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Why did Sumerian remain in use for religious and scholarly writing after it was no longer spoken?

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Sumerian cuneiform tablet — cuneiform An account of barley distribution, probably from Uruk, Mesopotamia, c. 3100–2900 bce; in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.

After Sumerian ceased to be a spoken language around 2000 BCE, it persisted as a written language for religious and scholarly purposes until the end of the use of cuneiform writing.1

This longevity was primarily due to the role of Sumerian as a foundational cultural and intellectual legacy in Mesopotamia. Scribes in Babylonian schools continued to study the language for centuries, copying and preserving a vast body of literature that had been passed down through oral tradition or earlier written records. This literature included essential texts such as:1

Myths and epics1
Hymns and lamentations1
Rituals and incantations1
Proverbs and wisdom compositions1

Because these texts were deeply embedded in the religious and intellectual life of the region, the ability to read and write Sumerian remained a mark of high scholarship, as evidenced by the Assyrian ruler Ashurbanipal, who boasted of his proficiency in the language as late as the 7th century BCE.1