Akkadian cuneiform

Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform

The archaic cuneiform script was adopted by the Akkadian Empire from the 24th century BC. The Akkadian language being East Semitic, its structure was completely different from Sumerian. The Akkadians found a practical solution in writing their language phonetically, using the corresponding Sumerian phonetic signs. Still, many of the Sumerian characters were retained for their logographic value as well: for example the character for "sheep" was retained, but was now pronounced immerum, rather than the Sumerian udu. Such retained individual signs or, sometimes, entire sign combinations with logographic value are known as Sumerograms, a type of heterogram.