Languages in Cuneiform Writing I (Akkadian, Hittite) B [ LGLOR1612 ]

The manual of Akkadian, the manual of Hittite, the lists of signs, a basic word base and the paradigms for the two languages are available on the server iCampus.

Useful sites:
- > https://www.hethport.uni-wuerzburg.de/HPM/hethportlinks.html
- > https://www.premiumwanadoo.com/cuneiform.languages/fr_index_grammaire.htm
- > https://oi.uchicago.edu/research/pubs/catalog/cad/ (dictionary of Akkadian)
- > https://oi.uchicago.edu/research/pubs/catalog/chd/ (dictionary of Hittite)

For the level I.1 none, but knowledge of Latin is useful for Hittite.
For the level I.2, the course LGLOR1611 (level I.1).

An initiation into the Akkadian and Hittite languages.

Alternately with LGLOR1611, this course is given to two distinct groups of students according to their level. The first term is devoted to Akkadian and the second to Hittite.

For level I.1 (beginners), it deals with cuneiform writing, basic vocabulary, and an introduction to the grammar with exercises.
For level I.2, it deals with reading of longer cuneiform texts.

Exercises (15h, 3 credits) in addition to the lectures consist of the analysis and translation of short fragments of text.

Students attending this course during their preparatory year to the Master in Ancient Languages and Literatures (Oriental Languages) will receive specific guidelines enabling them to get in one year the necessary skills as required by the end of the two levels.

At the end of this course, which implies following the course LGLOR1611 also, the student, with the aid of basic tools, will be capable to translate Akkadian and Hittite texts of average difficulty. In order to achieve this goal, he will have acquired the basic cuneiform signs, the basic vocabulary, as well as the necessary grammatical structures.

Written exam.

- Level I.1: grammatical exercises and small phrases in cuneiform writing and in translation.
- Level I.2: translation and analysis of texts in cuneiform and/or in transliteration.

The lectures are based on manuals edited by the lecturer. The grammatical introduction is illustrated by exercises which the student prepares before each course.

At the level I.2 the students prepare texts distributed by the lecturer, and the course allows for a joint effort to arrive at a translation with commentary.

Akkadian and Hittite belong to different linguistic families but both use the same cuneiform writing system.

A Semitic language, Akkadian is the principal language of Mesopotamia from the third millennium onwards and became the lingua franca of the Ancient Near East in the second half of the second Millennium B.C.
- Level I.1: cuneiform writing, basic vocabulary, introduction to the grammar with exercises.
- Level I.2:  detailed reading of the Code of Hammurabi and of Old Babylonian letters.

Hittite, an Indo-European language, is the language of the Hittite Empire which controlled Anatolia and the north of Syria from around 1650 B.C to 1190 B.C.
- Level I.1: cuneiform writing, basic vocabulary, introduction to the grammar with exercises.
- Level I.2: detailed reading of extracts of the Hittite law codes and historic texts.

Akkadian :

- F. Malbran-Labat, Manuel de langue akkadienne (PIOL, 50), Louvain, 2001.
- R. Labat & F. Malbran-Labat Manuel d'épigraphie akkadienne (signes, syllabaire, idéogrammes), 6e éd., Paris, 1988.
- The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Chicago, 1956.
- F. Malbran-Labat, Manuel de langue akkadienne : Lexiques akkadien - français et français - akkadien (PIOL, 51), Louvain, 2001.

Hittite :
- H.A. Hoffner & H.C. Melchert, A Grammar of the Hittite Language (Languages of the Ancient Near East, 1), Winona Lake, 2008.
- S. Vanséveren, Nisili : manuel de langue hittite (Lettres orientales 10), Louvain, 2006.
- E. Neu & Ch. Rüster, Hethitisches Zeichenlexikon (Studien zu den Bogazköy-Texten. Beiheft 2), Wiesbaden, 1989.
- J. Tischler, Hethitisches Handwörterbuch (Innsbrücker Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft 128), Innsbruck, 2008.

- For level I.1, fixed by the faculty.
- For level I.2, fixed by the lecturer at a first lecture.