCE
- Late Babylonian 625 BCE-75 CE
- Assyrian
- Old Assyrian: 1950-1750 BCE
- Middle Assyrian: 1500-1000 BCE
- Neo-Assyrian 1000-600 BCE
Alongside Babylonian and Assyrian, from 1500 BCE Standard Babylonian was used for literary texts; it was an artificial language, based upon Old Babylonian.
Sources
The Mesopotamian sources (Sumerian and Akkadian) analysed in order to identify a "terminology of peace" embrace several textual categories:
- Political literature: Royal inscriptions, international treaties
- State epistolary archives
- Epic and mythological literature
- Wisdom texts
- Prayers
- Oracular texts: omens, prophecies
- Exorcisms
- Medical texts
We must note that these text types are not all attested from the same periods or in comparable quantities; furthermore, they are widely distributed temporally and spatially.
Many studies have focused on war, and to a lesser extent, peace, in Mesopotamia and the ancient Near East more generally (see the bibliography), but “peace” has never truly been the object of a full study, analysing the different components of the concept of “peace” among the Mesopotamians.
The starting point for our research will be the establishment of an Akkadian lexicon containing the several terms which designate peace, such as š/salīmu, š/salāmu, šulmu “peace, harmony”, “alliance”, “health, well-being”, “make peace, re-establish harmony”; šalim kiššati “universal peace”; bēl salīmi “ally”, and related terms such as aḫḫūtu “brotherhood”, rā’imūtu “friendship”, kinūtu “loyalty”, riksu “treaty”, adû “pledge, oath (of loyalty)”, etc.; nēḫu/nēḫtu, “quiet, peaceful, certain”, “calm, tranquility security”, nâḫu “to be(come) peaceful, pacified”, pašāḫu “to be tranquil, in peace”; pargāniš “in security, in peace”, pargāniš rabāṣu “live in peace”; ṭūbu “prosperity, happiness”, ṭūb libbi “interior peace, peace of the heart”.
We can see that the Akkadian lexicon seems to stress political peace, giving us the words “peace, harmony”, “alliance”, “ally”, “universal peace”, and relate terms “brotherhood”, “friendship”, “loyalty”, “treaty”, “pledge, oath (of loyalty)”.
The final goal of the research will be the analysis and the study of ther terminology and concept of “peace” (and of its related metaphors) in its different contexts and components: political, social, and “spiritual” peace.
Bibliography
AHw. W. von Soden, Akkadisches Handwörterbuch, I-III, Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz Verlag, 1965-1981.
CAD. The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of Chicago, Chicago, The Oriental Institute Publications, 1956-2010.
CDA. J. Black, A. George, N. Postgate (eds.), A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian (SANTAG 5), Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz Verlag, 2000.
Charpin D., 2008. Lire et écrire à Babylone, Paris, Presses Universitaires de France.
Cooper J., 1996. “Sumerian and Akkadian” in P.T. Daniels-W. Bright (eds), The World’s Writing Systems, New York-Oxford, Oxford University Press: 37-56.
Fales M.F., 2008. “On Pax Assyriaca in the Eighth–Seventh Centuries BCE and Its Implications,” in R. Cohen, R. Westbrook (eds.), Isaiah’s Vision of Peace in Biblical and Modern International Relations, New York, Palgrave Macmillan: 17-35.
---- 2010. Guerre et paix en Assyrie: Religion et impérialisme. Les Conférences de l’École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris, Cerf.
Geller M., 1997. “The Last Wedge” in Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archäologie, vol. 87 issue 1, Berlin-New York, De Gruyter: 43-95.
Huehnergard J., 1997. A Grammar of Akkadian (Harvard Semitic Museum Studies 45), Atlanta, Scholar Press.
Liverani M., 1994. Guerra e diplomazia nell'Antico Oriente, 1600-1100 a.C., Roma-Bari, Laterza.
Simonetta Graziani, Université de Naples, L’Orientale
Language Family and Linguistic Characteristics
Akkadian (lišānum akkadītum) belongs to the Semitic language family, within which it is part of the East Semitic branch. Like the other Semitic languages, Akkadian is an inflectional language: it indicates grammatical relations through phonological modifications within words (Soden 1952; Huehnergard 1997).
The influence of Sumerian (see the article on Sumerian) on Akkadian is manifested in the Subject-Object-Verb syntax, unusual for Semitic languages, and in the vocabulary.
Writing System
From its first attestation in the Fara period (c.2800 BCE), Akkadian was written in cuneiform on clay tablets (Michalowski 1996; Charpin 2008).
Cuneiform writing is a mixed writing system where characters may be:
· Logograms or ideograms, where each sign represents a word or an idea;
· Phonograms, where each sign represents a syllable (of the type CV, VC, CVC). Certain signs are employed to facilitate readings;
· Determinatives, which precede or follow a word to idenfity which category it belongs to (divine, human, plants, wooden objects, stone, etc.);
· Phonetic complements added to logograms to specify their pronunciation or their reading.
Furthermore, two or more signs can have the same sound (homophony), and the same sign may have more than one sound (polyphony, in particular among the voiceless/ voiced/ emphatic series).
"Invented” in Lower Mesopotamia in the middle of the fourth century BCE, cuneiform writing was first used to write Sumerian (see Sumerian); it later served to write Akkadian, and spread throughout the Near East. Over the course of three millennia, cuneiform writing was adapted to write Elamite, Eblaite, Hurrite, Hittite, Ugaritic (see the article on Ugaritic), and Old Persian. The last text written in cuneiform dates to the first century of the common era (Geller 1997; Westenholz 2007).
Chronological and Geographical Extent
Akkadian is first attested in Sumeria texts from the Fara Period containing proper names. Texts written entirely in Akkadian begin to appear from c.2500 BCE.
Epigraphic attestations of Akkadian are found up until the first century of the common era (Geller 1997; Westenholz 2007), but it is important to stress that Akkadian as a spoken language was increasingly replaced by Aramaic over the course of the first millennium BCE, but it survived as an educated language.
In some periods, Akkadian spread beyond Mesopotamia: to Persia, Syria, and Anatolia. In the fourteenth century BCE (the Amarna period), Akkadian was the lingua franca of the ancient Near East: the archives of El-Amarna in Egypt attest that diplomatic correspondance between the Near Eastern Great Kings and the Pharaoh was written in cuneiform Akkadian.
Evolution of the Language and Idiomatic Variation
Over the course of the 3000 years of its use, the Akkadian language evolved in a natural manner. We may distinguish several stages of this evolution:
· Old Akkadian: 2600-2350 BCE
· Akkadian: 2350-2000 BCE
o Akkadian was the official language of the empire of Akkad, which extended across northern Mesopotamia (Assyria).
In the twentieth century BCE, Akkadian became the dominant language, and divided into two “dialects”, Babylonian in the south, and Assyrian in the north of Mesopotamian. From a chronological point of view, we can distinguish:
· Babylonian
o Old Babylonian: 1950-1530 BCE
o Middle Babylonian: 1530-1000 BCE
o Neo-Babylonian 1000-625 BCE
o Late Babylonian 625 BCE-75 CE
· Assyrian
o Old Assyrian: 1950-1750 BCE
o Middle Assyrian: 1500-1000 BCE
o Neo-Assyrian 1000-600 BCE
Alongside Babylonian and Assyrian, from 1500 BCE Standard Babylonian was used for literary texts; it was an artificial language, based upon Old Babylonian.
Sources
Mesopotamian sources (Sumerian and Akkadian) used in the “Terminology of Peace” represent several textual types:
· Political literature: Royal inscriptions, inter-state treaties
· State epistolary archives
· Epic and mythological literature
· Wisdom texts
· Prayers
· Oracular texts: omens, prophecies
· Exorcisms
· Medical texts
We must note that these text types are not all attested from the same periods or in comparable quantities; furthermore, they are widely distributed temporally and spatially.
Many studies have focused on war, and to a lesser extent, peace, in Mesopotamia and the ancient Near East more generally (see the bibliography), but “peace”has never truly been the object of a full study, analysing the different components of the concept of “peace” among the Mesopotamians.
The starting point for our research will be the establishment of an Akkadian lexicon containing the several terms which designate peace, such as š/salīmu, š/salāmu, šulmu “peace, harmony”, “alliance”, “health, well-being”, “make peace, re-establish harmony”; šalim kiššati “universal peace”; bēl salīmi “ally”, and terms related to aḫḫūtu “brotherhood”, rā’imūtu “friendship”, kinūtu “loyalty”, riksu “treaty”, adû “pledge, oath (of loyalty)”, etc.; nēḫu/nēḫtu, “quiet, peaceful, certain”, “calm, tranquility security”, nâḫu “to be(come) peaceful, pacified”, pašāḫu “to be tranquil, in peace”; pargāniš “in security, in peace”, pargāniš rabāṣu “live in peace”; ṭūbu “prosperity, happiness”, ṭūb libbi “interior peace, paix intérieure, of the heart”.
We can see that the Akkadian lexicon seems to stress political peace, giving us the words “peace, harmony”, “alliance”, “ally”, “universal peace”, and relate terms “brotherhood”, “friendship”, “loyalty”, “treaty”, “pledge, oath (of loyalty)”.
The final goal of the research will be the analysis and the study of ther terminology and concept of “peace” (and of its related metaphors) in its different contexts and components: political, social, and “spiritual” peace.
Bibliography
AHw. W. von Soden, Akkadisches Handwörterbuch, I-III, Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz Verlag, 1965-1981.
CAD. The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of Chicago, Chicago, The Oriental Institute Publications, 1956-2010.
CDA. J. Black, A. George, N. Postgate (eds.), A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian (SANTAG 5), Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz Verlag, 2000.
Charpin D., 2008. Lire et écrire à Babylone, Paris, Presses Universitaires de France.
Cooper J., 1996. “Sumerian and Akkadian” in P.T. Daniels-W. Bright (eds), The World’s Writing Systems, New York-Oxford, Oxford University Press: 37-56.
Fales M.F., 2008. “On Pax Assyriaca in the Eighth–Seventh Centuries BCE and Its Implications,” in R. Cohen, R. Westbrook (eds.), Isaiah’s Vision of Peace in Biblical and Modern International Relations, New York, Palgrave Macmillan: 17-35.
---- 2010. Guerre et paix en Assyrie: Religion et impérialisme. Les Conférences de l’École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris, Cerf.
Geller M., 1997. “The Last Wedge” in Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archäologie, vol. 87 issue 1, Berlin-New York, De Gruyter: 43-95.
Huehnergard J., 1997. A Grammar of Akkadian (Harvard Semitic Museum Studies 45), Atlanta, Scholar Press.
Liverani M., 1994. Guerra e diplomazia nell'Antico Oriente, 1600-1100 a.C., Roma-Bari, Laterza.
To cite this article
Simonetta Graziani, "Akkadian", Les mots de la paix/Terminology of peace [on-line]. Translated by Korshi Dosoo. Uploaded 4 April 2016, accessed
