Akkadian Puns

Is there anyone on here who can read Akkadian fluently (either from cuneiform or a transliterated text) without translating?

I'm just wondering if all I'll have access to are photographs of tablets/steles or if there are any actual typed books that I can read to practice.

Hello anybody who finds this post! I’m currently writing a book about a 21st-century young adult who is sent back in time to Neolithic Mesopotamia and cursed with immortality until enough time passes that he reaches the exact moment he was sent back. One of the early sections will be about how he found a child floating in a basket of reeds in the Euphrates- the young Sargon. However, I can’t seem to find very many good sources on Akkadian names (after all, a good story usually needs more than two characters)- everything I find is giving me Arabic and other modern names that the websites claim are derived from Akkadian but I can’t find anything solid with good backing, and if possible I’d rather not arbitrarily give Babylonian and Assyrian names to people who lived centuries before those languages were widespread. Are there any good (and preferably free, but if not that’s fine) sources on Akkadian naming conventions any of y’all would know about? Thank you in advance!

I'm trying to get into learing Ancient Sumerian. However, multiple comments and posts have strongly suggested I learn Akkadian first, and recommend John Huehnergard's book 'A Grammar of Akkadian'. My problem is that I just read somewhere else that Babylonian and Assyrian are different dialects of Akkadian? Is this true? If it is, which one does the book teach?

Hi!

So, I have a question. As I understand it, Akkadian uses the same cuneiform as Sumerian does (neo-assyrian notwithstanding), much in the way Chinese dialects use the same characters as each other. That is, if the cuneiform for a word in Sumerian is one thing, that's also gonna be the cuneiform for the word in Akkadian.

My question is, how does Emesal fit into that? i.e. is the cuneiform for a word in Emesal also valid, or...?

Is anyone here able to translate from this pair of game screenshots I have of Akkadian cuneiform (specifically Naram-sin era)? I would love to learn what they say!

https://preview.redd.it/uk294nrd1vc81.png?width=701&format=png&auto=webp&s=03daa74299875907c1a58cf4e46c4b18c5bce141

https://preview.redd.it/bri6z8sd1vc81.png?width=387&format=png&auto=webp&s=18590ae37ad510933237efec05a74f0f1fabc60a

Recently I've been delving into learning about the ancient Mesopotamia and it had me curious on how would a civilization like Rome or the Parthians view civilizations that were nearly 2,000-3,000 years older than them in how we view the Romans today. Do we have any sources from any philiosphers or scholars of the time in how they saw those distant civilizations?

Hi, I'm making my way through Benjamin Foster's Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature, and just got through a section translating some Akkadian anti-witchcraft "maqlû" incantations.

As the author describes maqlû itself means "burning" and the maqlû text often takes the form of prayers to the Akkadian fire deity Girra who is associated with warding off black magic. Additionally, with the same root, maqlûtu can apparently mean something like "burnt offering".

I know that mlk in Hebrew, at least with the מֶלֶךְ vocalization (i.e. melek) means "king" and has the Akkadian cognate "malku" also found in Phoenician.

However, I was wondering if anyone knows any papers out there that explore the other, oft debated מֹלֶךְ vocalization (i.e. Molech/Moloch) often associated with topheths in the Bible and considered either a Punic/Phoenician deity or a type of offering.

Specifically I'm trying to find any papers discussing possible links between maqlû (i.e. "burning"/"burnt offering") and the topheth sacrifices offered "lmlk". I know very little about how scholars detect etymological links between Akkadian/Hebrew so I have no idea if this is totally off-base or not, but hopefully I might find something interesting.

My partner and I are almost done with reading “The History of Early Rome” by Livy and are wondering if there is something else we should read before starting “The Histories” or “Anabasis”.

I am working on a concept album based on Nebuchadrezzar II and I have several ideas for lyrics in Akkadian based on research Ive done myself. However I want the grammar to be correct as well as periodically correct as I don't want to butcher it for a very ambitious project. I want to put as much work into the language as the rest of it. I can pronounce all of the phonemes according to modern reconstructions and settled on the southern Babylonian dialect with for example š rather than s. It is mostly simpler phrases that will be mixed with English lyrics so translation shouldn't be a problem at all for someone well versed and probably wouldnt take much time either.

I have three titles thus far that are set;

1. Praise
2. Adi Maḫru Kinaḫna - March Toward Canaan
3. Anuku Nadu-Kuduri-Ušur - I Am Nebuchadrezzar

Evening, everybody!

Since the thread about standard cuneiform was so well received, I thought it a good idea to go ahead and invite you all to Akkadian revival Discord! Our goal, as you may have guessed, is the complete resurrection of the Akkadian language as a functional, practical everyday language people speak. Since this is the Assyriology subreddit, there's no better place than here to promote it!

We're going to begin work on a Google doc crash course for Akkadian pretty soon, and we'd love to have y'all there with us to give your input and lend whatever expertise you can! Cheers!