Akkaian (lišānum akkadītum) or Assyro-Babylonian was a Semitic language (part of the greater Afro-Asiatic language family) spoken in ancient Iraq. The earliest attested Semitic language, it used the cuneiform writing system derived ultimately from ancient Sumerian, an unrelated language isolate. The name of the language is derived from the city of Akkad, a major centre of Mesopotamian civilization.