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Questions tagged [akkadian]

Use for questions about Akkadian (or Babylonian), an extinct East Semitic language formerly spoken in what is now Iraq.

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Were long vowels distinguished in cuneiform?

Hittite cuneiform occasionally shows "plene" spellings, with extra vowel signs that might indicate vowel length, or show the height of back vowels, or distinguish homophones (like the French grave ...
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7 votes
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What is Ś in Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform?

In a few different places (1) (2), ORACC lists Ś (S with acute accent, U+015A) as a Unicode character used for Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform transcription. However, I've never seen this letter used (in ...
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6 votes
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Did Sumerian have /ħ/?

According to Gelb 1961, the famous Sumerian sign É ("house, building") was originally pronounced /ħa/ (or ḥa in Semiticist transcription). The main evidence for this is loanwords into other ...
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