Abstract (eng)
This thesis tries to identify formal criteria for private letters from the so-called “long sixth century” BC. concerning appropriateness, politeness, persuasion, emphasis, and style of the Akkadian used. To this end, various features are examined, starting from address and greeting formulae to particular stylistic features like particles, questions etc. In the course of this study, forms of address in connection with titles of the involved parties are under investigation, with the hypothesis of directness and indirectness of speech as a means to identify various patterns and combinations that in turn can help defining the relationship between sender and addressee. Moreover, parts of letters and different ways of introducing them are analysed, expecially considering their possible functions. Questions of style are intrinsically tied to status and nature of the relationship of the involved people and are also inseparable from formal criteria to express certain notions or to achive certain goals. A genderspecific approach is used to explore the possibilities of different forms of female and male expression. This theoretical framework is then combined with prosopographic data to link its findings to actual persons whose relationships are known to modern researchers. This can not only be used to verify the hypothetical findings but also to specify certain relationships whose basic nature is already identified but whose detailed personal components remain unclear.