the written sources of the seventh century BC, engaged at times in alliances with the
Chaldeans or the Elamites, at other times paying political homage to the Assyrians.
Certainly their most memorable heritage is represented by their native West Semitic
language, which, due to the ‘confusion of tongues’ which must have characterized
the constant forced removal of non-Akkadian-speaking peoples from one corner of
the empire to the other, had become – in the southern alluvium as well as in the
major cities and agricultural regions of Northern Mesopotamia – the most viable
instrument for interpersonal, business, and to some extent institutional, relationships;
and would remain as such even long after the Assyrians and, in their wake, the
Chaldeans no longer ruled over the land of the Twin Rivers.
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— Frederick Mario Fales —