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The Sound of Akkadian -- Listen to Ancient Babylonian online
Heritage Key ^ | Thursday, September 30, 2010 | Ann Wuyts

Posted on 10/01/2010 7:06:36 PM PDT by SunkenCiv

Almost 2,000 years after its last native speakers disappeared... [t]he recordings include excerpts from some of the earliest known works of world literature, dating back to the first years of the second millennium BC... readings of Babylonian poems, myths and other texts in the original tongue... -- available online for free at www.speechisfire.com -- are given by Dr. Worthington's fellow Assyriologists. Babylonian is one of two variants (or dialects) of Akkadian, the other being Assyrian. Akkadian became the 'lingua franca' of the Near East around, until its use began to decline around the 8th century BC. The last Akkadian cuneiform document dates to the 1st century AD. Dr Worthington's hope is that having heard the sound of the extinct language -- the earliest attested Semitic language, some listeners will be sufficiently intrigued to investigate further, and perhaps end up studying the history, language or culture of the period... The existing collection focuses on poetry in particular. Most of this is known from cuneiform inscriptions found on clay tablets in the area that was once Mesopotamia... Beyond literature and poetry, the site has also contains other important documents from the period. Part of the Codex Hammurabi, for example, the ancient law code from 1790 BC, can be both read and heard -- although you are (not yet) treated to all 281 of the laws and parallel punishments Hammurabi had listed... Thirty recordings have been released so far and more are currently being prepared.

(Excerpt) Read more at heritage-key.com ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: akkadian; assyrian; babylonian; epigraphyandlanguage; godsgravesglyphs
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This thread would be useless without pics. Okay, no, it wouldn't. Great article from Heritage Key.
Hammurabi by Gabriele B., on Flickr

The Sound of Akkadian -- Listen to Ancient Babylonian online

1 posted on 10/01/2010 7:06:38 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
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To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1010RD; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; 31R1O; ...

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2 posted on 10/01/2010 7:08:42 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Democratic Underground... matters are worse, as their latest fund drive has come up short...)
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To: SunkenCiv

Is this not what most of Civilized Society’s Laws are based on?


3 posted on 10/01/2010 7:11:36 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (lame and ill-informed post)
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To: Fred Nerks

Thought you would want to hear what Akkadian sounded like!


4 posted on 10/01/2010 7:12:38 PM PDT by Candor7 (Obama . fascist info..http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/05/barack_obama_the_quintessentia_1.html)
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To: SunkenCiv

Fascinating - thanks for posting that.


5 posted on 10/01/2010 7:14:37 PM PDT by Moonmad27 (That government is best which governs least. - Henry Thoreau)
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To: SunkenCiv

bump!


6 posted on 10/01/2010 7:22:10 PM PDT by Mr. Silverback (Anyone who says we need illegals to do the jobs Americans won't do has never watched "Dirty Jobs.")
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To: SunkenCiv

for later


7 posted on 10/01/2010 7:22:32 PM PDT by ElayneJ
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To: SunkenCiv

Bookmarked this site. Thanks so much for posting this!


8 posted on 10/01/2010 7:29:29 PM PDT by tanuki (Obamacare, Cap and Tax, Amnesty, in that order....)
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To: UCANSEE2
Is this not what most of Civilized Society’s Laws are based on?

Without a verified unbroken chain of related evidence, that's just conjecture; otherwise known as an educated guess, AKA as maybe, maybe not.

9 posted on 10/01/2010 7:29:52 PM PDT by Publius6961 ("In 1964 the War on Poverty Began --- Poverty won.")
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To: Publius6961

“Without a verified unbroken chain of related evidence, that’s just conjecture; otherwise known as an educated guess, AKA as maybe, maybe not. “

If all you had was written Chinese, how would you get to even an arguably valid spoken Chinese?


10 posted on 10/01/2010 7:46:01 PM PDT by ModelBreaker
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To: SunkenCiv

How do they know what it sounded like, if the last native speakers died out 2,000 years ago, when we can’t even keep spoken English the same for 200 years (New Englander vs. Southerner, vs. Valley Girl, vs. etc...)?


11 posted on 10/01/2010 7:55:19 PM PDT by IYAS9YAS (Liberalism can be summed up thusly: someone craps their pants and we all have to wear diapers)
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To: SunkenCiv

you always have the most interesting posts.. Thanks again SunkenCiv


12 posted on 10/01/2010 8:13:53 PM PDT by Steve Van Doorn (*in my best Eric cartman voice* 'I love you guys')
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To: SunkenCiv

save for later


13 posted on 10/01/2010 8:26:43 PM PDT by silverleaf (The lesser of two evils is still evil.)
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To: UCANSEE2
All of any civilization's standards are based on a module of design that begins with the normal behavior of humans in small groups.

It's the same module everywhere on the planet.

Elaborations occur when the need to accommodate large groups comes into existence.

There are a number of variations on a theme ~ you can read about them in history ~ and then there are the degrees to which the leadership principle is used to allow some individuals to abuse others.

Some societies create a nobility that suppresses the broad masses ~ actually, almost all societies do that. 99.999% of known history is involved with the comings and goings of nobles.

0.001% of known history concerns a different form ~ for example, our own.

Hammurabi's Code was a public brief of the thoughts of the King and his nobles. It's purpose was to set the bounds of acceptable behavior, and to announce suitable punishments.

It was noted back during the Kelo v. New London CT discussions that the the USSC's vote to allow New London to force homeowners off their land to make way for other homeowners was prohibited in Hammurabi's code, and enforced with the death penalty for public officials who did that sort of thing

Later Hebraic Law and an ancient Jewish tradition paralleled Hammurabi's code perfectly.

So, no, Hammurabi's code isn't the basis of all our laws ~ he sought to control theft and official corruption ~ our courts don't care.

14 posted on 10/01/2010 8:36:00 PM PDT by muawiyah ("GIT OUT THE WAY" The Republicans are coming)
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To: muawiyah; Candor7; SunkenCiv

The Code of Hammurabi, from 1 to 282

Translated by L.W. King (1910)
Edited by Richard Hooker

http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/MESO/CODE.HTM


15 posted on 10/01/2010 8:52:33 PM PDT by Fred Nerks (FAIR DINKUM!)
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To: Fred Nerks

I thought that link looked familiar.


16 posted on 10/01/2010 8:58:36 PM PDT by Sawdring
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To: SunkenCiv
ūta-napišti ana šâšumma izakkara ana gilgameš 8 Ūta-napišti spoke to him, to Gilgamesh: 9 lupteka gilgameš amāt niṣirti 10 u pirišti ša ilāni kâša luqbika 9 "I will disclose to you, Gilgamesh, a secret matter, 10 and I will tell you a mystery of the gods. ETAOIN SHRDLU!
17 posted on 10/01/2010 9:18:10 PM PDT by wildbill (You're just jealous because the Voices talk only to me.)
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To: SunkenCiv
Wow this is so cool. I just got through with a book on code breaking and how they used some ancient languages to code military traffic to keep it from the enemies. I just ordered Rosetta Stone Hebrew. I found it fascinating how the letters can represent numbers as well as letters and how the letters work together to form words as well as represent ideas and how just changing a letter can change the meaning of the word. It is just so different from English. I am also looking into Greek and Latin.

Thanks for the link.

18 posted on 10/01/2010 10:40:41 PM PDT by Captain Beyond (The Hammer of the gods! (Just a cool line from a Led Zep song))
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To: SunkenCiv

I always thought Akkadian sounded like a french guy with marbles in his mouth.


19 posted on 10/01/2010 11:30:05 PM PDT by Defiant (Liberals care more about the Koran than they did about Terri Schiavo.)
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To: muawiyah

Excellent post. Freedom is fleeting as history proves.


20 posted on 10/02/2010 12:10:08 AM PDT by 1010RD (First Do No Harm)
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