Hurrian language

Hurrian (Ḫurwoḫḫe / Ḫurroḫḫe)
Spoken in	formerly in Eastern Anatolia , Northern Syria and Northern Mesopotamia
speaker	extinct
Linguistic ; classification	Hurro-Urartian language group Hurrian;
Official status
Official language in	Mittani Empire (until about 1200 BC)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	xhu

The Hurrian (older also Churritisch , (C) Hurrian , from the self-designation Ḫurwoḫḫe / Ḫurroḫḫe ) is an extinct language , which up to 1200 BC. Was spoken in an area that stretched from eastern Turkey to northern Iraq and roughly corresponds to today's settlement area of the Kurds . It was the official language of the Mittani Empire, but was also used in some regions of the Hittite Empire . The most important centers were the capital Waššukanni and the cities Taidu , Nuzi , Qatna and Alalach as well as Ḫattuša , the capital of the Hittite Empire. During the Boğazköy excavation campaign in 1983, a Hurrian-Hittite bilingualism was brought to light, the analysis of which is reflected in the work of Erich Neus .

Relationship with other languages

The only language with which Hurrian is demonstrably related is Urartian , a language that was spoken in the beginning and middle of the first millennium BC in an area between Lake Sevan , Lake Van and Lake Urmia . Relationships to Eteocyprian , Kypro-Minoan and Cassite were also proposed . A relationship with the Northeast Caucasian languages is possible, but has not yet been proven. The reason for this is mainly the diversity of this family, which makes it difficult to reliably reconstruct the proto-language . In addition, it is difficult to compare a language family that died out some 2500 years ago with one that is not so anciently recorded.

History of language

Urkesch lion and associated stone tablet with the oldest known text in Hurrian ( 21st century BC ), Louvre

The oldest Hurrian text documents are names of persons and places from the end of the 3rd millennium BC. The first texts date from the time of King Tišatal von Urkeš (beginning of the 2nd millennium BC). The archaeologists found numerous epics, incantations, prophecies and letters in Ḫattuša, Mari , Tuttul , Babylon , Ugarit and other sites. However, the most important text for understanding the language is a long letter (the so-called Mittani letter) found in Amarna (Egypt). The Hurrian King Tuschratta had it to the then Pharaoh Amenhotep III. written.

From the 14th century BC onwards the Hittites and a little later from the east and south the Assyrians penetrated further and further into the Hurrian-speaking area, until it was finally divided up by these two great powers. The sea peoples storm in the 12th century BC Chr. Led to further political upheavals. Other written languages, such as Hittite and Ugarite , died out. From this time on, Hurrian can only be found in names of persons and places that appear in Akkadian or Urartian texts. It is therefore not known whether Hurrian continued to exist as a spoken language for some time.

Dialects

The Hurrian of the Mittani letter differs quite clearly from the language in the texts from Ḫattuša. While in Mittani i and e as well as u and o are differentiated, in Ḫattuša-Hurrian they probably merged to i and u . There are also differences in morphology . Nevertheless, it can be safely assumed that these are dialects of the same language. A mixed Hurrian-Akkadian language has come down to us from Nuzi , a city in the Mittani province of Arrapha and the Syrian Qatna .

Phonetics and Phonology

Consonants

	bilabial		labio- dental		alveolar		palatal		velar
	stl.	sth.	stl.	sth.	stl.	sth.	stl.	sth.	stl.	sth.
Plosives	p				t				k
Affricates					( ts )
Fricatives			f		s				x
Nasals		m				n
Vibrants						r
lateral approximants						l
central approximants		( w )						( j )

As can be seen from the table, the characteristic of voicing or voicelessness does not differ in meaning. No voiced consonant has an unvoiced counterpart and vice versa. However, according to the cuneiform spelling of the voiceless consonants (except / ts /), voiced subsidiary forms appear that occur in certain phonetic environments (between two voiced consonants or vowels ). Sometimes a voiced consonant is written in these surroundings , i.e. b (for p ), d (for t ), g (for k ), v (for f ) and ž (for š ), rarely also ǧ (for h / ḫ ) . All consonants except / w / and / j / can be short or long. However, the long consonants ( geminates ) only occur between vowels. In the cuneiform as well as in the Latin transcription ( transcription ), the consonants length is expressed by double-writing of the consonants, so ... VC-CV ... (where V for vowels, C represents the consonants). Short consonants are written ... V-CV ... , for example mānnatta ("I am") ma-aa nn aa tt a is written.

Since the / f / does not appear in the Sumerian cuneiform script, the Hurrites used the / p /, / b / or / w / -containing syllables instead. A / f / can be recognized in words when these spellings vary. In cases in which a word is only assigned a p once , one cannot decide whether the corresponding sound is actually a / p / or a / f /. At the end of the syllable after a , / f / becomes [u], e.g. B. in tānōšau (<* tān-ōš-af) "I did (it)". / s / is traditionally transcribed with š , since the cuneiform characters use š to represent this phoneme . / ts / is usually transcribed with z , / x / with ḫ or h . In Hurrian, / l / and / r / do not appear at the beginning of the word.

Vowels

	front		central		back
	ung.	ger.	ung.	ger.	ung.	ger.
closed	i					u
medium	e					O
open			a

Like the consonants, all vowels can appear short or long. In the cuneiform script, the so-called plene spelling is used for long vowels , ie the vowel character is also inserted between the two syllables CV-VC. Short vowels are written CV-VC, long vowels CV-V-VC. In the transcription, long vowels are marked with a macron, i.e. ā , ē , ī , ō and ū . For the / o /, which does not exist in the Sumerian cuneiform script, the character U is used, while for the / u / the character Ú (pronounced: u-two) stands.

Stress, tone system, intonation

Since there are no contemporary records of pronunciation of Hurrian, nothing can be said about the accent or sentence intonation , nor about whether the language was possibly a tonal language . The spellings do not allow any conclusions to be drawn in this regard. The accent marks (´ or `) used in the transliteration, i.e. the character-by-character transcription, only designate the different cuneiform characters with the same phonetic value.

grammar

Word formation

In contrast to German, Hurrian cannot form new words by combining two or more stems (e.g. German front door , chopping , etc.). The Hurrian has numerous suffixes that can derive new words from stems. Examples: attardi (forefathers, ancestors) to attai (father), futki (son) to fut (beget), aštoḫḫe (female) to ašti (woman), šeniffuzzi (appropriate to my brother) to šeniffu (my brother). There are also numerous of these suffixes for verbs, which often change the valence .

For a more detailed description of the stem extension morphology, reference is made to the specialist literature.

morphology

Case and number

All Hurrian nouns end in a vowel. There are very few that end in / a / or / e /. All other nouns are / i / aus. This stem-end vowel disappears when certain endings appear. This includes the case endings that begin with a vowel, but also the article suffixes . Examples: kāz-ōš (like a cup), cf. kāzi (cup), awar-ra (the fields), cf. awari (field). With 13 cases ( case ), the Hurrian has an above-average extensive system. One of the cases, the equative , has a different form in the two main dialects. The ending -ōš , which is common in Ḫattuša and Mari , is referred to as equative I, the form -nna occurring in the Mittani letter is called equative II.The so-called "e-case" occurs only rarely, mostly in genitive ( des / der ) or allative ( towards ... ) meaning.

Like many languages in this region, Hurricane is one of the ergative languages . This means that the case used for the subject in sentences without an object is the same as the case in which the direct object stands. This case is called an absolute . Another case ( ergative ) is used for the subject in object-containing sentences . The language distinguishes two numbers , singular ( singular ) and plural ( plural ). The following table gives an overview of the case endings in Hurrian.

case	singular	Plural
Absolutely	-O	-Ø , -lla
Ergative	-š	- (a) šuš
Genitive	-fe , -we	- (a) še
dative	-fa , -wa	- (a) ša
Locative ( in, at ... )	-a	- (a) ša , -a
Allative ( towards ... )	-ta	- (a) šta
Ablative ( from ... )	-tan	- (a) štan
Instrumental ( by means of ... )	-ae	not used
Ablative instrumental ( through / because of ... )	-n (i) , -ne	- (a) šani , - (a) šane
Comitive ( together with ... )	-ra	- (a) šura
Associative ( as ... )	-nn (i)	not used (it is often assumed - (a) šunn (i) )
Equative I ( like ... )	-ōš	not used
Equative II	-nna	- (a) šunna
"E-case"	-ē	not used

In some phonetic environments these endings change. The f of the genitive and dative merges with a preceding p or t to form pp or tt , e.g. B. Tēššup-pe (des Tēššup), Ḫepat-te (the hepat). The associative can be combined with the instrumental : šēna-nn-ae (brother-associative-instrumental) means "brotherly (minded)".

items

case	Singular	Plural
Absolutely	-O	-n / A
all other cases	-ne	-n / A

The definite article is placed directly after the noun, before the case / number ending, e.g. B. tiwē-na-še (thing / word-article, plural-genitive, plural) (of things / words). Since the article has no endings in the absolute singular, a noun in this form can be definite or indefinite. kāzi is therefore “a cup” or “the cup”. The / n / of the article merges with the preceding / n /, / l / and / r / to / nn /, / ll / or / rr /, e.g. B. ēn-na (the gods), ōl-la (the others), awar-ra (the fields). As mentioned, the stem-end vowel is omitted, cf. without ending: ēni (god), ōli (other), awari (field). If there is another consonant before the / l, r, n / of the stem, a vowel is inserted between these two sounds, e.g. B. ḫafur u n-ne-ta (heaven article, singular allative) (to heaven), cf. without ending: ḫafurni (heaven).

Suffix recording

A very prominent feature of Hurrian, as well as Urartian and the neighboring Kartwel languages (such as Georgian ), is the so-called suffix inclusion . Words that are dependent on nouns incorporate the case suffixes. The article, which corresponds in number to the reference word, acts as a link between the dependent noun and the case ending. An example with an adjective makes this clear:

(1)	ḫurwoḫḫeneš ōmīnneš
	ḫurw-oḫḫe-ne-š	ōmīn-ne-š
	Hurriter-Adjectivator-Article.Singular-Ergative.Singular	Country-Article.Singular-Ergative.Singular
	"The Hurrian country"

A suffix is also included with genitive attributes . The noun on which the genitive depends is usually with a possessive pronoun that shows person / number congruence with the genitive. The genitive precedes the reference word.

(2)	šēniffufenefe ōmīnīfe
	šēn-iffu-fe-ne-fe	ōmīni-i-fe
	Brother-my-genitive.Singular article.Singular-genitive.Singular	Land-sein-Genitive.Singular
	"Of my brother's country" (lit.: my brother's country)

If the superordinate noun is in the locative, instrumental or equative I, no suffix is included. In the absolute singular one cannot identify a suffix inclusion, since both the case and the article are endless. If more than two genitives are nested, the suffix is only added to the innermost genitive, as the following example shows:

(3)	ōmīni Mizrinefenefe efrīfe aštīnna
	ōmīni	Mizri-ne-fe-ne-fe	efri-i-fe	ašti-i = nna
	country	Egypt-Art.Sing.-Genitive.Sing.-Art.Sing.-Genitive.Sing.	Lord-his / her-genitive sing.	Woman-his / her = he / she / it
	"She is the wife of the ruler of the land of Egypt."

Verb morphology

The verb morphology of Hurrian is very complex, but only suffixes (separated by "-") and Klitika (separated by "=") are used. Klitika are words in Hurrian that have their own part of speech (e.g. pronouns), but are added phonologically as a suffix to other words. Transitive and intransitive verbs are clearly differentiated in their morphology. Only transitive verbs are subject to congruence, ie they must have an ending that corresponds in person and number with the subject of the sentence. The direct object and the intransitive subject, if they are not represented in the sentence by a noun, are expressed by clitic personal pronouns, see section “Pronouns”. Several suffixes can be added directly to the verb stem, which modify the meaning of the verb. This also includes morphemes that alter the valence, such as -an (n) ( causative ), -ant (presumably applicative ) and -ukar ( reciprocal ). The meanings of many of these suffixes have not yet been deciphered.

Indicative verb forms

These derivation suffixes are followed by the marking of the tense . The present tense is endless. The suffix -ōš stands for the simple past , the suffix -ēt marks the future tense . After the suffixes for past and future tense, there is a suffix -t in intransitive but not in antipassive verb forms , which indicates this intransitivity. This suffix is not used in the present tense. Another suffix -t can be used with all tenses in transitive sentences. It indicates that the subject is in the 3rd person plural. It must be used in indicative forms, in all other forms it is optional. These two suffixes with the same name can lead to ambiguous forms. So unētta can mean on the one hand “they will ... bring” but also “he / she / it will come”.

These endings are followed by the transitivity vowel. It is -a if the verb is intransitive, -i if the verb is in the antipassive and -o (or -i in the Mittani letter) in transitive verbs. The suffix -o (or -i ) is dropped immediately after the derivation suffix . In transitive verb forms the -o (or -i ) is only used in the present tense, in the other tenses the transitivity is expressed with the presence or absence of the suffix -t (see above).

The next position can be occupied by the negative suffix. -Wa is used for this in transitive sentences . Intransitive and anti-passive sentences are negated with -kkV . V stands for the vowel that precedes the negation suffix. If this is / a /, both vowels are changed to o . If the intransitive negation suffix is immediately followed by a clitic personal pronoun (except = nna ), the vowel of the suffix is / a /, regardless of the vowel of the syllable in front of it, e.g. B. mann-o-kka = til = ān (to be-intransitive (!) - negation = 1st plural absolute = and) "and we are not ...". The following table compares the time, transitivity and negation markings in summary:

Transitivity		Present	preterite	Future tense
intransitive verb	not denied	-a	-ōšta	-ētta
intransitive verb	denied	-okko	-ōštokko	-ēttokko
antipassive verb	not denied	-i	-ōši	-ēti
antipassive verb	denied	-ikki	-ōšikki	-ētikki
transitive verb without a derivation suffix	not denied	Mari / Ḫattuša -o Mittani -i	Mari / Ḫattuša -ōšo Mittani -ōši	Mari / Ḫattuša -ēto Mittani -ēti
transitive verb without a derivation suffix	denied	Mari / Ḫattuša -owa Mittani -iwa	Mari / Ḫattuša -ōšowa Mittani -ōšiwa	Mari / Ḫattuša -ētowa Mittani -ētiwa
transitive verb with derivation suffix	not denied	-O	Mari / Ḫattuša -ōšo Mittani -ōši	Mari / Ḫattuša -ēto Mittani -ēti
transitive verb with derivation suffix	denied	-wa	Mari / Ḫattuša -ōšowa Mittani -ōšiwa	Mari / Ḫattuša -ētowa Mittani -ētiwa

This is followed by the marking of the subject in transitive verb forms. The following forms occur:

	1st person singular	1st person plural	2nd person singular	2nd person plural	3rd person single / multiple
with suffix -i "transitive" (Mittani only)	-af , -au	-auša	-io	- aššo* , - aššu*	-ia
with suffix -wa "negation"	-uffu	-uffuš (a)	-wa-o	-uššu	-wa-a
with other morpheme (without merging)	-...- af , -...- au	-...- auša	-...-O	-...- aššo , -...- aššu	-...- a

The suffixes of the first person singular and plural as well as the second person plural merge with the preceding suffixes for transitivity and negation ( -i (only in Mittani) or -wa ). With the suffix -o used in Mari and Ḫattuša for transitivity, on the other hand, there is no fusion. The distinction between the single and the plural in the third person is made by the plural suffix -t already described , which stands for the tense directly after the suffix. In the third person, in addition to the negative suffix -wa , which comes before the subject marking, a suffix -ma can also be used after this marking in order to express a negative, e.g. B. irnōḫoš-i-ā-ma (compensate-transitive-3rd person-negation) "he does not compensate (it)".

In Old Thurrian in the Ḫattuša area, the ending of the third person singular was -m , in the plural -ito . In intransitive and antipassive verbs, there was also a subject marking at this time. For the third person it was -p , other people are not occupied. It is not known whether this suffix was also used for the transitive object. Should a verb form be nominalized, e.g. B. to form a relative clause , the form is given a further suffix: -šše . Nominalized verb forms can be subject to suffix inclusion. The verb form can also be followed by enclitic sentence particles, see section “Particle words”.

Modal verb forms

In order to express modal nuances, special verb forms are used, which can be clearly distinguished from the indicative (non- modal ) forms. Wishes and commands are formed using their own optative- flexion scheme. The main characteristic is the element -i , which directly follows the verb stem. There is no difference between intransitive and transitive verbs, the congruence always takes place with the subject of the sentence. The tenses are also not differentiated into request and command forms. The following endings are used:

Person / number	negation	Ending	translation
1st person singular	not denied	-ile , after / l, r / -le or -re	"I want ..."
1st person singular	denied	-ifalli	"I do not want ..."
1st person plural		not used
2nd person singular	not denied	-i , -e	"You should ..." ( imperative )
2nd person singular	denied	-ifa , -efa	"you should not ..."
2nd person plural	not denied	-i (š) , -e (š)	"you should ..."
2nd person plural	denied	-ifa (š) , -efa (š)	"You shouldn't ..."
3rd person singular	not denied	-ien ¹	"He / she / it may ..."
3rd person singular	denied	-ifaen ¹	"He / she / it may not ..."
3rd person plural	not denied	-iten ¹	"They like ..."
3rd person plural	denied	-itfaen ¹	"They don't like ..."

¹ In the desired forms of the 3rd person in the Mari / Ḫattuša dialect, the / n / of the ending is omitted if the following word begins with a consonant.

The so-called finalis form , which is used to form subordinate clauses with "thus ...", has different endings. The suffixes -ae , -ai , -ilae and -ilai appear in the singular, the latter two becoming -lae , -lai and -rae , -rai after / l, r / . In the plural, the same endings are used; the plural suffix -ša can also be used . However, this is not always the case.

To express a possibility, one uses one's own potential forms . In intransitive verbs the ending is -ilefa or -olefa (after / l, r / -lefa or -refa ) and there is no congruence to the subject. Transitive potential forms are formed with the suffix -illet or -ollet , which is followed by the normal congruence ending of the transitive indicative verb forms. However, this form is only used in Mittani and only in the third person singular. The potential forms are also sometimes used to express a wish.

The desiderative forms are used to express an urgent need. So far, they are only used in the third person and only in transitive sentences. The ending for the 3rd person singular is -ilanni , that for the 3rd person plural is -itanni . How these suffixes can be broken down is not yet clear. Further modal forms for the third person are known from Ḫattuša, but no meanings of these forms have yet been isolated.

Examples of finite verb forms

The following table contains some verb forms broken down into their morphological components, mainly from the Mittani letter:

E.g.	shape	Grammatical Analysis	translation
(4)	koz-ōš-o	hold back-simple past-2nd singular	"You held back"
(5)	pal-ia-mā-šše = mān	knowledge-transitive-3. Person-negation-nominalization = but	"... which he doesn't know"
(6)	pašš-ēt-i = t = ān šeniffuta	send-future-antipassive = 1st singular.absolute = and to.my.brother	"And I will send to my brother"
(7)	tiwēna tān-ōš-au-šše-na-Ø	die.Sachen do-Simple past-1.Single-nominalization-Article.Multiple-Absolute	"The things that I've done"
(8th)	ūr-i-uffu = nna = ān	wish-transitive-negation + 1st singular = 3rd singular.Absolute = and	"And I do not wish it"
(9)	itt-ōš-ta	go-past-tense-intransitive-intransitive	"I went, you went ..."
(10)	Kul-le	say-optative 1st singular	"I want to say"
(11)	pašš-ien	Send-Optative. 3. Singular	"He / she may send"
(12)	pal-lae = n	knowledge finalis = 3rd singular, absolute	"So that he knows"
(13)	kepānol-lefa = tta = ān	send-potentialis = 1st singular, absolute = and	"And I can / want to send"

Infinite verb forms

Hurrian has participatory nominalizations and an infinitive . The substantiated participle I (present participle) is formed with the endings -iri or -ire , e.g. B. pairi "the builder ", ḫapiri "the moving one", "nomad". A substantiated participle II (perfect participle) in -aure has only been used once in Nuzi: hušaure "the bound one". A special participle has only come down to us from Ḫattuša. It can only be formed from transitive verbs and includes a first-person agent . The ending is -ilia . This participle is subject to the suffix inclusion:

(14)	pailianeš šuḫnineš
	pa-ilia-ne-š	šuḫni-ne-š
	build-I.particulate-article.Singular-Ergative.Singular	Wall-Article.Singular-Ergative.Singular
	"The wall I built" (here as the subject of a transitive sentence)

The infinitive, which can also be used as a substantive, is formed with the suffix -um , e.g. B. slogans “to be good”, “to be good”.

pronoun

Personal pronouns

Hurrian uses both free and clitic (bound) personal pronouns . The free pronouns can be used in any case, the clitic only in the absolute. It is irrelevant for the meaning of the sentence to which word in the sentence the clitic pronoun is added, but it is often found in the first part of the sentence or in the verb. The following table shows the forms of personal pronouns that are used;

case	1st singular ( me )	2nd singular ( you )	3rd singular ( he / she / it )	1st majority ( we )	2nd plural ( you )	3rd plural ( them )
Absolute (free)	ište	fe	mane , manni	šattil , šattitil (la)	fella	manella
Absolute (enclit.)	-t (ta)	-m (ma)	-n (na) , -me , -ma	-til (la)	-f (fa)	-l (la) , -lle
Ergative	išaš	feš	manuš	šieš	fešuš	manšoš
Genitive	šofe	fefe			feše
dative	sofa	fefa		šaša (?)	feša	manša
locative					feša (?)
Allative	šuta			šašuta (?)
ablative			manutane
Comitative	šura		manura			manšura , manšora
Equative II	šonna		manunna

The variants -me , -ma and -lle of the clitic pronoun of the third person only come after certain conjunctions ( ai (if), inna (if), inu , unu (like), panu (although)) as well as after the relative pronoun iya or . iye ago. If an enclitic personal pronoun is combined with a noun, extensive fusion processes take place. The clitic -nna of the third person singular behaves very differently to the other pronouns. In contrast to the other pronouns , if it is preceded by an ergative suffix , it merges with -šša , and the / š / of the ergative is omitted when the other pronouns appear. In addition, a word-final vowel / i / or / e / changes to / a / if a clitic personal pronoun occurs besides -nna .

possessive pronouns

The Hurrian possessive pronouns cannot occur freely, only clitically. They are attached to nouns or substantiated forms to indicate ownership. The form of the pronoun depends on the following morpheme . The following table shows the forms that occur:

case	1st singular ( mine )	2nd singular ( your )	3rd singular ( his / her )	1st majority ( our )	2nd plural ( yours )	3rd plural ( you )
at the end of the word	-iffe	-f	-i	-iffaš	-šše	-yaš
before consonant (except f / w)	-iffu	-fu	-i	-iffaš	-su	-yaš
before f / w, vowel	-iff	-f	-i	-iffaš	n. bel.	-yaš

The vowel end of the noun stem is omitted when using vowel-like possessive pronouns, e.g. B. šeniffe (my brother, to šena "brother"). It is retained when a consonant-like possessive pronoun appears: attaif (your father, to attai "father").

Other pronouns

Hurrian has several demonstrative pronouns : anni (this), anti / ani (that), akki ... aki (one ... the other). The final vowel / i / of these pronouns occurs only in the absolute and changes to / u / in the other cases, e.g. B. akkuš (the one) (ergative), antufa (that). Iya and iye are used as relative pronouns . The two forms are freely interchangeable. The pronoun always has the function of the absolute in the relative clause, i.e. it is an object in transitive sentences or a subject in intransitive sentences. The interrogative pronoun (who / what) is only used in the ergative singular ( afeš ) and once in the absolute singular ( au ).

Adpositions

There are numerous fixed expressions in Hurrian to express various local and abstract relations. They are mostly formed with the dative or genitive. Postpositions , i.e. subsequent adpositions, are known almost exclusively . Only one preposition , i.e. a preceding adposition, ( āpi (before) with dative), is used in texts from Ḫattuša. All adpositions can be traced back to nouns mostly in the allative, rarely in the dative or in the e-case. For this reason, suffixes are included in the case of the postposition, when the noun (N) with which the adposition is used is in the genitive.

Some examples: N-fa āyita or N-fenē āyē (in the presence of; from āyi "face"), N-fa etīta or N-fa etīfa (for, because of; from eti "body, person"), N-fenē etiyē (in relation to), N-fa furīta (before the eyes of; from furi "sight, look"), as well as only in Ḫattuša N-fa āpita (before; from āpi "front part"). In addition, ištani “space” with a plural possessive pronoun and the locative is used to express “between us / you / them”, e.g. B. ištaniffaša (between us, among us).

Conjunctions and adverbs

Only a few sediment-introducing particles are documented. In contrast to nouns that end in / i /, in the conjunctions ai (if) and anammi (so, in this way) the final / i / does not change when the clitic personal pronoun is used. Further conjunctions are alaše (ob), inna (if), inu (like) and panu (though). Hurrian knows very few adverbs . ḫenni (now), kuru (again) and unto (nun) are temporal adverbs. In addition, atī (also, so) and tiššan (very) are documented.

Clitic sentence particles

The clitic sentence particles are added to any word in the sentence, but most often to the first phrase of the sentence or to the verb. Often = ān (and), = mān (but), = mmaman (namely (?)) And = nīn (verily) on.

(15)	atīnīn mānnattamān
	atī = nīn	mānn-a = tta = mān
	so = verily	being-intransitive = 1.Singular.Absolute = but
	"But that's really how I am."

Numerals

In addition to the indefinite numeral šūi (everyone), the cardinal numbers from 1 to 10 and some higher numbers are also used . Ordinal numbers are formed with a suffix - (š) še or -ši , which becomes -ze or -zi after / n / . The following table gives an overview of the assigned basic and ordinal numbers:

	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	13 or 30	17 or 70	18 or 80	10,000	30000
Cardinal number	šukko , šuki	šini	kike	tumni	nariya	šeše	šinti	kiri , kira	tamri	ēmani	kikmani	šintimani	kirmani	nupi	kike nupi
Ordinal number	n. bel.	šinzi	kiški	tumnušše	narišše	n. bel.	šintišše	n. bel.	n. bel.	ēmanze	n. bel.	n. bel.	kirmanze	n. bel.	n. bel.

Distributive numbers have the suffix -ate , e.g. B. kikate (three each), tumnate (four each). The suffix -āmḫa derives multiplicative numbers , e.g. B. šināmḫa (two-fold, double), ēmanāmḫa (ten-fold). All cardinal numerals end in a vowel, which is dropped when some of the endings appear.

syntax

The normal sentence structure order is subject-object-predicate . Even within the noun phrase , the noun usually comes at the end. Adjectives, numerals and genitive attributes precede the noun that they define. Relative clauses , on the other hand, are mostly circular, that is, the noun that the relative clause defines in more detail is within the relative clause. Hurrian has several different ways of forming relative clauses. Either you use the relative pronoun iya or iye , which has already been described in the section on pronouns, or you use the nominalization suffix -šše on the verb, which is subject to the suffix inclusion and has also already been explained. The third option is to use both markings at the same time (see example (16)). In all cases, the noun, which the relative clause defines more precisely, can only perform the functions of the absolute within the relative clause, ie it can only be a direct object or the subject of an intransitive clause.

(16)	iyallānīn šēniffuš tiwēna tānōšāššena
	iya = llā = nīn	šēn-iffu-š	tiwē-na-Ø	tān-ōš-ā-šše-na-Ø
	Relative pronoun = 3rd plural, absolute = truly	Brother-my-ergative singular	Thing-article, plural-absolute	send-past tense-3rd singular. subject-nominalizer-article, plural-absolute
	"What my brother will send"

As already described in the section on cases, transitive Hurrian verbs require one participant in the ergative (subject) and one in the absolute (object). The indirect object of ditransitive verbs, i.e. those with two objects, is in the dative, locative, allative or, for some verbs, also in the absolute:

(17)	olaffa catulle
	ola-Ø = ffa	katul-le
	other absolute = 2nd plural absolute	say-optative.1.Singular
	"I want you _para. Something else _para. Say."

vocabulary

The well-known Hurrian vocabulary is very homogeneous, i.e. it contains only a few loanwords (e.g. tuppi (clay tablet), Mizri (Egypt) both from Akkadian ). The relative pronoun iya or iye is possibly a loan word from the Indo-Aryan language of the Mittani people who lived in the area of the Mittani empire before the Hurrites, cf. Sanskrit ya . Numerous words were borrowed from Hurrian into the neighboring Akkadian dialects, such as B. ḫāpiru (nomad) from hurr. ḫāpiri (nomad). It is probable, but not verifiable, that there were loanwords in languages of the Caucasus as there are no records of Caucasian languages from the Hurrian era. For this reason, the original language of similar words cannot be determined.

JRR Tolkien , according to a rather speculative theory, was influenced by Hurrian in the development of his black language . This is indicated by some parallels in the structure of the vocabulary and morphology.

Writing and deciphering

Hurrian cuneiform tablet

Most of the Hurrian texts were written in Sumerian cuneiform , which entered the Hurrian region via Akkadian. The documents found in Ugarit, however, mostly show the Ugaritic alphabet , but the Hurrian hymns are written in cuneiform. Only one of the previously excavated texts is written in Luwian hieroglyphics . The Hurrian language could be deciphered thanks to the numerous Hurrian-Hittite bilinguals found in Ḫattuša. The Mittani letter was first edited by Johannes Friedrich in his book Kleinasiatische Sprachdenkmäler in 1932 . Ephraim Avigdor Speiser wrote the first Hurrian grammar in 1941 (see literature).

Text example

Untomān iyallēnīn tiwēna šūallamān šēniffuš katōšāššena ūriāššena, antillān ēmanāmḫa tānōšau. (from the Mittani letter, column IV, lines 30-32)

Word in morpheme decomposition	Grammatical Analysis
unto = mān	well = but
iya = llē = nīn	Relative pronouns = 3rd plural, absolute = truly
tiwē-na-Ø	Thing - Article, Majority - Absolute
šū-a = lla = mān	each - locative = 3rd majority, absolute = but
šēn-iffu-š	Brother - my - Ergative, singular
kat-ōš-ā-šše-na-Ø	say - past tense.transitive - 3rd singular.subject - nominalizer - article. plural - absolute
ūr-i-ā-šše-na-Ø	wish - transitive - 3rd singular, subject - nominalizer - article, plural - absolute
anti = lla = on	those = 3rd majority, absolute = and
ēman-āmḫa	ten - multiplicative number
tān-ōš-au	make - past tense.transitive - 1st singular subject

Translation: "The things that my brother actually said and wished as a whole, I now did these ten times."

literature

Igor M. Diakonoff , Sergej A. Starostin: Hurro-Urartian as an Eastern Caucasian Language. (= Munich Studies in Linguistics. Supplement 12). Kitzinger, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-920645-39-1 .
Christian Girbal: On the grammar of Mittani-Hurrian. In: Journal for Assyriology and Near Eastern Archeology. 80, 1990, pp. 93-101, ISSN 0084-5299
Joost Hazenbos : Hurrian and Urartian. In: Michael P. Streck (Ed.): Languages of the Old Orient. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2005, ISBN 3-534-17996-X .
Michael Klein: Comments on the Mittanni letter - Mit. I 83-109 as a certificate of diplomatic correspondence. (= The Mittani letter and the orthography and grammar of Hurrian , Volume 5), GRIN-Verlag Munich 2013.
Erich Neu : The Hurrian epic of the release: 1: Investigations into a Hurrian-Hittite text ensemble from Ḫattuša . (= Studies on the Boğazköy texts. 32). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1996, ISBN 3-447-03487-4 .
Thomas Richter: Bibliographical Glossary of Hurrian. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2012, ISBN 978-3-447-06805-5 .
Ephraim A. Speiser: Introduction to Hurrian. (= Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research 20). New Haven 1941.
Ilse Wegner: Hurrian. An introduction. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2000/2007, ISBN 978-3-447-05394-5 .
Gernot Wilhelm : Hurrian. In: Roger D. Woodard (Ed.): The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages. Cambridge 2004, ISBN 0-521-56256-2 , pp. 95-118.

Web links

Commons : Hurrian language - collection of images, videos and audio files

This article was added to the list of excellent articles on November 12, 2006 in this version .

References

^ Th. Petit: La langue étéochypriote ou l "amathousien". In: Archive for Orient Research. 44/45, 1997/8, pp. 244-271.
↑ Emilia Masson: Cyprominoica - repertoire, Documents de Ras Shamra, Essais d'interpretation. (= Studies in Mediterranean Archeology. Vol. 31.2. Studies in the Cypro-Minoan Scripts 2). Åström, Göteborg 1974, ISBN 91-85058-41-6 , pp. 47-53.
↑ Th. Schneider: Kassitisch and Hurro-Urartäisch: A contribution to the discussion on possible lexical isoglosses. In: Ancient Near Eastern Research. 30, 2003, pp. 372-381.
^ Diakonoff and Starostin 1986.
↑ Thomas Richter: The "Archive of Idanda". Reports on inscription finds from the 2002 excavation campaign in Mišrife / Qatna. In: Communications of the German Orient Society. Volume 135, 2003, pp. 164-188.

[1] Th. Petit: La langue étéochypriote ou l "amathousien". In: Archive for Orient Research. 44/45, 1997/8, pp. 244-271.

[2] Emilia Masson: Cyprominoica - repertoire, Documents de Ras Shamra, Essais d'interpretation. (= Studies in Mediterranean Archeology. Vol. 31.2. Studies in the Cypro-Minoan Scripts 2). Åström, Göteborg 1974, ISBN 91-85058-41-6 , pp. 47-53.

[3] Th. Schneider: Kassitisch and Hurro-Urartäisch: A contribution to the discussion on possible lexical isoglosses. In: Ancient Near Eastern Research. 30, 2003, pp. 372-381.

[4] Diakonoff and Starostin 1986.

[5] Thomas Richter: The "Archive of Idanda". Reports on inscription finds from the 2002 excavation campaign in Mišrife / Qatna. In: Communications of the German Orient Society. Volume 135, 2003, pp. 164-188.