Editing Akkadian literature (section)

==Relation to other ancient literatures==
[[File:Cardiff Castle - Bibliothek Allegorien Literatur 3 Assyrisch.jpg|thumb|[[Cardiff Castle]] (Wales). Castle apartments: Library (1870s) - ''Allegory of Assyrian literature'' (relief by [[Thomas Nicholls (sculptor)|Thomas Nicholls]]).]]

A considerable amount of Akkadian, Assyrian and Babylonian literature was translated from Sumerian originals, and the language of religion and law long continued to be the old agglutinative language of Sumer, which was a [[language isolate]]. Vocabularies, grammars, and interlinear translations were compiled for the use of students, as well as commentaries on the older texts and explanations of obscure words and phrases. The characters of the syllabary were all arranged and named, and elaborate lists of them were drawn up.<ref name=EB1911/>

[[Assyria]]n culture and literature came from the same source as Babylonia, but even here, there was a difference between the two ethnolinguistically similar countries. Assyrian literature was similar to that of Babylonia, however, in the early periods, education was mostly restricted to a single class of society in Assyria, unlike Babylonia.  Under the second Assyrian empire, when [[Nineveh]] had become a great centre of trade, [[Aramaic]] &mdash; the language of commerce and diplomacy &mdash; was added to the number of subjects that the educated class was required to learn, dialects of which still survive among the [[Assyrian people]] today.<ref name=EB1911/>

Under the [[Seleucid dynasty|Seleucids]], [[Greek language|Greek]] was introduced into Babylon, and fragments of tablets have been found with Sumerian and Assyrian (i.e. Semitic) words transcribed into Greek letters.<ref name=EB1911/>