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Sumerian ( "native tongue") was the language of ancient Sumer, spoken in Southern Mesopotamia from at least the 4th millennium BCE. It was gradually replaced by Akkadian as a spoken language in the beginning of the 2nd millenium BCE, but continued to be used as a sacred, ceremonial, literary and scientific language in Mesopotamia until the first century CE. Then, it was forgotten until the 19th century. Sumerian is a language isolate, distinguished from other ancient languages of Mesopotamia such as Akkadian (which comprises Babylonian and Assyrian) and Aramaic, both of which are Semitic languages, and Elamite.