As a modern linguistic term it refers to various Semitic dialects spoken in Mesopotamia over a period of 2,000 years (such as Old Akkadian, Babylonian, Assyrian). In antiquity, scribes differentiated between texts written in the “tongue of Akkad” from those written in the “tongue of the land” (i.e., Sumerian). The earliest texts written in Akkadian date from the mid-third millennium B.C.
See also DELITZSCH, Friedrich; EBELING, Erich; GELB, Ignace Jeremiah; LAMBERT, Wilfred; LANGUAGES; OPPERT, Jules; RAWLINSON, Henry Creswick; SODEN, Wolfram Freiherr von; WEIDNER, Ernst; WRITING.
Historical Dictionary of Mesopotamia. EdwART. 2012.