Introduction to Akkadian

This is a short introduction to the Akkadian language, covering all the basics from sign types to transliteration and translation!
Recommended Reading:
- J. Huehnergard, A Grammar of Akkadian
- R. Caplice: An Introduction to Akkadian
- M. Worthington: Complete Babylonian
- J. Black, A. George and N. Postgate: A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian

[@Kalpitahoover]

This is a life saver, I waited for so long to find a channel like yours. Please continue ! You should be rewarded for this.

[@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792]

Thank you Kalpita! I appreciate the feedback and am so glad you’re enjoying the lessons so far!

[@nebuchadnezzar445]

Hi from Iraq I appreciate the great effort you are making. I was impressed by the existence of a channel to learn the Akkadian language because I wanted to learn it for a long time. I hope that you will visit Babylon one day. We will welcome you and anyone interested in our history.

[@ProudMesopotamianGirl]

Same! I'm so interested in this 💙🌞💚

[@nebuchadnezzar445]

​@@ProudMesopotamianGirl we should be It is the cradle of human civilization ✨️

[@tvesarathavrtraghna3688]

​@@nebuchadnezzar445man she died😭😭😭😭

[@debmalyasinha2887]

​How did you know?

[@smiedranokatirova5987]

Love from an Iraqi Mesopotamian Akkadian 🇮🇶♥️✨✨

[@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792]

Thanks for the support Smerdano!

[@evh1734]

Thanks! I'm traveling to Babylon next week to meet with Sargon the Great. This refresher is a live-saver!

[@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792]

Aha well it’s a good job you got your refresher then! Babylonian is dead useful.

[@Ramoreira86]

By Enlil! This is why there are still hope for youtube

[@ColinGorrie]

Thank you so much for starting this channel! What a gift this is!

[@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792]

Thanks Colin, I’m glad you’re enjoying it so far!

[@NIDELLANEUM]

An Akkadian videolesson structured like a living language videolesson? I like it

[@larsnienstadt9538]

This video really rounds out my knowledge after studying modern Middle Eastern languages. Ali Mahmoud has an Akkadian course in Arabic as well.

[@nerdyflint3833]

This is amazing! So glad someone is doing this. Thank you for making knowledge of the ancient world lore available to the public.

[@Dick_Interritus]

I really appreciate your work on this video series.

[@oraetlabora1922]

Your account is a gold mine. I thank you so much for having commenced this channel. I do not know the Akkadian language, so I shall say something in Arabic, which is a distant relative of the tongue which you are exposing here. أَشْكُرُ لَكِ حِصَصَكِ. (’Aškuru laki ḥiṣaṣaki.) (I thank thee for thy lessons.)

[@BurnBird1]

Arabic is not the ancestor of Akkadian, nor is Akkadian the ancestor of Arabic. They are both Semitic language and thus share a common ancestor, but it's a rather distant one. Akkadian is East Semitic, whereas Arabic (along with Aramaic and Hebrew) is West Semitic. Akkadian had split off from Arabic, before Arabic and Hebrew had become their own languages.

[@YehudaLion]

Very good introduction! Much respect to you for producing this video

[@TradingNirvana]

Hope you continue to create content for this channel... Awesome work!

[@blacksheep6365]

Thank you! I noticed your last video was 8 months ago. I dearly hope you will continue making videos. They are SOOOOOO helpful! Wishing you peace and good health, - a very new student of "dead" languages

[@nightrider8203]

OMG I'm so bad with reading books, your videos saved me from despair. PLEASE!!! keep up this content. I'm sure people will see its value.

[@Ant42Lee]

Thank you for this and for your channel!

[@mohammad_saki]

This is an excellent channel. Well done. So much information in a short video so I watched it twice. Please keep making them.

[@mareksagrak9527]

That's an untypical and awesome initiative! I hope this channel will revive one day

[@Emcee_Squared]

The god Nebu is pleased at your literacy in this ancient semitic language. May Marduk bless you.

[@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792]

Dánniš áḫtadi! Šamash u Marduk liballiṭūka. (Thank you very much! May Shamash and Marduk preserve you.)

[@SartoriallyBlack]

OMG, thank you so much for this video! I have been studying Babylonian astrology/mythology for the past few weeks, and have seen some of these signs and am somewhat familiar with their meanings. I have found a few early 1900s Akkadian/Sumerian language books, and got a little overwhelmed because I didn't feel they explained everything thoroughly, BUT this video is amazing! This is going to be SO easy for me, and will use these as a reference to those books. I'm excited to learn this because I love languages with characters, as I have background in self teaching myself Japanese and some Hebrew! Thank you, thank you, thank you! 🖤

[@Ezkaton]

The interesting presentation I find very useful. Thanks.

[@samuellee42]

This is incredibly helpful. I’ll be doing Akkadian this fall with Dr. Nicholas Reid at RTS Orlando and we are using Heuhnergard. I’ve found him to be very easy to understand so far. Thankfully, I’ve had some Hebrew and Aramaic so that’s at least some exposure to Semitic languages even though I know they are significantly different.

[@mvjonsson]

Excellent intro. I wish I had this when I studied Akkadian back in 2003. We started with the Hammurabi texts, and grammatical analysis, we had Arthur Ungnad's abbreviated Akkadian grammar for self study. Having studied Middle Egyptian, I kind of expected the pedagogical process to be similar. In Egyptology you start with the hieroglyphs, nouns, adjectives, sentence structure and so on.

[@andreasshun7259]

This is awesome!! Thank you so much, it was so interesting!

[@levanisonghulashvili5913]

Amazing introduction.This lesson if very informative and helpful indeed.Thanks for that.Go on the good work

[@bashar1001]

This is so useful. Thank you so much!

[@asuka4ever1979]

It is similar to Chinese. The character for fire is “火”. It is logogram. When it is place in the left side of a separate character, it implies that this character has something to do with fire. we call it "radical". E.g. "爐”, means stove; the right side is syllabic part, pronounced "Lou". When "火" is place on the right side of a character, it becomes a syllable and is probounced "Fo". E.g. "伙” means partner and is pronounced "Fo". The left part is a radical implying the word is related to persons.

[@thiagozequim]

thanks for sharing the knowledge

[@erebus9622]

Thank you for this channel

[@pauleugenio5914]

Thank you for sharing the modern resources. It's quite hard to find that stuff for someone not in the field.

[@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792]

Sure thing, let me know if you’re struggling to get access to certain texts and resources, I’m sure I’ll be able to point you in the right direction.

[@mordanicusppm3352]

Great video. Thank you for sharing!

[@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792]

Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed it!

[@leuris_khan2]

I was praying to Inanna so she send your channel for me. ♡. Thanks.

[@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792]

Beautiful thank you Nicolas❤️

[@majidjon13]

Can't believe such thing is on youtube now .amazing

[@timmeyer4595]

Oh yeah. This is amazing! 😍

[@haushofer100]

I love these kinds of projects (I studied biblical hebrew and aramaic as a hobbyist). Keep up this good work!! :)

[@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792]

Thank you! I’m really enjoying working on it so far and hopefully you’ll take something from it too! You might spot quite a few cognates with a background in Ancient Hebrew and Aramaic.

[@haushofer100]

@@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792 Yes, quite a few words and sounds look familiar from other semitic languages!

[@user-jx1qt7yh9y]

אני אסיר תודה לך. איזה מגניב להיפגש אנשים כמוך שלומדים את שפת הכשדים. עבודה נהדרת!

[@user-rr8jh3ln6g]

Chaldean? There is no Chaldean language. There is a neo-Aramaic language spoken by a certain Semitic group of peoples in the east.

[@Neevar132]

This is so cool! Thank you

[@joshuadrake9780]

Extremely helpful. I see lectures on nouns, pronouns, and adjectives. Can we hope for another lecture on verbs?

[@watarimono17]

I thank you for your hard work. I am also studying ancient languages (it's a hobby). For now I am concentrating on Sumerian. I'll be glad to help you if you have any questions about it. Though only with the pre-intermediate ones for now.

[@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792]

That’s fantastic to hear! Keep up the good work! Perhaps you’ve already read this but a great introductory Sumerian grammars is Foxvog: cdli.ucla.edu/pubs/cdlp/cdlp0002_20160104.pdf I’d love to hear about any learning resources you’re using!

[@watarimono17]

@@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792 Seems like my previous comment was deleted for some reason. I guess I can't give you any links. So, to give a short version: For books I use Jagersma' "A Descriptive Grammar of Sumerian". As for dictionaries, you can find those right away, on the first google search page. The "ePSD" one and "The Sumerian Lexicon Search" are both good. And to get myself accustomed to the Sumerian verbs and their elements I use a Sumerian conjugator. A couple of those can be easily found on the net as well. Sorry that I can't provide you with the exact info, KZbin apparently is against it.

[@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792]

Thanks for the recommendations, I will have to try Jagersma eventually! ePSD is fantastic! If you get back into Akkadian again you can use CAD for another online dictionary too. How are the sign lists treating you? Memrise is great if you find flash cards help!

[@watarimono17]

​@@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792 Akkadian was really unusual to me, my first semitic language. I loved studying it. As for CAD, I think I'm familiar with it. Was it a dictionary in the pdf format? I find using pdf dictionaries a little bit difficult, so instead I use the online services, like the one from "assyrianlanguages". Concerning the signs, they are too difficult for me, so I just study the grammar for now :) And about flash cards, Anki is also great. It has the deck from the Huehnergard's book. Also, there is an online verb conjugator too (the one with "netlify" in it) and it's quite good as far as I know.

[@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792]

It’s a bold choice for your first Semitic language, but it’s such a rich source of information that it’s definitely worth it. CAD is the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary, it’s a huge dictionary with so many references that it’s been split up into a number of separate PDF’s all available for free online. The signs are so much fun once you’ve figured out how to memorise them, I’m going to do a video on mnemonics and how I learned the signs. Almost everyone seems to struggle with it! Ah I keep hearing about Anki, I will have to check that one out too!

[@KevinArdala01]

This is great. You should contact the guys over at Digital Hammurabi, do a discussion and grow your channel...this is really clear and well presented, thanks.

[@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792]

Thanks Kevin! I’m glad you find it clearly presented, that’s the aim. I love the Digital Hammurabi channel too, they do a fantastic job!

[@user-be2bv8zy6u]

Im from S.Korea! Im interesting to many many languages.. I was finding about Akkadian, and I FINALLY found u! oh god, thank u!!! Thank u so much!! (I think my grammer is wrong)

[@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792]

That's awesome to hear, very glad I could help!

[@user-be2bv8zy6u]

@@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792 that's what i want to say to you :)

[@itaithyking]

Wow love it

[@ezragonzalez8936]

Lovely presentation anyone here because of Irving Finkel and the Fall of civilization podcast? cheers from Salt Lake City!

[@alonsomiguellozanoaumne5668]

Thank you

[@jjjjjjjj844]

Great Video , thanks

[@fermionjj4654]

I am in love - linguistic archaeology babe has knowledge and the style of my dreams.

[@ibotah]

Thank you so much for this! You are amazing! I have always had an interest in ancient languages and so I'm excited to get to see if I actually want to learn them or I'm like "Nope!" Thanks again so much! :D

[@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792]

Hi Jon, That’s great to hear! What got you interested in ancient languages? I hope that these lessons convince you to keep going with Akkadian!

[@ibotah]

@@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792 Well, I've always been fascinated with ancient cultures from a young age. Not super well-versed but I love Egyptian, Sumerian, basically anything Near Middle East. I am a Christian so there's interest there. Also, I am currently learning Russian and have always loved languages. I think the only inhibitor to me learning Akkadian will be time. Thanks again! :)

[@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792]

Very much after my own heart! I plan to cover some Middle Egyptian and Sumerian in the future so perhaps that will reignite your interest in those languages too! Keeping on track over the long term is everything with language learning I agree! A few minutes a day makes the world of difference.

[@magnusarvid4161]

The fact that you've made this channel is epic!! Where did you/are you studying? Cheers from a fellow assyriologist!

[@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792]

Thank you Magnus! I’ve been meaning to start it for a while. I studied Akkadian at UCL and SOAS. Always lovely to meet new Assyriologists rocking about!

[@magnusarvid4161]

@@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792 Awesome! I'm at Copenhagen, though I'm sort of doing a mixed assyriology - arabic and islamic history and language thing, plus I'll do an MA in Theology so I guess I'm a bit of a traitor hahaha

[@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792]

That sounds like a good mix, keep up the good work! Semitic languages are a great complement to a theology MA so hopefully this helps!

[@magnusarvid4161]

@@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792 I can tell you if you ever wanna get into Arabic, Akkadian's already got you a loooong way there! :-D And using an alphabet after learning Akkadian really hammers home why everyone in the region abandoned sign systems hahahaha

[@PracticalBibleStudies]

@@magnusarvid4161 I'm currently working on my M.Div and I am planning to get a MA in Biblical Languages shortly after. My focus is Greek, but I'm working on improving my Hebrew. I go through some Greek exegesis on my channel. Her channel needs more subs. Not many people teach Akkadian. I'm trying to share it as much as possible.

[@deborahmelo7993]

That was great, thank you

[@ayushgaurincredible]

Thank you ! Love from India.

[@tvesarathavrtraghna3688]

Indian into akkadian?😮

[@aleskandrani7831]

Strange how similar a lot of this is to modern Arabic, hopefully comes in handy

[@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792]

You’ll definitely spot some lexical similarities, especially in the core vocabulary. It’s all useful to know!

[@alexcholagh8330]

Akkadian closest living spoken is Chaldean Assyrian mandean syriac and to some extent Arabic.

[@90AKking]

I am an Assyrian and When you red the sounds, what I heard is ( I am god Ashur father of all gods) but you are the pro and I shall be learning more form you and thank you for all this hard work.

[@AlexToussiehChannel]

Nice!

[@yusufal-shibiby2766]

Thank you very much for making this video! This helps a lot, but I was wondering if I wanted to learn how to write my name for example, how I could go about doing so, if theres a resource for that?

[@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792]

Hi Yusuf, Theres quite a few resources you could call upon. I would recommend checking out the ‘List of Neo-Assyrian Cuneiform Signs. A Practical and Critical Guide to the Unicode Block’. There’s a pdf of this article online which you will be able to use to write your name in the Neo-Assyrian script.

[@Samandhermates]

What made you specialise in Akkadian? Very impressive, do you have a foundation in a Semetic language that made this easier for you? Keep up with the videos! Best of luck

[@clarke4552]

Keep it up!

[@Commander_rank60]

Thank you for allowing me to dig deep into my ancient past by helping me remember a lost language deep into my subconscious. Are you on IG, have any web classes ?

[@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792]

That’s awesome to hear- connecting with the past through texts and language is invaluable! I have an IG and the web classes are still in progress - working on finishing this series first and hopefully digging into some texts!

[@ourpetsheadsarefallingoff6654]

Awesome video what’s funny is I’m Assyrian from Iraq and the language we speak today is a mix of Aramaic and Akkadian and today we say ana for “I am” and in Arabic abu means “father of” so when you explained the second word was assur to me I was reading it “I am assur father of the” lol

[@yousifwaleed6566]

Nice, from Iraq 👍🇮🇶

[@asunserra880]

Wonderfull exposition, but is it possible to obtain a better image from board? Best regards from Spain

[@GuzelKyrim-Ukraine]

What about Punic language? Could be very interesting to learn some basics of Punic and Phoenician!

[@Mohammed.kareem.official]

Gretting from Iraq ❤

[@spinyourmind5586]

Interesting, although the lighting pulses dark and light distracting from the lecture.

[@ElCidLee]

As a Taiwanese knows Sinitic languages and a little bit Japanese, I could understand cuneiform, it's kind of Han characters, had both sound or ideology.

[@malek3719]

I'm continuously Praying For Your Victory Against The Tyrant Devilite Government

[@guthrie1181]

@@malek3719 AKA west Taiwan

[@NIDELLANEUM]

@@malek3719 can we please avoid talking about politics even in a video about Akkadian?

[@mareksagrak9527]

​@@NIDELLANEUM No! Ancient Assyrians have never paid their reparations to the tribes they have conquered so brutally, It cannot be left in silence

[@imeterowicz4194]

Hello :D This is a good video, but i want to know what is the difference between the Neo-Assyrian cuneiform (that you used on this video) and the Akkadian cuneiform (that is more complex). For exemple, this is the sign for "na" in Akkadian: 𒈾, but you used a simplest form, that i believ it is Neo-Assyrian cuneiform. An article of the wikipedia about de sign 𒈾 shows in an image the sign you used on this video, saying it is the Neo-Assyrian cuneiform. I really want to know what is the difference between them, and why did you used that simplest form of 𒈾. Can you explain me this?

[@jasonlongsworth4036]

Do you know where to find some intro resources for Hittite or Luwian?

[@luizfelipedebarrosjordaoco207]

Could you please make videos for Sumerian?

[@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792]

Hi Luiz, Absolutely, I’m working on it! Akkadian is also a good training ground for Sumerian.

[@cameronburris6514]

Do university courses typically teach Akkadian from c. 2000 ? Does that allow you to read later texts like the Behistun inscription or hoe much did the language change by then?

[@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792]

Hi Cameron, In my experience university courses will cover Akkadian over the course of its development and highlight distinctions between language phases when translating texts. So you should get an overall view of Akkadian from the Old Babylonian through to the Neo- Babylonian / Assyrian. The Behistun inscription was written in the Late Babylonian phase but the knowledge you acquire during your course would be more than enough for you to be able to translate a text like that. There are developmental changes between each phase of the language in terms of signs and grammatical forms but nothing too drastic so the skills you learn will transfer easily between each period of the language.

[@3lktro]

These lessons are great. I almost went to study assyriology back in my youth. One thing. Shouldn't the phonogram for "a" be 𒀀 not 𒑗. Or am I mistaken?

[@EnmerkarUnugKi]

yes.

[@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792]

Hi there, Yes you're right it should be! Will most likely remake this with digitized cuneiform characters to avoid mistakes like that from cropping up! Akkadian is a great subject to get into for higher education as there aren't too many subject matter experts!

[@ketsune23]

Hi! I am new here and I am little bit lost. I really want to learn Akkadian and Ancient Mesopotamia history and culture. I will watch all your videos but if you have any book suggestions please let me know. Cheers

[@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792]

Hi - Nice to meet you virtually! Sure thing, I’d suggest Heuhnergard’s A Grammar of Akkadian as your main resource if you buy no other book. It’s pretty much the cult classic for Akkadian students! Complete Babylonian by Worthington is also a really good one for beginners and a little easier to get through. For your signs there are online resources like Memrise which are very useful. You can download the app and learn the signs while you travel etc which is super convenient. Hope that helps!

[@ketsune23]

@@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792 I have a question : How different Akkadian is from Sumerian language since the last is not a Semitic language but was used as a "classical" language until 100 CE. Which one is older? I saw tablets from both languages they look pretty different

[@somebody1241]

Good channel. I am noob at this subject. What are your advices?

[@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792]

Hi there, thanks for your feedback! Which bits do you struggle with? It’s always a good idea to break grammar down into bite size pieces and tackle one bit at a time! For the signs and vocab I would have fun with them, you can take a look at a tablet you’re interested in on CDLI and practise copying down the signs and follow along with the translations. It could be Gilgamesh or an old divination tablet, whatever inspires you and attracted you to Akkadian to begin with!

[@somebody1241]

@@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792 because as i know it is diplomacy language of ancient times. For example Treaty of Kadesh is written in Akkadian. Also it is more modern than Sumerian and i don't want to learn Hittite language. Akkadian looks more interesting for me. But maybe i just learn Ancient Greek or Koine Greek or Latin. Because i am just 17 and i don't have lots of time until university. I want to learn at least one dead language in my life and maybe Akkadian is good choice.

[@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792]

It’s great to see you’re open to all sorts of ancient languages! I would say that Latin is the simplest to learn if you don’t have a lot of time, and there are a lot of great resources online. Latin is also a good language to start with as you’ll gain a lot of transferable knowledge, no matter what you go on to study. I’m biased (of course) and I think Akkadian is far more interesting! It’s one of the oldest languages we have translated and there’s still a lot to discover! If you don’t have a lot of time, I’d recommend using Memrise to learn the signs and for grammar ‘Complete Babylonian’ by Worthington.

[@somebody1241]

@@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792 Thanks. Good lucks in life.

[@smartgenes1]

Wow, your intelligence is such a complement to your beauty. I need to get over my astonishment to learn this!

[@stevenmarcato1325]

She is beautiful, isn't she?

[@user-ug1ce7yu4r]

thanks for this explanation. can you please tell me where can I find more info about Akkadian language. and its relation to the Aramaic language? Thanks

[@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792]

Hi Salwan! Akkadian and Aramaic appear on different branches of the Semitic language family but you can find some similarities in terms of loan words, morphology and syntax. Here’s a great paper on the subject from the OI: oi.uchicago.edu/sites/oi.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/shared/docs/as19.pdf

[@user-ug1ce7yu4r]

@@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792 thanks for the respond. now please can you confirm for me, Assyrian language is the Akkadian language is that true? The Akkadian is different to Aramaic. I am Syriac and we still have the Aramaic language but we call it Syriac.

[@user-ug1ce7yu4r]

@@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792 I am so happy to see your channel and I will try to learn Akkadian language. I am from Iraq and I am Syriac orthodox Christian and we still use the Syriac language(Aramaic) in our church, I am so interested to study Akkadian language to know what is the similarities and differences between the both. please don't stop. I am so happy to see you doing this. Please if you have another social media account let us know about it so we can follow.

[@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792]

Yes absolutely, Akkadian has two dialects, in the South it’s Babylonian and in the North it’s Assyrian.

[@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792]

Thank you for the support! I’m happy to see that you’re making progress with the classes and there will be much to follow! The social media is a working progress but will be put on the channel soon for updates.

[@ViktorEngelmann]

I've read that there are hundreds of thousands of cuneiform tablets. I'm assuming that not all of them have been translated yet. Is there maybe some crowd-sourcing effort for their translation? Where you could help transliterating, normalizing and translating some of them?

[@cliffordmarcus6683]

at 4.31 you say that sign is il or el, Huenegard has it as "an"

[@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792]

Hi Clifford, You’re absolutely right, ‘an’ is another possible phonogram for this sign. An, Il or El are all possible options and DINGIR is the Logogram!

[@barrygaynor1025]

Have they found a more complete text of Enuma Elish? I notice the one in ANET is missing considerable sections of the myth.

[@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792]

Hi Barry, There are different copies of Enuma Elish from Babylonia and Assyria but the one recovered from the library of Ashurbanipal has seven tablets of up to 170 lines each. I would really recommend ‘Babylonian Creation Myths’ (Lambert 2013) for a full transliteration and translation of all seven tablets. You can also find Lamberts translation of the text online here: www.worldhistory.org/article/225/enuma-elish---the-babylonian-epic-of-creation---fu/

[@barrygaynor1025]

@@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792 Thank you. I've read the myth, but was frustrated with the many gaps in the text. I appreciate your informing me about the sources you mentioned.

[@saudayyash1462]

Did Akkadian use devotion articles before names. If yes what is it and what is it pronounced like? Have read somewhere that Akkadian has no such articles but not sure.

[@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792]

Do you mean definite and indefinite articles? Like ‘the’, ‘a’, ‘an’ etc? We don’t use articles in Akkadian, the translation is implied from the context! Or do you mean honorific titles such as Mr and Mrs?

[@saudayyash1462]

@@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792 Thanks for serious work. I mean the definite and indefinite articles. Find it strange that a well developed language like Akkadian uses no definite articles. Can’t imagine Arabic, for example, without a definite article. Besides, one finds a number of definite articles used in Semitic languages, so why not Akkadian?

[@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792]

That’s a really good question. Articles seem indispensable to us as they are used so commonly in Western European languages and they are also used in some Semitic languages like Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic. On a global scale however, the use of definite and indefinite articles is quite rare, for example Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian, Baltic languages and most of the Slavic languages don’t use them, so Akkadian isn’t an isolated case in this instance. Other Ancient languages like Egyptian did make use articles but only in its later stages of development.

[@SaS-wn3dm]

Where did you learn the language ?

[@ballsinspector]

Am I correct in thinking that Nanni's complaint tablet to Ea-nasir was Akkadian?

[@theressomuchtowaitforseein3465]

HI! Can you please add English cc.? It is highly neccesered to me, though I have automatic Eng. cc. I'm afraid it won't come well (if that's make sense in English...) BUT ONLY IF YOU CAN!

[@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792]

Hi there! The cc has been updated to English (United Kingdom). I can see there’s a few errors in the transcription so I’ll look into correcting them. Let me know if you need anything clarified!

[@theressomuchtowaitforseein3465]

@@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792 Thank you so much!!!

[@kingandcorpse9684]

Have you got transliteration and transcription confused - cuz if u havnt, then I am confused. Cuz I've been taught in Sumerian transcription is first (trans-script = across-script or change the script) and the. Transliteration is to sort out the literacy? I mean that makes sense to me too... Have I got it wrong?

[@kingandcorpse9684]

Omg I swear I'm jumped universe and this is a Mandela effect.. I've got them the wrong way around for so long.. Thing is I used to think it was this way round tho and researched it thoroughly to come up with transcription was the first process - that's why I've been just so certain for so long..

[@duduboy]

כיף לראות מישהי כמוך שפועלת לשימור השפה האכדית שהיא אחת ממשפחת השפות השמיות ודומה גם לעברית

[@user-rr8jh3ln6g]

In what year did the Akkadian Assyrians switch to Neo-Aramaic?

[@MrTre3tre3tre3]

How you know what sound match with any single logo... I mind... how i know if a ancient lenguage as accadian is well pronounced... even with hebrew or ancient greek is hard to know accurately and they are younger lenguages than summerian or akkadian...

[@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792]

In terms of the initial stages of decipherment, Rawlinson worked on a trilingual inscription at Behistun - The Rosetta Stone of Assyriology. The inscription was written in Old Persian, Akkadian and Elamite. Once Rawlinson had translated the personal names in the Old Persian text, he was able to identify the same names in the Akkadian inscription and assign the respective sound values to the signs present. We now have syllabaries and reference texts written by scribes, whereby words were grouped and categorised for the convenience of students. Some of these lists included signs written out alongside their phonetic values. This was a huge step forward in terms of deciphering the language and determining sound values against their signs.

[@abhinavchauhan7864]

Where can i find a long text in akkadian with world by word translation?

[@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792]

Hi Abhinav, There are a few resources you can turn to, the best are CDLI (Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative) which is fantastic, especially if you are looking for a specific artifact or text. If you are just browsing or looking to go through texts to boost your vocab and sign reading skills, I would recommend ORACC: oracc.museum.upenn.edu/index.html From the main page, click through to projects and you will be able to browse though tablets with their translations. Everything has been categorized so that you can read about what interests you most about Mesopotamian history.

[@abhinavchauhan7864]

@@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792 thank you soooooo much thats exactly what i was looking for 🤗🤗

[@abhinavchauhan7864]

@@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792 do you have Similer text with word by word translation for other Languages ?

[@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792]

I may well do for other ancient languages, which language do you have in mind?

[@abhinavchauhan7864]

@@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792 Sanskrit, latin, avestan, old Persian, ancient greek, old tamil, Hittite, Hebrew, old Norse, old English, i like them all

[@F2p7YshCn9]

You said that 𒀭 phonetically is "il" or "el" but I've only seen it as "an"

[@apinla2237]

it's il3/el3, but yeah, those readings are rare

[@siralc1432]

Just curious - are you an Aussie? Are you a lecturer?

[@ahmadbabtain1763]

Do you know of any Arabic sources on the subject? The similarity of the language is uncanny so I feel an Arabic source would be much clearer than an English source to Arabs. I made the mistake of thinking 'ana' Matches the Arabic 'ana' (I am) instead of 'for' but besides that I immediately understood the phrase 'For Ashur, father of gods' right after transliteration. It didn't take any information besides what's in the video and knowing standard Arabic.

[@ahmadbabtain1763]

To explain: In Arabic we swapped all determinants with the generic definer 'al' but the location is the same as dingir here. For 'Mes', we also indicate plurals with an extra fragment at the end of words, but we change it based on the gender of the object or if it's a two. (IOW: we have singular, dual, and plural forms).

[@karenkk7881]

haha that's a pretty cool channel name :)

[@allenwilson3329]

Read the channel name and subscribed instantly!

[@pradipkumarnath9153]

Study board writing should be focused with light.

[@nathanafoa6579]

Do you like your Job?

[@mohammedalwakeel1983]

Anok muru hamurabi šar babli u akkadi u mat sumeri šaru kiryati arbam I am the son of Hammurabi the king of babylon ,Akkad and Sumer the king of four directions

[@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792]

Great work Mohamed, ana kaša lū šulmu!

[@saudayyash1462]

Sorry, definition article not devotion.

[@darealg6823]

What happened to your channel ?

[@debmalyasinha2887]

She died

[@yasharthekop6279]

Hello! At 8 minutes and 35 seconds of this video you wrote down some symbols and you said that was "the personal name of God"but you never pronounced the name. If you don't mind elaborating and writing and transliterations what that name was?

[@ancientlanguagesaredeaduse2792]

Hi there! This sign is the Dingir determinative, consisting of two horizontal and one vertical wedge. When it's used as a determinative it means that whatever follows is the name of a god. This could be any god, Ishtar, Assur , Adad etc. It acts as a marker to show that what follows will be the personal name of a deity. In transliteration we write this as a 'd' in superscript. Hope that helps, if you have any more questions let me know!

[@jacobtracy7847]

How do you know this stuff??? Interesting for certain but there have to be probably less than a thousand people worldwide who know it. I'm hoping my knowledge of Hebrew helps, but learning the writing system....

[@gman8557]

Well done…. Maybe next time you can use a clay tablet. :-) Where did you learn to speak ancient languages?

[@leocomerford]

5:46 Sounds like Japanese _on_ and _kun_ readings all over again, or in fact _avant les lettres_ ...