Akkad (Accad), Akkadians
Akkad (Accad), Akkadians
AKKAD (ACCAD), AKKADIANS.Akkad(u) Is the Semitic equivalent of the Sumerian Agad, the capital of the founder of the first Semitic empire. It was probably in consequence of this that it gave its name to Northern Babylonia, the Semitic language of which came to be known as Akkadu or Akkadian. In the early days of cuneiform decipherment Akkadian was the name usually applied to the non-Semitic language of primitive Babylonia, but some cuneiform texts published by Bezold in 1889 (ZA p. 434) showed that this was called by the Babylonians themselves the language of Sumer or Southern Babylonia, while a text recently published by Messerschmidt (Orient. Ltztg. 1905, p. 268) states that Akkadu was the name of the Semitic translation. When Babylonia became a united monarchy, its rulers took the title of kings of Sumer and Akkad in Semitic, Kengi and Uri in Sumerian, where Uri seems to have signified the upper region. In Gen 10:10 Accad is the city, not the country to which it gave its name.
A. H. Sayce.