Why did Babylonian scribes create Sumerian-Akkadian word lists and grammatical texts?

Babylonian scribes created Sumerian-Akkadian word lists and grammatical texts primarily to facilitate the study and preservation of the Sumerian language after it ceased to be a spoken tongue around 2000 BCE.12

As Sumerian receded into isolated regions and eventually disappeared as a living language, it remained a prestigious "cult idiom" essential to Babylonian religion and scholarship. To ensure its continued use, scribes developed these tools for the following purposes:23

• Instructional Programs: Lexicographical texts (word lists) served as foundational material for students learning to write in cuneiform.2
• Linguistic Translation: Because Sumerian and Akkadian possessed radically different structures, scribes created "grammatical treatises" to translate pronouns, verb forms, and paradigms, allowing for the artificial acquisition of the language by the priesthood.23
• Preservation of Literature: These tools enabled the translation of traditional Sumerian literary compositions into bilingual versions, ensuring that myths, epics, and rituals were not lost as the original language faded from daily use.123

These efforts were vital for maintaining the intellectual and religious traditions of Mesopotamia for centuries after the language had died out.13