Editing Akkadian language (section)

==== Case, number and gender ====
Formally, Akkadian has three numbers (singular, dual and plural) and three cases ([[Nominative case|nominative]], [[Accusative case|accusative]] and [[Genitive case|genitive]]). However, even in the earlier stages of the language, the dual number is vestigial, and its use is largely confined to natural pairs (eyes, ears, etc.). Adjectives are never found in the dual. In the dual and plural, the accusative and genitive are merged into a single [[oblique case]].

Akkadian, unlike [[Arabic language|Arabic]], has only "sound" plurals formed by means of a plural ending. [[Broken plurals]] are not formed by changing the word stem. As in all Semitic languages, some masculine nouns take the prototypically feminine plural ending (''-āt'').

The nouns ''šarrum'' (king) and ''šarratum'' (queen) and the adjective ''dannum'' (strong) will serve to illustrate the case system of Akkadian.

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Noun and adjective paradigms
|-
! colspan="2" |
! colspan="2" | Noun
! colspan="2" | Adjective
|-
! colspan="2" |Number / Case
! masc. || fem.
! masc. || fem.
|-
! rowspan="3" |Singular
! Nominative
| šarr-um || šarr-at-um || dann-um || dann-at-um
|-
! Genitive
| šarr-im || šarr-at-im || dann-im || dann-at-im
|-
! Accusative
| šarr-am || šarr-at-am || dann-am || dann-at-am
|-
! rowspan="2" |Dual
! Nominative
| šarr-ān || šarr-at-ān || colspan='2' rowspan='2' bgcolor="gray" |
|-
! Oblique<ref group=t3>The oblique case includes the accusative and genitive.</ref>
| šarr-īn || šarr-at-īn
|-
! rowspan="2" |Plural
! Nominative
| šarr-ū || šarr-āt-um || dann-ūt-um || dann-āt-um
|-
! Oblique
| šarr-ī || šarr-āt-im || dann-ūt-im || dann-āt-im
|}
{{Reflist|group=t3}}
As is clear from the above table, the adjective and noun endings differ only in the masculine plural. Certain nouns, primarily those referring to geography, can also form a locative ending in ''-um'' in the singular and the resulting forms serve as [[adverbial]]s. These forms are generally not productive, but in the Neo-Babylonian the ''um''-locative replaces several constructions with the preposition ''ina''.

In the later stages of Akkadian, the [[mimation]] (word-final ''-m'') and [[nunation]] (dual final ''-n'') that occurred at the end of most case endings disappeared, except in the locative. Later, the nominative and accusative singular of masculine nouns collapsed to ''-u'' and in Neo-Babylonian most word-final short vowels were dropped. As a result, case differentiation disappeared from all forms except masculine plural nouns. However, many texts continued the practice of writing the case endings, although often sporadically and incorrectly. As the most important [[Language contact|contact language]] throughout this period was [[Aramaic language|Aramaic]], which itself lacks case distinctions, it is possible that Akkadian's loss of cases was an areal as well as [[Phonology|phonological]] phenomenon.