A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | CH | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
| Hurrian | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Mitanni |
| Region | Near East |
| Era | attested 2300–1000 BC |
Hurro-Urartian
| |
| Neo-Assyrian cuneiform | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | xhu |
xhu | |
| Glottolog | hurr1240 |
Hurrian is an extinct Hurro-Urartian language spoken by 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 modern-day Syria.
Classification
Hurrian is closely related to Urartian, the language of the ancient kingdom of Urartu. Together they constitute the Hurro-Urartian language family. The external connections of the Hurro-Urartian languages are disputed. There exist various proposals for a genetic relationship to other language families (e.g. the Northeast Caucasian languages, Indo-European languages, or Kartvelian languages which are spoken in Georgia). It has also been speculated that it is related to "Sino-Caucasian".[1] However, none of these proposals are generally accepted.[2]
History
The earliest Hurrian text fragments consist of lists of names and places from the end of the third millennium BC. The first full texts date to the reign of king Tish-atal of Urkesh, at the start of the second millennium BC, and were found on a stone tablet accompanying the Hurrian foundation pegs known as the "Urkish lions".[3] Archeologists have discovered the texts of numerous spells, incantations, prophecies and letters at sites including Hattusha, Mari, Tuttul, Babylon, Ugarit and others. Early study of the language, however, was entirely based on the Mitanni letter, found in 1887 at Amarna in Egypt, written by the Hurrian king Tushratta to the pharaoh Amenhotep III. The Hurro-Urartian relation was recognized as early as 1890 by Sayce (ZA 5, 1890, 260–274) and Jensen (ZA 6, 1891, 34–72). After the fall of the Akkadian Empire, Hurrians began to settle in northern Syria,[4] and by 1725 BC they constituted a sizable portion of the population of Yamhad.[5][better source needed] The presence of a large Hurrian population brought Hurrian culture and religion to Aleppo, as evidenced by the existence of certain religious festivals that bear Hurrian names.[6]
Of Nergal the lord of Hawalum, Atal-shen, the caring shepherd, the king of Urkesh and Nawar, the son of Sadar-mat the king, is the builder of the temple of Nergal, the one who overcomes opposition. Let Shamash and Ishtar destroy the seeds of whoever removes this tablet. Shaum-shen is the craftsman.[7]
In the thirteenth century BC, invasions from the west by the Hittites and the south by the Assyrians brought the end of the Mitanni empire, which was divided between the two conquering powers. In the following century, attacks by the Sea Peoples brought a swift end to the last vestiges of the Hurrian language. It is around this time that other languages, such as the Hittite language and the Ugaritic language also became extinct, in what is known as the Bronze Age collapse. In the texts of these languages, as well as those of Akkadian or Urartian, many Hurrian names and places can be found.
Renewed interest in Hurrian was triggered by texts discovered in Boğazköy in the 1910s and Ugarit in the 1930s. Speiser (1941) published the first comprehensive grammar of Hurrian. Since the 1980s, the Nuzi corpus from the archive of Silwa-tessup has been edited by G. Wilhelm. Since the late 1980s, significant progress was made due to the discovery of a Hurrian-Hittite bilingual, edited by E. Neu (StBoT 32).
Dialects
The Hurrian of the Mitanni letter differs significantly from that used in the texts at Hattusha and other Hittite centres, as well as from earlier Hurrian texts from various locations. The non-Mitanni letter varieties, while not entirely homogeneous, are commonly subsumed under the designation Old Hurrian. Whereas in Mitanni the vowel pairs i/e and u/o are differentiated, in the Hattusha dialect they have merged into i and u respectively. There are also differences in morphology, some of which are mentioned in the course of the exposition below. Nonetheless, it is clear that these represent dialects of one language. Another Hurrian dialect is likely represented in several texts from Ugarit, but they are so poorly preserved that little can be said about them, save that spelling patterns used elsewhere to represent Hurrian phonemes are virtually ignored in them. There was also a Hurrian-Akkadian creole, called Nuzi, spoken in the Mitanni provincial capital of Arrapha.
Phonology
Consonants
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ||
| Plosive | p | t | k | |
| Affricate | (ts) | |||
| Fricative | f | s | x | |
| Approximant | w | j | ||
| Rhotic | r | |||
| Lateral | l |
As can be seen from the table, Hurrian did not possess a voiced-voiceless distinction. There is no voiced consonant with an unvoiced counterpart, nor vice versa. However, based on evidence from the cuneiform script, there seem to have been voiced allophones of consonants other than /ts/, which occurred in certain environments: between two voiced phonemes (sonorants or vowels), and, surprisingly, also word-finally.[8] Sometimes a voiced consonant is written in these situations, i.e. b (for p), d (for t), g (for k), v (for f) or ž (for š), and, very rarely, ǧ (for h, ḫ). All consonants except ?pojem= and /j/ can be long or short. The long (geminate) consonants occur only between vowels. In the cuneiform, as in the Latin transcription, geminated consonants are indicated by doubling the corresponding symbol, so ...VC-CV... Short consonants are written ...V-CV..., for example mānnatta ("I am") is written ma-a-an-na-at-ta.
Since /f/ was not found in the Sumerian cuneiform script, the Hurrians used the symbols representing /p/, /b/ or ?pojem=. An /f/ can be recognised in words where this transcription varies from text to text. In cases where a word occurs only once, with a p, it cannot be known if it was originally meant to represent a /p/ or an /f/. In final syllables containing a, /f/ becomes diphthongised to /u/, e.g. tānōšau (<*tān-ōš-af)) "I did". /s/ is traditionally transcribed by /š/, because the cuneiform script adapted the sign indicating /š/ for this phoneme. /ts/ is regularly transcribed by z, and /x/ by ḫ or h. In Hurrian, /r/ and /l/ do not occur at the beginning of a word.
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Mid | e | o | |
| Open | a |
Vowels, just like consonants, can be either long or short. In the cuneiform script, this is indicated by placing an additional vowel symbol between the CV and VC syllables, giving CV-V-VC. Short vowels are indicated by a simple CV-VC pairing. In the Latin transcription, long vowels are indicated with a macron, ā, ē, ī, ō, and ū. For /o/, which is absent in the Sumerian script, the sign for U is used, whereas /u/ is represented by Ú.
Grammar
Word derivation
While Hurrian could not combine multiple stems to form new stems, a large number of suffixes could be attached to existing stems to form new words. For example, attardi (ancestor) from attai (father), futki (son) from fut (to beget), aštohhe (feminine) from ašti (woman). Hurrian also provided many verbal suffixes, which often changed the valency of the verb they modify.
Morphology
Nominal morphology
The nominal morphology of Hurrian employs numerous suffixes and/or enclitics, which always follow a certain order. The resulting "morpheme chain" is as follows:[9][10]
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Root | Nominalizers (for verbs) | Thematic vowel | Derivational Suffixes | Article | Possessive Pronoun Clitics | Plural | Case | Anaphoric | Plural (SA) | Case (SA) | Absolutive Pronoun Clitics | Enclitic Particles & Conjunctions |
Note: (SA) indicates morphemes added through Suffixaufnahme, described below.
These elements are not all obligatory, and in fact a noun can occur as a single root followed by nothing except zero-suffixes for case and number. Despite the general agglutinative structure of the language, the plural marker (5) merges with the case morphemes (6) in ways which do not seem to be entirely predictable, so singular and plural forms of the case endings are usually listed separately. The anaphoric marker (7) is formally identical to the article and anchors the Suffixaufnahme suffixes (8) and (9). While the absolutive pronoun clitics (10) attached to a noun are not necessarily connected to it syntactically, typically designating the object or intransitive subject of a nearby verb, the third plural pronoun clitic -lla can be used to signal the plural of the host noun in the absolutive.
Thematic vowels
Almost all Hurrian nouns end in a vowel, known as a thematic vowel or stem vowel. This vowel will always appear on the word, and will not switch between types. Most nouns end with /i/; a few end with /a/ (mostly words for relatives and divine names) and /e/ (a few suffix derivations, possibly the same as /i/-stems).[11] As well, in texts from Nuzi, stems of /u/ (or /o/?) are found, mainly on non-Hurrian names and a few Hurrian ones.
This stem-final vowel disappears when certain endings are attached to it, such as case endings that begin with a vowel, certain derivational suffixes, or the article suffix. Examples: kāz-ōš (like a cup) from kāzi (cup), awarra (the fields) from awari (field).
A minority of Hurrian noun roots have athematic stem vowels, such as šen (brother) in the forms šena and -šenni, mad (wisdom; later becomes i-stem in the form madi), and muž (divine name). Some names of gods, heroes, persons, and places are also athematic, e.g. Teššob (Teššobi/a), Gilgaamiž, Hurriž (later Hurri). These nouns seem to occur more frequently in the earliest Hurrian texts (end of the third millennium BC).
Note: This type of thematic stem vowel is completely different in function to Indo-European stem vowels. For a discussion of those, see here and here.
Case and number
Hurrian has 13 cases in its system of declension. One of these, the equative case, has a different form in both of the main dialects. In Hattusha and Mari, the usual ending is -oš, termed equative I, whereas in the Mitanni letter we find the form -nna, called equative II. Another case, the so-called 'e-case', is very rare, and carries a genitive or allative meaning.
Like many languages in the region, Hurrian is an ergative language, which means that the same case is used for the subject of an intransitive verb as for the object of a transitive one; this case is called the absolutive. For the subject of a transitive verb, however, the ergative case is used. Hurrian has two numbers, singular and plural. The following table outlines the case endings (the terms used for some of the more obscure cases vary between different authors).
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Absolutive | -Ø | -Ø, -lla |
| Ergative | -š | -(a)šuš |
| Genitive | -fe, -we | -(a)še |
| Dative | -fa, -wa | -(a)ša |
| Essive[12][13] (in, at ...) |
-a | -(a)ša, -a |
| Allative (to ...) |
-ta | -(a)šta |
| Ablative (from ...) |
-tan | -(a)štan |
| Instrumental (with ...) |
-ae | not found |
| Ablative-Instrumental (through/by ...) |
-n(i), -ne | -(a)šani, -(a)šane |
| Comitative (together with ...) |
-ra | -(a)šura |
| Associative (as ...) |
-nn(i) | not found (often extrapolated -(a)šunn(i)) |
| Equative I (like ...) |
-ōš | not found |
| Equative II | -nna | -(a)šunna |
| 'e-Case' | -ē | not found |
In certain phonological environments, these endings can vary. The f of the genitive and dative endings merges with a preceding p or t giving pp and tt respectively, e.g. Teššuppe (of Teššup), Hepat-te (of Hepat). The associative can be combined with the instrumental, as in šēna-nn-ae (brother-ass-instr), meaning 'brotherly'.
The so-called essive case can convey the meaning "as" and a condition, but also to express direction, the aim of a demand, the transition from one condition to another, the direct object in antipassive constructions (where the transitive subject receives the absolutive case instead of the ergative), and, in the variety of Nuzi, also the dative.[13]
The article
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Absolutive | -Ø | -na |
| all other cases | -ne |
In Hurrian, the function of the so-called "article" is not entirely clear, inasmuch as its use does not seem to resemble closely a typical definite article.[14] It is attached directly to the noun, but before any case endings, e.g. tiwē-na-še (object.art.gen.pl) (of the objects). The article is unmarked in the absolutive singular – e.g. kāzi 'cup'. The /n/ of the article merges with a preceding /n/, /l/ or /r/ giving /nn/, /ll/ and /rr/ respectively, e.g. ēn-na (the gods), ōl-la (the others), awar-ra (the fields). In these cases, the stem-final vowel /i/ has been dropped; the singulars of these words are ēni (god), ōli (another), awari (field). If there are two consonants preceding the final /i/, an epenthetic vowel /u/ is inserted between them, e.g. hafurun-ne-ta (heaven-art-all.sg, to heaven), the stem of which is hafurni (heaven).
Suffixaufnahme
One prominent feature of Hurrian is the phenomenon of Suffixaufnahme, or suffix absorption, which it shares with Urartian and the geographically proximate Kartvelian languages. In this process, the dependent modifiers of a noun share the noun's case suffixes. Between the suffix of the dependent noun and the case ending comes the article, which agrees with the referent in number, for example, with an adjective:
ḫurwoḫḫeneš
ḫurw-oḫḫe-ne-š
Hurrian-ADJ-ART.SG-ERG.SG
ōmīnneš
ōmīn-ne-š
land-ADJ-ART.SG-ERG.SG
"the Hurrian land"
Suffixaufnahme also occurs with other modifiers, such as a noun in the genitive modifying another noun, in which case the following nouns takes a possessive pronoun.
šēniffufenefe
šēn-iffu-fe-ne-fe
brother-my-GEN.SG-ART.SG-GEN.SG
ōmīnīfe
ōmīni-i-fe
land-his-GEN.SG
"of the land of my brother" (lit, "of my brother his land")
The phenomenon is also found when the head noun is in the locative, instrumental or equative. In the absolutive singular, Suffixaufnahme would be meaningless, as the case and number are unmarked. When more than two genitives occur, they are merged, so Suffixaufnahme only occurs on the innermost genitive, as in the following example:
ōmīni
ōmīni
country
Mizrinefenefe
Mizri-ne-fe-ne-fe
Egypt-ART.SG-GEN.SG-ART.SG-GEN.SG
efrīfe
efri-i-fe
ruler-its-GEN.SG
aštīnna
ašti-i=nna
lady-his=she
"she is the lady of the ruler of the country Egypt"
Verbal morphology
The verbal morphology of Hurrian is extremely complex, but it is constructed only through the affixation of suffixes (indicated by '-') and clitics (indicated by '='). Hurrian clitics stand for unique words, but are attached to other words as though they were suffixes. Transitivity and intransitivity are clearly indicated in the morphology; only transitive verbs take endings that agree with the person and number of their subject. The direct object and intransitive subject, when they are not represented by an independent noun, are expressed through the use of clitics, or pronouns (see below). Moreover, suffixes can be added to the verb stem that modify its meaning, including valency-changing morphemes such as -an(n)-- (causative), -ant (applicative) and -ukar (reciprocative). The meanings of many such suffixes have yet to be decoded.
The "morpheme chain" of the verb is as follows:[15]
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Root | Derivational Suffixes | Tense/Aspect | Non-Present Intransitive | -imbu- | Valency | Negation | Ergative Person | Ergative Number | Absolutive Pronoun Clitics | Enclitic Particles & Conjunctions |
| Ergative 3PL -it- (OH) | ||||||||||
As with the noun, not all of these elements must be present in each verb form, and indeed some of them are mutually incompatible. The marker -t- in position (4) may indicate intransitivity in non-present tenses. Position (5) may carry the suffix -imbu- (5) of unclear function or the ergative third-person plural suffix -it- , which is only attested in Old Hurrian.[16] Valency suffixes (6) indicated the intransitive, transitive, or antipassive. The negative suffixes (7), the ergative person suffixes (8), and the ergative number suffixes (9) merge in ways which are not entirely predictable, so the person endings are usually listed in separate singular and plural versions. The absolutive person-number enclitics that may appear in slot (11) can also appear on other words in the sentence and are the same ones which were listed above in section Personal pronouns.
Indicative mood
After the derivational suffix come those marking tense. The present tense is unmarked, the preterite is marked by -ōš and the future by ēt. The preterite and future suffixes also include the suffix -t, which indicates intransitivity, but occurs only in truly intransitive forms, not in antipassive ones; in the present, this suffix never occurs. Another, separate, -t suffix is found in all tenses in transitive sentences – it indicates a 3rd person plural subject. In the indicative this suffix is mandatory, but in all other moods it is optional. Because these two suffixes are identical, ambiguous forms can occur; thus, unētta can mean "they will bring " or "he/she/it will come", depending on the context.
After these endings come the vowel of transitivity. It is -a when the verb is intransitive, -i when the verb is in the antipassive and -o (in the Mitanni letter, -i) in transitive verbs. The suffix -o is dropped immediately after the derivational suffixes. In transitive verbs, the -o occurs only in the present, while in the other tenses transitivity is instead indicated by the presence (or absence) of the aforementioned -t suffixes.
In the next position, the suffix of negation can occur; in transitive sentences, it is -wa, whereas in intransitive and antipassive ones it is -kkV. Here, the V represents a repetition of the vowel that precedes the negative suffix, although when this is /a/, both vowels become /o/. When the negative suffix is immediately followed by a clitic pronoun (except for =nna), its vowel is /a/, regardless of the vowel that preceded it, e.g. mann-o-kka=til=an (be-intr-neg-1.pl.abs-and), "and we are not...". The following table gives the tense, transitivity and negation markers:
| Transitivity | Present | Preterite | Future | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| intransitive | affirmative | -a | -ōšta | -ētta |
| negative | -okko | -ōštokko | -ēttokko | |
| antipassive | affirmative | -i | -ōši | -ēti |
| negative | -ikki | -ōšikki | -ētikki | |
| transitive without derivational suff. |
affirmative | Mari/Hattusha -o Mitanni -i |
Mari/Hattusha -ōšo Mitanni -ōši |
Mari/Hattusha -ēto Mitanni -ēti |
| negative | Mari/Hattusha -owa Mitanni -iwa |
Mari/Hattusha -ōšowa Mitanni -ōšiwa |
Mari/Hattusha -ētowa Mitanni -ētiwa | |
| transitive with derivational suff. |
affirmative | -Ø | Mari/Hattusha -ōšo Mitanni -ōši |
Mari/Hattusha -ēto Mitanni -ēti |
| negative | -wa | Mari/Hattusha -ōšowa Mitanni -ōšiwa |
Mari/Hattusha -ētowa Mitanni -ētiwa |
After this, in transitive verbs, comes the ergative subject marker. The following forms are found: