The Department of Arabic Language at the College of Arts, University of Basra, organized a scientific seminar entitled:
(The Reference of the Arabic Language in Ancient Languages: The Akkadian Language as a Model),It was presented by researcher Professor Dr. Adel Hashem from the Department of History, while Professor Dr. Angers Ta’ma Yousef from the Department of Arabic Language took over the presentation of the seminar.
In his lecture, the researcher addressed a scientific topic that combined ancient history (pre-Christian era) with the origin of languages, explaining that the Arabic language is one of the Semitic (or island) languages from which northern Semitic languages such as Akkadian, Aramaic, Phoenician, Canaanite, and Hebrew branched out, as well as southern Semitic languages such as Arabic, Himyaritic, and Sabaean, all of which descend from a single linguistic origin and share similar phonetic, grammatical, morphological, and lexical features.
The researcher pointed out that the Arabic language has retained most of these common characteristics, which gives it a reference position in the study of other Semitic languages, stressing the importance of knowing the Akkadian language as an ancient language whose roots are keys to understanding the meanings of a number of Arabic words, especially those mentioned in the Holy Quranic text.
The researcher also reviewed a number of Quranic verses that support this, including the Almighty's saying:
(So when they angered Us, We took vengeance on them and drowned them all), explaining that the word "anger" cannot be attributed to God Almighty in its human sense, but rather it is understood in light of the profound linguistic connotations revealed by the study of ancient Semitic languages, including Akkadian.
