Hurrian is a conventional name for the language of the Hurrians (Khurrites), a people who entered northern Mesopotamia around 2300 BC and had mostly vanished by 1000 BC. Hurrian was the language of the Mitanni kingdom in northern Mesopotamia, and was likely spoken at least initially in Hurrian settlements in Syria. It is generally believed that the speakers of this language originally came from the Armenian mountains and spread over southeast Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. ^[1] Kingdom of Mitanni Mitanni (cuneiform KUR URUMi-it-ta-ni, also Mittani Mi-ta-an-ni, in Assyrian sources Hanigalbat, Khanigalbat cuneiform Ḫa-ni-gal-bat ) was a Hurrian kingdom in northern Mesopotamia from ca. ... Mesopotamia refers to the region now occupied by modern Iraq, and parts of eastern Syria, southeastern Turkey, and southwest Iran. ... An extinct language is a language which no longer has any native speakers, in contrast to a dead language, which is is a language which has stopped changing in grammar, vocabulary, and the complete meaning of a sentence. ... (Redirected from 1000 BC) Centuries: 12th century BC - 11th century BC - 10th century BC Decades: 1050s BC 1040s BC 1030s BC 1020s BC 1010s BC - 1000s BC - 990s BC 980s BC 970s BC 960s BC 950s BC Events and Trends 1006 BC - David becomes king of the ancient Israelites (traditional... Current distribution of Human Language Families A language family is a group of related languages said to have descended from a common proto-language. ... The Hurro-Urartian languages are an extinct language family of the Ancient Near East, which comprises only two languages, Hurrian and Urartian (Asia Minor and the Caucasus). ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages. ... ISO 639-3 is an international standard for language codes. ... Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... Unicode is an industry standard allowing computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in any of the worlds writing systems. ... For the history of the kingdom of Mitanni (1500–1300 BC), see Mitanni. ... Mesopotamia refers to the region now occupied by modern Iraq, and parts of eastern Syria, southeastern Turkey, and southwest Iran. ... (Redirected from 2300 BC) (24th century BC - 23rd century BC - 22nd century BC - other centuries) (4th millennium BC - 3rd millennium BC - 2nd millennium BC) Events 2334 - 2279 BC (short chronology) Sargon of Akkads conquest of Mesopotamia 2217 - 2193 BC - Nomadic invasions of Akkad 2205 BC - Foundation of the Xia... (Redirected from 1000 BC) Centuries: 12th century BC - 11th century BC - 10th century BC Decades: 1050s BC 1040s BC 1030s BC 1020s BC 1010s BC - 1000s BC - 990s BC 980s BC 970s BC 960s BC 950s BC Events and Trends 1006 BC - David becomes king of the ancient Israelites (traditional... Kingdom of Mitanni Mitanni (cuneiform KUR URUMi-it-ta-ni, also Mittani Mi-ta-an-ni, in Assyrian sources Hanigalbat, Khanigalbat cuneiform Ḫa-ni-gal-bat ) was a Hurrian kingdom in northern Mesopotamia from ca. ... Armenian Highland (Armenian Upland) is part of the Transcaucasian Highland and constitutes the continuation of the Caucasus mountains. ...

Language interrelations

The territory of the Armenian language appears to have been roughly coincidental with that of the earlier non-IE Hurrian and closely related Urartian (with Dark shading). The poorly known and presumably related non-IE Etio language was to its north. Many of these languages occupied partially or wholly the earlier territory of the Kuro-Araxes culture (light shading). The nearest IE neighbors of the Armenians were the Hittites (and related Luvians and Palaic-speaking populations) who were not closely related to Armenian. Assyrian and Gutian are non IE languages. Burials with wheeled vehicles have been uncovered at Trialeti and Lchashen. ^[2]

Hurrian is an ergative-agglutinative language that, together with Urartian, constitutes the Hurro-Urartian family. Armenian has many layers of loanwords, and shows traces of long language contact with Hurrian and Hurro-Urartian. ^[3] Some scholars see similarities between Hurrian and the Northeast Caucasian languages, and thus place it in the Alarodian family. Examples of the proposed phonological correspondences are PEC *l- > Hurrian t-, PEC *-dl- > Hurrian -r- (Diakonoff & Starostin). Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... An ergative-absolutive language (or simply ergative) is one that treats the agent of transitive verbs distinctly from the subject of intransitive verbs and the object of transitive verbs. ... It has been suggested that Agglutination be merged into this article or section. ... Urartian is the conventional name for the language spoken by the inhabitants of the ancient kingdom of Urartu in Northeast Anatolia (present-day Turkey), in the region of Lake Van. ... The Hurro-Urartian languages are an extinct language family of the Ancient Near East, which comprises only two languages, Hurrian and Urartian (Asia Minor and the Caucasus). ... The Northeast Caucasian languages, also called East Caucasian, Caspian, Nakh-Dagestanian, or Dagestanian, are a family of languages spoken mostly in the Dagestan, Chechnya, and Ingushetia regions of Russia, in Northern Azerbaijan, and in Georgia. ... The Alarodian languages are a proposed language family that encompasses two language families of the Caucasus: Northeast or Dagestan (sometimes called Avar or Lezgian which are also the names of its most major members) and North-central or Vaynakh (which includes Chechen and Ingush), as well as the extinct Hurro_Urartian...

Hurrian writing

The Hurrians adopted the Akkadian cuneiform script for their own language about 2000 BC. This has enabled scholars to read the Hurrian language. The number of Hurrian texts yet discovered is still small. They also tended to use a lot of Sumerian logograms whose Hurrian pronunciation is unknown. The understanding of the Hurrian language is therefore far from complete. Akkadian (lišānum akkadītum) was a Semitic language (part of the greater Afro-Asiatic language family) spoken in ancient Mesopotamia, particularly by the Assyrians and Babylonians. ... The cuneiform script is one of the earliest known forms of written expression. ... 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... A Chinese logogram A logogram, or logograph, is a single written character which represents a word or a morpheme (a meaningful unit of language). ...

Hurrian literature

Texts in the Hurrian language itself have been found at Hattusa, Ugarit (Ras Shamra), and Sapinuwa (but unpublished). Also, one of the longest of the Amarna letters is Hurrian; written by King Tushratta of Mitanni to Pharaoh Amenhotep III. It was the only long Hurrian text known until a multi-tablet collection of literature in Hurrian with a Hittite translation was discovered at Hattusas in 1983. Among the Hurrian texts from Ugarit are the oldest known instances of written music. The Lion Gate in the south-west Hattusa (also known as Hattusas or Khattushash) was the capital of the Hittite Empire. ... Entrance to the Palace of Ugarit Ugarit (modern site Ras Shamra رأس شمرة; meaning top/head/cape of the wild fennel in Arabic) was an ancient cosmopolitan port city, sited on the Mediterranean coast of northern Syria a few kilometers north of the modern city of Latakia. ... Sapinuwa or Shapinuwa was a Bronze Age Hittite city, at the site of Ortaköy, Çorum in Turkey. ... EA 161, letter by Aziru, leader of Amurru, (stating his case to pharaoh), one of the Amarna letters in cuneiform writing on a clay tablet. ... Tushratta was a king of the Mitanni at the end of the reign of Amenhotep III and throughout the reign of Akhenaten -- approximately the late 14th century BC. He was the son of Shuttarna II, and his daughter Tadukhipa was married to Akhenaten. ... Nebmaatre The Lord of Truth is Re[2] Nomen Amenhotep Hekawaset Amun is Satisfied, Ruler of Thebes[1] Horus name Kanakht Emkhaimaat The strong bull, appearing in truth Nebty name Semenhepusegerehtawy One establishing laws, pacifying the two lands Golden Horus Aakhepesh-husetiu Great of valour, smiting the Asiatics Consort(s...

Hurrian further influenced the Semitic language spoken at Qatna and the Hittite language - particularly the dialect of Sapinuwa. The Semitic languages are the northeastern subfamily of the Afro-Asiatic languages, and the only family of this group spoken in Asia. ... Qatna is an ancient city in Syria, present day Tell-el-Mishrife in the Wadi il-Aswad, a tributary of the Orontes, 18 km northeast of Homs. ... Hittite is the extinct language once spoken by the Hittites, a people who created an empire centered on ancient Hattusas (modern BoÄŸazkale) in north-central Anatolia (modern Turkey). ...

Hypothesis about Hurrian

Some scholars, like I. J. Gelb and E. A. Speiser, believe that the Hurrians were later arrivals who assimilated or were assimilated by a Subarian substratum, and view the term "Hurrian language" as an anachronistic term for the native language of Subartu. Ignace J. Gelb (October 14, 1907 – December 22, 1985) was a Polish - American ancient historian and Assyriologist who pioneered the scientific study of writing systems. ... Ephraim Avigdor Speiser (January 24, 1902–June 15, 1965) was University Professor and Chairman of the Department of Oriental Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. ... Subarian is the term used by certain scholars (such as I. J. Gelb & E. A. Speiser) to describe the aboriginal language and inhabitants of Subar-Tu an ancient kingdom in Ararat mentioned in Sumerian records. ... The land of Subar (Sumerian Su-bir4/Subar/Šubur) or Subartu (Akkadian Šubartum/Subartum/ina Šú-ba-ri, Assyrian mât Šubarri) was situated at the Tigris, north of Babylonia. ...

References

See also

• Indo-Aryan superstrate in Mitanni

Some theonyms, proper names and other terminology of the Mitanni exhibit an Indo-Aryan superstrate, suggesting that an Indo-Aryan elite imposed itself over the Hurrian population in the course of the Indo-Aryan expansion. ...