Accadian

[From Heb. אכר ) akkad (; in the Sept. 'Αρχάδ ( Archad ), a "city" in the land of Shinar grouped with Babel, Erech, and Calneh (Gen. x. 10).] A language preceding that of the proper A yrian cuneiform inscriptions. It is believed to have been of Turanian origin. Many A yrian proper names and other words were derived from the Accadian. Its study is now throwing much light on the early history of Western Asia. "The principal dialect spoken by the latter [the primitive inhabitants of Babylonia, the inventors of the cuneiform system of writing] was the A Accadian, in which the brick-legends of the of the earliest kings are inscribed, and of which we po e grammars, dictionaries, and reading books with A yrian transla tions annexed." Rev. A. H. Sayce , M.A. , Trans. Brit. Archæol. Soc., vol. iii., pt. ii. (1874), pp. 465-6.