Akkadian is a cover term for the Semitic languages of ancient Mesopotamia, constituting the eastern branch of the Semitic family.

Akkadian, the most ancient Semitic linguistic continuum attested, was written in the cuneiform script, mainly on clay tablets. It is attested from the third millennium BCE to the third century CE.

Linguistic research of Akkadian has been relatively scanty, and grammatical descriptions of any of the attested languages and dialects were intended primarily for didactic purposes. Research has concentrated on phonology, and, especially, on morphology, which is typically Semitic. Syntactic structures have remained largely unexplored.

The grammatical description offered in LW/M is based on the language of mythological narratives from the Old Babylonian period (the first half of the second millennium BCE). Considering the state of the art and the frame and goals of this series, the authors have confined themselves to a brief model of the language and to defining the basic linguistic strategies of Akkadian. As such, it may also serve as a guide to Semitic grammatical categories.

All levels of the grammar of this language are treated together for the first time: phonology, morphology, micro- and macro-syntax. Some attention is given to linguistic variation, acknowledging the (relatively small) diversity within the time-space continuum of the texts which constitute this corpus. A short description of the cuneiform script will aim at giving some idea of the problems one encounters in attempting to elicit the linguistic data of Akkadian.

This grammatical description is written with a systemic, structural conception of language in mind. It is intended first and foremost for linguists for whom the language is inaccessible for various reasons, and for Semitists whose expertise is not in Akkadian. However, Assyriologists will benefit from it as well, as this description is unique in its linguistic presentation, revealing important details hitherto unknown.

Shlomo Izre'el is professor of Semitic linguistics at Tel-Aviv University. Eran Cohen is lecturer in linguistics at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

A provisional list of corrections to Literary Old Babylonian by Shlomo Izre'el and Eran Cohen (Languages of the World/Materials, 81, München: LINCOM, 2004) can be found at http://www.tau.ac.il/humanities/semitic/lobcorrigenda.pdf.