Linguistic Evidence for Akkadian Speaking Neolithic Farmer Spread

(June 5, 2023) Akkadian is the earliest attested language of Europe being the language found in archaeological texts. The Akkadian language homeland is northern Mesopotamia as evidenced by cuneiform texts. The European Neolithic farmers came from that area. These farmers began to enter Europe around 6700 BCE. The culture and language of Europe began to change with the arrival of Indo-European speaking invaders beginning in 3500 BCE. Indo-European was a high prestige language which came to dominate the European landscape. This mixing of Indo-European with Akkadian to various degrees formed the main European language classes of Latin, Greek, Celtic, and Germanic. Akkadian only survived in civilizations on the margins of Europe (Minoan, Etruscan, Phoenician, Israelite, Iberian, Pre-Viking Nordic) where it is attested on stone and gold tablets, and on clay pottery shards. English is a result of a later secondary mixing between Germanic and Latin language groups. Yet despite all this some Akkadian words survive in English to this day.