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Hurro-Urartian languages


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Jump to: navigation , search Hurro-Urartian Hurrartian, Asianic Geographic
distribution:  Anatolia Genetic classification :  Alarodian ?*
Hurro-Urartian* Subdivisions:  /Hurrian / /Urartian /

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The *Hurro-Urartian languages* are an extinct language family of the
Ancient Near East , which comprises only two languages, Hurrian and
Urartian , both of which were spoken in the Taurus mountains area.

Little is known about these ergative -agglunative languages, but they do
not belong to the Semitic or Indo-European language families. Some
observers such as I. M. Diakonoff and Sergei Starostin have seen
affinities between Hurro-Urartian and the Northeast Caucasian languages ,
and proposed a larger Alarodian family for these. As is typical of
theories on linguistic groupings in the Caucasus region, however, there is
little evidence for a relationship of Hurro-Urartian to other language
families that rises above what may be areal features , and it is prudent
to view the group as an independent family at present. The greatest number
of common words with Urartian is in Nakh-Daghestan language group (169
word-roots) ^[1]

Hurrian was the language of the Hurrians (occasionally called "Hurrites"),
a people who spread to northern Mesopotamia probably coming from the
Caucasus starting from 2500 BC ^[/citation needed /] , and whose apogee
was the kingdom of Mitanni (1450 –1270 BC ). The language was probably
extinct by 1000 BC . It has been proposed that two little known groups,
the Nairi and the Mannae might have been Hurrian speakers, but as little
is known about them, it is hard to draw any conclusions about what
languages they spoke.

Armenian has many layers of loanwords, and shows traces of long language
contact with Hurro-Urartian.^[2]


There was a strong Hurrian cultural influence on Hittite in ancient times,
and there may also be areal influence of Hurro-Urartian on the Kurdish
language currently spoken in former Hurro-Urartian territories.^[/citation
needed /]


[edit ] Notes

1. *^ * Igor M. Diakonoff, Sergei A. Starostin. "Hurro-Urartian and East
Caucasian Languages", Ancient Orient. Ethnocultural Relations. Moscow,
1988, pp. 164-207 http://starling.rinet.ru/Texts/hururt.pdf 2. *^ *
Dʹi︠a︡konov, Igorʹ Mikhaĭlovich, and S. A. Starostin. 1986.
/Hurro-Urartian as an Eastern Caucasian language/. München: R. Kitzinger.
ISBN 3920645391 ; Rafael Ishkhanyan, "Illustrated History of Armenia,"
Yerevan, 1989; Martiros Kavoukjian, "The Genesis of Armenian People",
Montreal, 1982; Martiros Kavoukjian, "Armenia, Subartu and Sumer",
Montreal, 1989; Hovick Nersessian, "Highlands of Armenia," Los Angeles,
1998


[edit ] References

* Dʹi︠a︡konov, Igorʹ Mikhaĭlovich, and S. A. Starostin. 1986.
/Hurro-Urartian as an Eastern Caucasian language/. München: R.
Kitzinger. ISBN 3920645391