What dialect of Akkadian is the Standard Babylonian version written in?

The Standard Babylonian version of the Epic of Gilgamesh is written in Standard Babylonian, a literary dialect of Akkadian. It is a highly formal, conservative variety used for major scholarly, religious, and literary works.

Standard Babylonian was not simply the everyday speech of every Babylonian or Assyrian scribe. It preserved older Babylonian forms and became a prestigious written language across Mesopotamia. Assyrian scribes could copy the epic in Standard Babylonian even when their spoken or administrative language was Neo-Assyrian.

The label can cause confusion because Akkadian had several historically related varieties, including Old Babylonian, Neo-Babylonian, and Assyrian. The epic’s Standard Babylonian form was shaped over centuries from earlier traditions and reached its classic form in the late second or first millennium BCE. “Standard Babylonian” therefore describes both the literary version and its formal Akkadian dialect.