StandardBabylonisch

Standard Babylonian, also known as late Babylonian, refers to a stage of the Akkadian language that was used as a literary and scholarly language in Mesopotamia from around the 7th century BCE until the first centuries CE. It evolved from the earlier Old Babylonian dialect, which was spoken in the 2nd millennium BCE. While Old Babylonian was the vernacular of its time, Standard Babylonian became a prestige dialect, maintained by scribal schools for religious, literary, and scientific texts.

This dialect is primarily attested in a vast corpus of cuneiform tablets, including astronomical observations, mathematical treatises, lexical lists, incantations, and literary works such as the Epic of Gilgamesh in its later recensions. It also served as the language of official decrees and royal inscriptions, although the spoken vernacular during this period was Aramaic. The scribal tradition meticulously preserved and transmitted Standard Babylonian, leading to a high degree of standardization and archaization in its written form.

Key features distinguishing Standard Babylonian from earlier forms of Akkadian include phonological shifts, changes in grammar, and the adoption of new vocabulary, often influenced by Aramaic. Despite these developments, scribes deliberately maintained many older grammatical forms and lexical items to preserve the antiquity and prestige of the language. The study of Standard Babylonian is crucial for understanding the intellectual and cultural achievements of Mesopotamia during the Neo-Babylonian, Achaemenid, and Hellenistic periods.