How did cuneiform writing influence Akkadian?

When the Akkadians, a Semitic people, adopted the Sumerian writing system in the mid-3rd millennium BCE, they significantly adapted it to suit their own language. This process of adaptation fundamentally transformed how the script functioned.1

The Akkadians retained Sumerian logograms—signs representing words—but pronounced them using corresponding Akkadian terms. Furthermore, they expanded the phonetic utility of the script. While they kept the original Sumerian inventory of simple open or closed syllables, they also incorporated more complex syllabic values derived from Sumerian logograms. This led to increased polyphony, where a single sign could represent multiple phonetic values based on both its original Sumerian usage and new Akkadian readings.1

For example, a sign originally depicting "mountain" was read as kur in Sumerian, but the Akkadians added the values mat and šad to represent their own words for "land" (mātu) and "mountain" (šadû). This complex system, known as Old Akkadian cuneiform, persisted with these overlapping phonetic and logographic values throughout the history of Babylonian and Assyrian writing.1