Editing Akkadian language (section)

===Consonants===
The following table presents the [[consonant]]s of the Akkadian language, as distinguished in Akkadian cuneiform. The reconstructed phonetic value<ref name=":0" /> of a [[phoneme]] is given in [[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]] transcription, alongside its standard ([[DIN 31635|DMG-Umschrift]]) [[transliteration]] in angle brackets {{code|⟨ ⟩}}.

{| class="wikitable" style=text-align:center
|+ Akkadian consonants
|-
!colspan=2|
! [[Labial consonant|Labial]]
! colspan="2" | [[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
! [[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
! [[Dorsal consonant|Dorsal]]
! [[Glottal consonant|Glottal]]
|-
!colspan=2| [[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]
| {{IPA link|m}} {{angbr IPA|m}}
| colspan="2" | {{IPA link|n}} {{angbr IPA|n}}
|
|
|
|-
!rowspan=3| [[Plosive|Stop]]/<br>[[Affricate]]
! <small>[[Voicelessness|voiceless]]</small>
| {{IPA link|p}} {{angbr IPA|p}}{{efn-la|name=aspiration|Borrowings from and to [[Sumerian language|Sumerian]] have been interpreted as indicating that Akkadian voiceless non-emphatic stops were originally unaspirated {{IPA|/p/}}, {{IPA|/t/}}, and {{IPA|/k/}}, but became aspirated {{IPA|/pʰ/}}, {{IPA|/tʰ/}} and {{IPA|/kʰ/}} around 2000 BCE.<ref name="ReferenceA">Kogan, L., Krebernik, M. 2021: A history of the Akkadian lexicon. In: J.-P. Vita (ed.), ''History of the Akkadian Language. Vol. I.'' Leiden–Boston, 366–476. P. 418-419.</ref><ref name="hdl.handle.net">Jagersma, Bram. (2010, 4 November). A descriptive grammar of Sumerian. Leiden University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/1887/16107 . P. 35.</ref>}}
| {{IPA link|t}} {{angbr IPA|t}}{{efn-la|name=aspiration}}
|{{IPA link|t͡s}} {{angbr IPA|s}}
|
| {{IPA link|k}} {{angbr IPA|k}}{{efn-la|name=aspiration}}
| rowspan="3" | {{IPA link|ʔ}} {{angbr IPA|ʾ}}
|-
! <small>[[Emphatic consonant|emphatic]]</small>
|
| {{IPA link|t’}} {{angbr IPA|ṭ}}
|{{IPA link|t͡s’}} {{angbr IPA|ṣ}}
|
| {{IPA link|k’}} {{angbr IPA|q}}{{efn-la|Alternatively transcribed as {{angbr IPA|ḳ}}.}}
|-
! <small>[[Voice (phonetics)|voiced]]</small>
| {{IPA link|b}} {{angbr IPA|b}}
| {{IPA link|d}} {{angbr IPA|d}}
|{{IPA link|d͡z}} {{angbr IPA|z}}
|
| {{IPA link|ɡ}} {{angbr IPA|g}}
|-
! rowspan="2" | [[Fricative]]
!<small>[[Voicelessness|voiceless]]</small>
|
| colspan="2" | {{IPA link|s}} {{angbr IPA|š}}{{efn-la|{{angbr IPA|š}} represented the [[voiceless alveolar fricative]] {{IPA|/s/}} in the Assyrian dialect and a [[voiceless postalveolar fricative]] {{IPA|/ʃ/}} in the Babylonian dialect.  Alternatively transcribed as {{angbr IPA|s̱}}.|name=sibilant}}
|{{IPA link|ʃ}} {{angbr IPA|š}}{{efn-la|name=sibilant}}
|{{IPA link|x}} {{angbr IPA|ḫ}}{{efn-la|Alternatively transcribed as {{angbr IPA|x}}, {{angbr IPA|ġ}}, or simply {{angbr IPA|h}}.}}
|
|-
!<small>[[Voice (phonetics)|voiced]]</small>
|
| colspan="2" |
|
|{{IPA link|ʁ}} {{angbr IPA|r}}{{Efn-la|Akkadian {{angbr IPA|r}} is alternatively interpreted as a [[Guttural R|guttural rhotic]] [{{IPA link|ʁ}}] or [{{IPA link|ʀ}}] {{See below|[[#Reconstruction|below]]}}.|name=rhotic}}
|
|-
! colspan="2" | [[Approximant]]
|
| {{IPA link|r}} {{angbr IPA|r}}{{Efn-la|Akkadian {{angbr IPA|r}} is alternatively interpreted as a [[Guttural R|guttural rhotic]] [{{IPA link|ʁ}}] or [{{IPA link|ʀ}}] {{See below|[[#Reconstruction|below]]}}.|name=rhotic}}
|{{IPA link|l}} {{angbr IPA|l}}
| {{IPA link|j}} {{angbr IPA|y}}{{efn-la|Alternatively transcribed as {{angbr IPA|j}}.}}
| {{IPA link|w}} {{angbr IPA|w}}
|
|}
{{notelist-la}}

==== Reconstruction ====
[[File:AO 5477 (photograph and transcription).jpg|thumb|The first known Sumerian-Akkadian bilingual tablet dates from the reign of [[Rimush]]. Louvre Museum AO 5477. The top column is in Sumerian, the bottom column is its translation in Akkadian.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=THUREAU-DANGIN |first1=F. |title=Notes Assyriologiques |journal=Revue d'Assyriologie et d'archéologie orientale |date=1911 |volume=8 |issue=3 |pages=138–141 |jstor=23284567 |issn=0373-6032}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Site officiel du musée du Louvre |url=http://cartelfr.louvre.fr/cartelfr/visite?srv=car_not_frame&idNotice=12108 |website=cartelfr.louvre.fr |access-date=2020-05-10 |archive-date=2020-07-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200715003716/http://cartelfr.louvre.fr/cartelfr/visite?srv=car_not_frame&idNotice=12108 |url-status=live }}</ref>]]
Akkadian emphatic consonants are typically reconstructed as [[Ejective consonant|ejectives]], which are thought to be the oldest realization of emphatics across the Semitic languages.<ref>{{Cite book|title = The Semitic Languages|last1 = Hetzron|first1 = Robert}}</ref> One piece of evidence for this is that Akkadian shows a development known as [[Geers's law]], where one of two emphatic consonants dissimilates to the corresponding non-emphatic consonant. For the sibilants, traditionally {{angbr IPA|š}} has been held to be postalveolar {{IPA|/ʃ/}}, and {{angbr IPA|s}}, {{angbr IPA|z}}, {{angbr IPA|ṣ}} analyzed as fricatives; but attested [[assimilation (linguistics)|assimilations]] in Akkadian suggest otherwise.<ref name=":0" /><ref>Kogan, Leonid (2011). "Proto-Semitic Phonetics and Phonology". In Semitic languages: an international handbook, Stefan Weninger, ed. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. p. 68.</ref> For example, when the possessive suffix ''-šu'' is added to the root ''awat'' ('word'), it is written ''awassu'' ('his word') even though ''šš'' would be expected.

The most straightforward interpretation of this shift from ''tš'' to ''ss'', is that {{angbr IPA|s, ṣ}} form a pair of voiceless alveolar affricates {{IPA|/t͡s/ /t͡sʼ/}}, {{angbr IPA|š}} is a voiceless alveolar sibilant {{IPA|/s/}}, and {{angbr IPA|z}} is a voiced alveolar affricate or fricative {{IPA|/d͡z/~/z/}}. The assimilation is then [awat+su] > {{IPA|/awatt͡su/}}. In this vein, an alternative transcription of {{angbr IPA|š}} is {{angbr IPA|s̱}}, with the macron below indicating a soft (lenis) articulation in Semitic transcription. Other interpretations are possible. {{IPA|/ʃ/}} could have been assimilated to the preceding {{IPA|/t/}}, yielding {{IPA|/ts/}}, which would later have been simplified to {{IPA|/ss/}}.

The rhotic {{angbr IPA|r}} has traditionally been interpreted as a [[voiced alveolar trill]] {{IPA|/r/}} but its pattern of alternation with {{angbr IPA|ḫ}} suggests it was a fricative (either [[voiced uvular fricative|uvular]] {{IPA|/ʁ/}} or [[voiced velar fricative|velar]] {{IPA|/ɣ/}}). In the Hellenistic period, Akkadian {{angbr IPA|r}} was transcribed using the Greek ρ, indicating it was pronounced similarly as an alveolar sound (though Greeks may also have perceived a [[uvular trill]] as ρ).<ref name=":0" />

==== Descent from Proto-Semitic ====
Several [[Proto-Semitic]] phonemes are lost in Akkadian. The Proto-Semitic glottal stop {{transliteration|sem|[[Aleph (letter)|*ʔ]]}}, as well as the fricatives {{transliteration|sem|[[Ayin|*ʕ]]}}, {{transliteration|sem|[[He (letter)|*h]]}}, {{transliteration|sem|[[Heth (letter)|*ḥ]]}} are lost as consonants, either by sound change or orthographically, but they gave rise to the vowel quality ''e'' not exhibited in Proto-Semitic. The [[voiceless lateral fricatives]] ({{transliteration|sem|[[Śawt|*ś]], [[Ḍād|*ṣ́]]}}) merged with the sibilants as in [[Canaanite languages|Canaanite]], leaving 19 consonantal phonemes. Old Akkadian preserved the /*ś/ phoneme longest but it eventually merged with [[Shin (letter)|/*š/]], beginning in the [[First Babylonian dynasty|Old Babylonian period]].<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite thesis |degree=Doctoral |title = A descriptive grammar of Sumerian|url = https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/handle/1887/16107 |publisher=Universiteit Leiden |access-date = 2015-11-20 |last=Jagersma |first=Abraham Hendrik |page = 46|date = 2010 |archive-date = 2015-10-16|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151016111558/https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/handle/1887/16107|url-status = live}}</ref> The following table shows Proto-Semitic phonemes and their correspondences among Akkadian, [[Modern Standard Arabic]] and [[Tiberian Hebrew]]:
[[File:Inscription in Babylonian, in the Xerxes I inscription at Van, 5th century BCE.jpg|thumb|An inscription in Babylonian, in the [[Xerxes I inscription at Van]], 5th century BCE]]
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;" align="center"
! | [[Proto-Semitic]]
! | Akkadian
! colspan="2" | [[Arabic language|Arabic]]
! colspan="2" |[[Aramaic]]
! colspan="2" | [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]]
|-
! {{transliteration|sem|*b}}
| ''{{transliteration|sem|b}}''
| ب || {{transliteration|ar|DIN|b}}
|𐡁
|{{transliteration|sem|b/ḇ}}
| ב || {{transliteration|sem|b/ḇ}}
|-
! {{transliteration|sem|*d}}
| ''{{transliteration|sem|d}}''
| د || {{transliteration|ar|DIN|d}}
|𐡃
|{{transliteration|sem|d/ḏ}}
| ד || {{transliteration|sem|d/ḏ}}
|-
! {{transliteration|sem|*g}}
| ''{{transliteration|sem|g}}''
| ج || {{transliteration|ar|DIN|ǧ}}
|𐡂
|{{transliteration|sem|g/ḡ}}
| ג || {{transliteration|sem|g/ḡ}}
|-
! {{transliteration|sem|*p}}
| ''{{transliteration|sem|p}}''
| ف || {{transliteration|ar|DIN|f}}
|𐡐
|{{transliteration|sem|p/p̄}}
| פ || {{transliteration|sem|p/p̄}}
|-
! {{transliteration|sem|*t}}
| ''{{transliteration|sem|t}}''
| ت || {{transliteration|ar|DIN|t}}
|𐡕
|{{transliteration|sem|t/ṯ}}
| ת || {{transliteration|sem|t/ṯ}}
|-
! {{transliteration|sem|*k}}
| ''{{transliteration|sem|k}}''
| ك || {{transliteration|ar|DIN|k}}
|𐡊
|{{transliteration|sem|k/ḵ}}
| כ || {{transliteration|sem|k/ḵ}}
|-
! {{transliteration|sem|*ʔ}}
| (∅)/ <big>{{transliteration|sem|ʾ}}</big>
| ء || <big>{{transliteration|ar|DIN|ʾ}}</big>
|𐡀
|<big>{{transliteration|sem|ʾ}}</big>
| א || <big>{{transliteration|he|ʾ}}</big>
|-
! {{transliteration|sem|*ṭ}}
| ''{{transliteration|sem|ṭ}}''
| ط || {{transliteration|ar|DIN|ṭ}}
|𐡈
|{{transliteration|sem|ṭ}}
| ט || {{transliteration|sem|ṭ}}
|-
! {{transliteration|sem|*ḳ}}
| ''{{transliteration|sem|q}}''
| ق || {{transliteration|ar|DIN|q}}
|𐡒
|{{transliteration|sem|q}}
| ק || {{transliteration|sem|q}}
|-
! {{transliteration|sem|*ḏ}}
| rowspan="2" valign="center" | ''{{transliteration|sem|z}}''
| ذ || {{transliteration|ar|DIN|ḏ}}
|{{bdo|ltr|𐡆 ,𐡃}}
|''{{transliteration|sem|ḏ}}'', {{transliteration|sem|d/ḏ}}
| rowspan="2" | ז || rowspan="2" |{{transliteration|sem|z}}
|-
! {{transliteration|sem|*z}}
| ز || {{transliteration|ar|DIN|z}}
|𐡆
|{{transliteration|sem|z}}
|-
! {{transliteration|sem|*ṯ}}
| rowspan="3" valign="center" | ''{{transliteration|sem|š}}''
| ث || {{transliteration|ar|DIN|ṯ}}
|{{bdo|ltr|𐡔 ,𐡕}}
|''{{transliteration|sem|ṯ}}'', {{transliteration|sem|t/ṯ}}
| rowspan="2" |שׁ || rowspan="2" |{{transliteration|sem|š}}
|-
! {{transliteration|sem|*š}}
| س || {{transliteration|ar|DIN|s}}
|𐡔
|{{transliteration|sem|š}}
|-
! {{transliteration|sem|*ś}}
| ش || {{transliteration|ar|DIN|š}}
|{{bdo|ltr|𐡔 ,𐡎}}
|''{{transliteration|sem|ś}}'', {{transliteration|sem|s}}
| שׂ 
| {{transliteration|sem|ś}}
|-
! {{transliteration|sem|*s}}
| ''{{transliteration|sem|s}}''
| س || {{transliteration|ar|DIN|s}}
|𐡎
|{{transliteration|sem|s}}
| ס 
| {{transliteration|sem|s}}
|-
! {{transliteration|sem|*ṱ}}
| rowspan="3" valign="center" | ''{{transliteration|sem|ṣ}}''
| ظ || {{transliteration|ar|DIN|ẓ}}
|{{bdo|ltr|𐡑 ,𐡈}}
|''{{transliteration|sem|ṯ̣}}'', {{transliteration|sem|ṭ}}
| rowspan="3" |צ || rowspan="3" |{{transliteration|sem|ṣ}}
|-
! {{transliteration|sem|*ṣ}}
| ص || {{transliteration|ar|DIN|ṣ}}
|𐡑
|{{transliteration|sem|ṣ}}
|-
! {{transliteration|sem|*ṣ́}}
| ض || {{transliteration|ar|DIN|ḍ}}
|{{bdo|ltr|𐡒 ,𐡏}}
|''{{transliteration|sem|ṣ́}}'', <big>{{transliteration|sem|ʿ}}</big>
|-
! {{transliteration|sem|*ġ}}
| ''{{transliteration|sem|ḫ}}''
| غ || {{transliteration|ar|DIN|ġ}}
| rowspan="2" | {{bdo|ltr|𐡏}}
|''{{transliteration|sem|ġ}}'', <big>{{transliteration|sem|ʿ}}</big>
| rowspan="2" |ע || rowspan="2" | <big>{{transliteration|he|ʿ}}</big>
|-
! '''{{transliteration|sem|*ʕ}}'''
| ''{{transliteration|sem|ḫ}}'' / (e) <ref group="t2" name="zero">These are only distinguished from the ∅ (zero) reflexes of {{IPAslink|h}} and {{IPAslink|ʔ}} by {{IPAslink|e}}-coloring the adjacent vowel *a, e.g. PS ''*ˈbaʕ(a)l-um'' ('owner, lord') → Akk. ''bēlu(m)'' ({{harvnb|Dolgopolsky|1999|p=35}}).</ref>
| ع || <big>{{transliteration|ar|DIN|ʿ}}</big>
|<big>{{transliteration|sem|ʿ}}</big>
|-
! {{transliteration|sem|*ḫ}}
| ''{{transliteration|sem|ḫ}}''
| خ || {{transliteration|ar|DIN|ḫ}}
| rowspan="2" | {{bdo|ltr|𐡇}}
|''{{transliteration|ar|DIN|ḫ}}'', {{transliteration|sem|ḥ}}
| rowspan="2" |ח || rowspan="2" |{{transliteration|sem|ḥ}}
|-
! {{transliteration|sem|*ḥ}}
| (e) <ref group="t2" name="zero" />
| ح || {{transliteration|ar|DIN|ḥ}}
|{{transliteration|sem|ḥ}}
|-
! {{transliteration|sem|*h}}
| (∅) 
| ه || {{transliteration|ar|DIN|h}}
|𐡄
|{{transliteration|sem|h}}
| ה || {{transliteration|sem|h}}
|-
! {{transliteration|sem|*m}}
| ''{{transliteration|sem|m}}''
| م || {{transliteration|ar|DIN|m}}
|𐡌
|m
| מ || m
|-
! {{transliteration|sem|*n}}
| ''{{transliteration|sem|n}}''
| ن || {{transliteration|ar|DIN|n}}
|𐡍
|{{transliteration|sem|n}}
| נ || {{transliteration|sem|n}}
|-
! {{transliteration|sem|*r}}
| ''{{transliteration|sem|r}}''
| ر || {{transliteration|ar|DIN|r}}
|𐡓
|{{transliteration|sem|r}}
| ר || {{transliteration|sem|r}}
|-
! {{transliteration|sem|*l}}
| ''{{transliteration|sem|l}}''
| ل || {{transliteration|ar|DIN|l}}
|𐡋
|{{transliteration|sem|l}}
| ל || {{transliteration|sem|l}}
|-
! {{transliteration|sem|*w}}
| ''{{transliteration|sem|w}}''
| و || {{transliteration|ar|DIN|w}}
|𐡅
|{{transliteration|sem|w}}
| ו || {{transliteration|sem|w}}
|-
! {{transliteration|sem|*y}}
| ''{{transliteration|sem|y}}''
| ي || {{transliteration|ar|DIN|y}}
|𐡉
|{{transliteration|sem|y}}
| י || {{transliteration|sem|y}}
|-
! | [[Proto-Semitic]]
! | Akkadian
! colspan="2" | [[Arabic language|Arabic]]
! colspan="2" |[[Aramaic]]
! colspan="2" | [[Tiberian Hebrew|Hebrew]]
|}

{{reflist|group=t2}}