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Hurro-Urartian languages
Hurro-Urartian is an extinct language family of the Ancient Near East, comprising only two known languages: Hurrian and Urartian.
It is often assumed that the Hurro-Urartian languages, or a pre-split Proto-Hurro-Urartian language, were originally spoken by people of the Kura-Araxes culture which existed in Eastern Anatolia, the Caucasus, northwestern Iran, Upper Mesopotamia and northern Levant from the late 5th millennium BC to late 3rd millennium BC.
While the genetic relation between Hurrian and Urartian is undisputed, the wider connections of Hurro-Urartian to other language families are controversial. After the decipherment of Hurrian and Urartian inscriptions and documents in the 19th and early 20th century, Hurrian and Urartian were soon recognized as not related to the Semitic or later arriving Indo-European languages, Kartvelian languages, nor to language isolates of the region such as Sumerian language, Elamite language, Gutian language and Hattian language. At present, the consensus view of linguists is the most conservative view: Hurro-Urartian is a primary language family not demonstrably related to any other language family.
Since the discovery of the familial links between Hurrian and Urartian, various researchers have proposed potential genetic relationships of the Hurro-Urartian languages to other language families. Early proposals for an external genetic relationship of Hurro-Urartian variously grouped them with the Kartvelian languages, Elamite, and other non-Semitic and non-Indo-European languages of the region.[citation needed]
More modern proposals attempt to link the Hurro-Urartian family with either the Northeastern Caucasian language family (via Igor Diakonoff and Sergei Starostin's proposed Alarodian language family)[failed verification] or with Indo-European languages (via Arnaud Fornet and Allan R. Bomhard). Neither proposal has gained much traction within mainstream historical linguistics, with some scholars raising doubts regarding the arguments advanced in favour of a genetic relationship between the language-families, or else, at least, maintaining that the evidence is—as yet—inconclusive.
The poorly-attested Kassite language is not a member of the Semitic or Indo-European families, and it may instead have been a Hurro-Urartian language or a language isolate. However, only approximately 100 words of Kassite are known.
Hurrian was the language of the Hurrians, occasionally called "Hurrites". It was spoken in the northern parts of Mesopotamia and Syria and the southeastern parts of Anatolia between at least the last quarter of the third millennium BC and its extinction towards the end of the second millennium BC. There were various Hurrian-speaking states, of which the most prominent one was the kingdom of Mitanni (1450–1270 BC), and also partly those of Lullubi and the Turukkaeans, the latter two also showing East Semitic Akkadian influence. It has been proposed that two little known groups, the Nairi of southeast Anatolia and the Mannae of northwestern Iran, might have been Hurrian speakers. As little is known about them, it is hard to draw any conclusions about what languages they spoke, although there is no evidence of them being Semitic or Indo-European, which was represented by the Iranic languages in Iran from the 9th century BC.
The Kassite language was possibly related to Hurro-Urartian. Francfort and Tremblay on the basis of the Akkadian textual and archaeological evidence from Assyria and Babylonia, proposed to identify the kingdom of Marhashi and Ancient Margiana. The Marhashite personal names seems to point towards an Eastern variant of Hurrian, or another language of the Hurro-Urartian language family rather than to Semitic or Indo-European, the latter of which had not yet appeared in the region.
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Hurro-Urartian languages AI simulator
(@Hurro-Urartian languages_simulator)
Hurro-Urartian languages
Hurro-Urartian is an extinct language family of the Ancient Near East, comprising only two known languages: Hurrian and Urartian.
It is often assumed that the Hurro-Urartian languages, or a pre-split Proto-Hurro-Urartian language, were originally spoken by people of the Kura-Araxes culture which existed in Eastern Anatolia, the Caucasus, northwestern Iran, Upper Mesopotamia and northern Levant from the late 5th millennium BC to late 3rd millennium BC.
While the genetic relation between Hurrian and Urartian is undisputed, the wider connections of Hurro-Urartian to other language families are controversial. After the decipherment of Hurrian and Urartian inscriptions and documents in the 19th and early 20th century, Hurrian and Urartian were soon recognized as not related to the Semitic or later arriving Indo-European languages, Kartvelian languages, nor to language isolates of the region such as Sumerian language, Elamite language, Gutian language and Hattian language. At present, the consensus view of linguists is the most conservative view: Hurro-Urartian is a primary language family not demonstrably related to any other language family.
Since the discovery of the familial links between Hurrian and Urartian, various researchers have proposed potential genetic relationships of the Hurro-Urartian languages to other language families. Early proposals for an external genetic relationship of Hurro-Urartian variously grouped them with the Kartvelian languages, Elamite, and other non-Semitic and non-Indo-European languages of the region.[citation needed]
More modern proposals attempt to link the Hurro-Urartian family with either the Northeastern Caucasian language family (via Igor Diakonoff and Sergei Starostin's proposed Alarodian language family)[failed verification] or with Indo-European languages (via Arnaud Fornet and Allan R. Bomhard). Neither proposal has gained much traction within mainstream historical linguistics, with some scholars raising doubts regarding the arguments advanced in favour of a genetic relationship between the language-families, or else, at least, maintaining that the evidence is—as yet—inconclusive.
The poorly-attested Kassite language is not a member of the Semitic or Indo-European families, and it may instead have been a Hurro-Urartian language or a language isolate. However, only approximately 100 words of Kassite are known.
Hurrian was the language of the Hurrians, occasionally called "Hurrites". It was spoken in the northern parts of Mesopotamia and Syria and the southeastern parts of Anatolia between at least the last quarter of the third millennium BC and its extinction towards the end of the second millennium BC. There were various Hurrian-speaking states, of which the most prominent one was the kingdom of Mitanni (1450–1270 BC), and also partly those of Lullubi and the Turukkaeans, the latter two also showing East Semitic Akkadian influence. It has been proposed that two little known groups, the Nairi of southeast Anatolia and the Mannae of northwestern Iran, might have been Hurrian speakers. As little is known about them, it is hard to draw any conclusions about what languages they spoke, although there is no evidence of them being Semitic or Indo-European, which was represented by the Iranic languages in Iran from the 9th century BC.
The Kassite language was possibly related to Hurro-Urartian. Francfort and Tremblay on the basis of the Akkadian textual and archaeological evidence from Assyria and Babylonia, proposed to identify the kingdom of Marhashi and Ancient Margiana. The Marhashite personal names seems to point towards an Eastern variant of Hurrian, or another language of the Hurro-Urartian language family rather than to Semitic or Indo-European, the latter of which had not yet appeared in the region.