Grammatical studies in the Akkadian dialects of Babylon and Uruk, 556-500 B.C
Neo-Babylonian (NB) was the last surviving dialect of the Semitic language known as Akkadian and it was still being used for the compilation of records at the beginning of our era. Many thousands of NB economic and legal documents and letters exist, particularly from the sixth century B.C., yet the language is still to be studied, as the various ways in which a word could be spelled suggested it was no longer coherent as a language and therefore that it was not worth studying. Aramaic was presumed to have taken over. I have attempted to find out if this is the case by making a synchronic grammatical study of the NB dialects of Babylon and Uruk from 556 to 500 B.C. These cities have been chosen because they have produced considerable amounts of material. The period also spans the Persian conquest of 539 B.C. Part one deals with syntax and morphology. Consistency of syntactical patterns indicates that NB was a living and evolving language and that the influence of Aramaic and Old Persian was minimal. Part two deals with orthography and suggestions on pronunciation and stress. The main difficulty in establishing how much NB has changed from earlier phases of Akkadian (including earlier NB) lies in understanding
Hueter, Gwyneth
Neo-Babylonian; Semitic language
Grammatical studies in the Akkadian dialects of Babylon and Uruk, 556-500 B.C. Neo-Babylonian (NB) was the last surviving dialect of the Semitic language known as Akkadian and it was still being used for the compilation of records at the beginning of our era. Many thousands of NB economic and legal documents and letters exist, particularly from the sixth century B.C., yet the language is still to be studied, as the various ways in which a word could be spelled suggested it was no longer coherent as a language and therefore that it was not worth studying. Aramaic was presumed to have taken over. I have attempted to find out if this is the case by making a synchronic grammatical study of the NB dialects of Babylon and Uruk from 556 to 500 B.C. These cities have been chosen because they have produced considerable amounts of material. The period also spans the Persian conquest of 539 B.C. Part one deals with syntax and morphology. Consistency of syntactical patterns indicates that NB was a living and evolving language and that the influence of Aramaic and Old Persian was minimal. Part two deals with orthography and suggestions on pronunciation and stress. The main difficulty in establishing how much NB has changed from earlier phases of Akkadian (including earlier NB) lies in understanding
grammatical study akkadian dialect uruk neo last survive dialect semitic language know akkadian still use compilation record begin era many thousand economic legal document letter exist yet language still study various_way word could spell suggest longer coherent language therefore worth study aramaic presume take over attempted case make synchronic grammatical study dialects uruk city choose produce considerable_amount material period also span persian conquest part_one deal syntax morphology consistency syntactical pattern indicate live evolve language influence aramaic old persian minimal part_two deal orthography suggestion pronunciation stress main difficulty establish much change earlier phase akkadian include early lie