Wiktionary:About Akkadian

This is an editable draft of Wiktionary:About Akkadian with no policy authority. It is intended to help the Wiktionary community develop new and perhaps better approaches. Please feel free to edit this page conscientiously, as you would any document on a wiki. Policies – Entries: CFI - EL - NORM - NPOV - QUOTE - REDIR - DELETE. Languages: LT - AXX. Others: BLOCK - BOTS - VOTES.

This page describes policies and practices specific to Akkadian entries on the English Wiktionary. These are in addition to Wiktionary’s overall standards which are listed at Wiktionary:Entry layout explained. It is very much a work in progress, and you are encouraged to offer criticism, suggestions and other input.

General Information

Standard

Akkadian entries will follow the linguistic standard of the Old Babylonian literary dialect, for the following reasons:

• It's customary to begin the study of Akkadian with Old Babylonian. The vast majority of Akkadian textbooks describe and teach this literary dialect.
• Uniformity of its grammar compared to later stages of the language.
• It was written in a clear and relatively simplified system of cuneiform signs compared to more cumbersome sign sets used in later stages of the language.
• OB's grammar exhibits both a consistency and a number of significant features that were lost in later dialects, making it easier to move from a familiarity with OB to the later dialects that working one's way back in time.
• The Old Babylonian literary dialect (Standard Babylonian/Jungbabylonisch) was considered the classical form of Akkadian for the rest of Mesopotamian history, and was the model for later developments of the language.

Attestation

The normal standard for modern languages is three independent attestations. However, Akkadian, as a dead language, requires only one attestation.

Dialects of Akkadian

Dialects of Akkadian

mid-3rd to end of 3rd millennium	OAkk (Old Akkadian)
Time	Ass (Assyrian)	Bab (Babylonian)
2000~1500	OA (Old Assyrian)	OB (Old Babylonian)
1500~1000	MA (Middle Assyrian)	MB (Middle Babylonian)	SB (Standard Babylonian) (a.k.a. jB Jungbabylonisch)
1000~600	NA (Neo-Assyrian)	NB (Neo-Babylonian)
600~100 CE		LB (Late Babylonian)

Transliteration

Document our transliteration practices here.

Akkadian Entries

Entries are written in the Latin alphabet, following the now standard way of normalising Akkadian words. Since the Akkadian dialect we have decided to use for main entries here on Wiktionary is Old Babylonian (the classical literary standard of Akkadian), entries attested in Old Babylonian in their mimated form will be given with mimation (final m sound), like this: bītum (“house”), ilum (“god”), qaqqadum (“head”), and so on.
If, and only if, an entry has been attested only starting from post Old Babyolonian times, like Neo-Assyrian or Neo-Babylonian times), the non-mimated normalisation can be used as main entry.

Structure

Akkadian entries should follow the following structures (work in progress):

Nouns

See ilum, iltum, šamû for a quick reference.

1. Etymology: Etymological details, if known.
2. Pronunciation: Using {{IPA|akk|/IPA PRONUNCIATION HERE/)}}
3. Noun: using the template {{akk-noun}}: For example: sinništum f (base sinništi, construct state sinništi, pronominal state sinništa, absolute state sinniš, dual sinništān, plural sinnišātum f or sinnišātum m). Only relevant elements are given. The base when it's not derivable from the nominative; the construct state only when it's different from the nominative minus the ending -um; the dual only when often used; the pronominal state and the absolute state only when different from the construct state.
   1. Alternative forms: non-mimated version of the lemma (when existing), later developments of the word, alternative forms, etc. Always try to specify details about the alternative form. Use the template {{alter}}. Example:
      • {{alter|akk|ṭuppu||non-mimated form}}

If there are no Alternative forms, we delete this header and insert directly to the Cuneiform spelling table. See 𒀀𒈾 (ana).

1. 1. Cuneiform spelling: we use the the template {{cunsp}} to create a table that gives possible cuneiform writings divided in 3 categories. Use:
      • |sum= for sumerograms (sum, sum2, sum3, etc.)
      • |phon= for phonetic spellings (phon, phon2, phon3, etc.)
      • |mix= for mixed writings (mix, mix2, mix3, etc.)

   For a usage example see (ilum).

2. Derived terms: list of derived terms using {{col4|akk|derived term1|derived term2|derived term3|etc.}}.
3. Related terms: list of related terms using {{col4|akk|related term1|related term2|related term3|etc.}}.

Akkadian links, mentions, etc.

Akkadian links or mentions in other pages should always give the cuneiform followed by its normalisation (+ translation, if relevant), like this:

• Link: 𒀭 (ilum, “god”)
• Mention: 𒀭𒈝 (ilum, “god”)
• Cognate: Akkadian 𒄿𒈝 (ilum, “god”)
• Descendant: Akkadian: ilum (ilum, “god”), 𒀭

etc.

We NEVER transliterate the individual cuneiform signs. Transiteration of individual signs can be found in the Cuneiform spelling table of each entry. Furthermore it'll be possible to look up the sign entry, where all Akkadian possible readings will be given.

Akkadian cuneiform entries

All existing Akkadian entries spelt in cuneiform (see as an example: 𒄿𒈝) will be structured as soft redirects to the normalised entry in the following way:

==Akkadian==
===Noun===
{{head|akk|noun|tr=i-lum}}

# {{alt spelling|akk|ilum|from=Phonetic cuneiform}}.

G-stem

For G-stem verbs the template {{akk-conj-G}} is used. It requires three radicals and one theme vowel pattern. The radicals are given under the parameters |R1=, |R2=, and |R3=. For the theme vowels, the possibilities are: |class=a-u, |class=a, |class=i, |class=u, and for weak verbs only, |class=a-i. When giving the root consonants, the so-called alephs (ʾ = ʾ¹, h = ʾ², ḥ = ʾ³, ʿ = ʾ⁴, ġ = ʾ⁵) are all written " ' " (apostrophe), while week consonant (w =ʾ⁶, j =ʾ⁷) are written "w" and "y".

D-stem

For the D-stem no theme vowel patterns are needed.

Basic Cuneiform Syllabary

Basic Cuneiform Syllabary

+	Consonant + Vowel				Vowel + Consonant
	A	E	I	U	A	E	I	U	+
	𒀀	𒂊	𒄿	𒌑
B	𒁀	𒁁 (be) 𒁉 (be₂)	𒁉	𒁍	𒀊	𒅁		𒌒	B
P	𒉺	𒁉							P
D	𒁕	𒁲		𒁺	𒀜	𒀉		𒌓	D
T	𒋫	𒋼	𒋾	𒌅					T
Ṭ	𒁕 𒋫	𒁲		𒌅 𒁺					Ṭ
G	𒂵	𒄀		𒄖	𒀝	𒅅		𒊌	G
K	𒅗 (ka) 𒆍 (ka₂)	𒆠		𒆪					K
Q	𒂵								Q
Ḫ	𒄩	𒄭		𒄷	𒄴			𒄴 (ḫu) 𒌔 (ḫu₂)	Ḫ
Z	𒍝	𒍣 (ze, zi) 𒍢 (ze₂, zi₂)		𒍪	𒊍	𒄑		𒊻	Z
S	𒊓	𒋛 (se, si) 𒍣 (se₂, si₂)		𒋢 (su) 𒍪 (su₂)					S
Ṣ	𒍝	𒍢 (ṣe, ṣi) 𒍣 (ṣe₂, ṣi₂)		𒍪					Ṣ
M	𒈠	𒈨	𒈪	𒈬	𒄠	𒅎		𒌝	M
N	𒈾	𒉈	𒉌	𒉡	𒀭	𒂗	𒅔	𒌦	N
L	𒆷	𒇷		𒇻	𒀠	𒂖	𒅋	𒌌	L
R	𒊏	𒊑		𒊒	𒅈	𒅕		𒌨 (ur) 𒌫 (ur₂)	R
W	𒉿
Y	𒅀

Sources and references

• “About Akkadian”, in The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (CAD)‎^[1], Chicago: University of Chicago Oriental Institute, 1956–2011
• Black, Jeremy, George, Andrew, Postgate, Nicholas (2000) A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian, 2nd corrected edition, Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag
• Miller, Douglas B., Shipp, R. Mark (2014) An Akkadian Handbook: Helps, Paradigms, Glossary, Logograms, and Sign List, Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, →ISBN
• Huehnergard, John (2011) A Grammar of Akkadian (Harvard Semitic Studies; 45), 3rd edition, Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns

Templates

• Akkadian reference templates

Translingual Cuneiform Entries

See 𒀭 for a quick reference.

Translingual Cuneiform entries contain information about individual cuneiform signs. The entry is not an Akkadian, Sumerian or Hittite lemma, but the cuneiform sign per se.

Cuneiform entries have the following structure:

1. {{character info}}: this template comes before anything else in the page. The template shows the character with its name and position in the Cuneiform Unicode Block.
2. Translingual: This is the language non-specific section of the cuneiform entry and contains the following subsections:
   1. Cuneiform sign: uses the {{Cuneiform sign}} to give technical information about the sign. (I don't think the "phonetic value" part belongs in there, especially not the way it's structured now. I'd like to create a different template, but for now, since I'm useless with templates, we'll use the current one. Sartma (talk) 14:32, 24 April 2021 (UTC))
   2. Derived signs: A list of signs clearly derived from the entry sign.
   3. Other relevant info, possibly with a clear subsection title.
   4. References
3. Akkadian
   1. Sign values
      1. Phonetic values: A list of the canonical phonetical readings of the entry sign as found in academic transliteration of Akkadian tablets.
      2. Sumerograms: In this section we give the customary transliteration of Sumerograms as generally used by academics and scholars when transliterating Akkadian tablets. For example, the reconstructed Sumerian pronunciation of 𒀭 would be dig̃ir, but in the transliteration of Akkadian texts we will find "DINGIR". Since pretty much the totality of academic works use this sort of fixed notation when transliterating Sumerograms, it's important to indicate it.
   2. Etymology: if the cuneiform sign was used to represent more than one Akkadian word, there will be an Etymology entry for each separate meaning (Etymology 1, Etymology 2, and so on).
      1. Sumerogram: the Sumerogram relevant to the meaning of this POS.
      2. Part of Speach (POS) In a format similar to this: {{head|akk|noun|g=m|head=𒀭 ilum}}. The parameter |head= gives the cuneiform sign followed by a link to the correspondent Akkadian lemma.
   3. References.
4. Hittite: for people who know Hittite to fill up.
5. Sumerian: Sumerian entries should be relatively straightforward. I've used the following: {{head|sux|noun|tr=<TRANSLITERATION>}}