the original sumerian script was adapted for the writing of the akkadian, eblaite, elamite, hittite, luwian, hattic, hurrian, and urartian languages, and it inspired the ugaritic and old persian alphabets. cuneiform writing was gradually replaced by the phoenician alphabet during the neo-assyrian empire. by the 2nd century bc, the script was extinct. all knowledge of how to read it was lost until it began to be deciphered in the 19th century.