The Hurrian Language - Isolate, Northeast Caucasian, or Distant Indo-European Connections?

🌐 Embark on a captivating journey into the mysterious realm of the Hurrian language with Learn Hittite! Join us as we unravel the enigma of Hurrian origins, delve into the fascinating Mitanni state, and explore the textual treasures that unveil the secrets of Hurrian.
🕵️‍♂️ This introductory video promises an epic exploration. Here's what's in store:
Background: Uncover theories about Hurrian origins and the intriguing Mitanni state.
Linguistic Connections: Discover Hurrian's relationship with Urartian and the attempts to link it with other language families - including, surprisingly, the Indo-European family.
Phonology and Morphology: Dive into the intricacies of Hurrian language structure, exploring noun and verb formation. Witness Hurrian cuneiform in action as we examine texts and sentences from authentic materials.
By the end, you'll grasp the agglutinating and ergative nature of Hurrian.
🎓 Gain insights into the groundbreaking work of scholars like Ephraim Speiser, Ilse Wegner, and Roger D. Woodard. Plus, discover three recommended resources for further exploration into the ancient languages of the Near East.
🔗 Have questions or insights? Share them in the comments below!
📌 Note: Delve into the exploration of fragmentary languages with an understanding that some aspects are debated, and definitive answers may be elusive. 🌍🔠
Sources: (approximately, they are in the order they first appear in the video)
⭐Woodard, R. (Ed.). (2008). The Ancient Languages of Asia Minor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511486845
There are two German versions of Wegner’s Hurrian Grammar, the first has been translated into English.
⭐Wegner, I. (2000). Einführung in die hurritische Sprache. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
Wegner, I. (2007). Einführung in die hurritsche Sprache (2nd rev. ed.). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz
Wegner, I. (1995). Suffixaufnahme in Hurrian: Normal Cases and Special Cases. In F. Plank (Ed.), Double Case: Agreement by Suffixaufnahme. New York, NY. Oxford Academic.
⭐Speiser, E. A. (1940). Introduction to Hurrian. The Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 20, xi-230. doi.org/10.2307/3768466
Fournet, A., & Bomhard, A. R. (2010). The Indo-European Elements in Hurrian. La Garenne Colombes / Charleston. (166 pages).
Laroche, E. (1980). Glossaire de la langue houritte. Editions Klincksieck. Paris.
Hrozny, B. (1915). Die Lösung des hethitischen Problems. Mitteilungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft, 56, 17-50.
Michalowski, P. (1986). The Earliest Hurrian Toponymy: A New Sargonic Inscription. Zeitschrift für Assyriologie, 76, 4-11
Moran, W. (1992). The Amarna letters. Johns Hopkins University Press
Diakonoff, I. M., & Starostin, S. A. (1986). Huro-Urartian as an Eastern Caucasian Language. Münchener Studien zur Sprachwissenschaft, Beiheft, N.F., 12, München.
Kassian, A. (2010). [Review of the book The Indo-European Elements in Hurrian by A. Fournet and A. R. Bomhard (2010)]. The Journal of Language Relationship, issue 4, pp. 199-206.
Farber, W. (1971). Zu einigen Enklitika im Hurrischen (Pronomen, Kopula, syntaktische Partikeln). Orientalia, 40(1)
Wilhelm, G. (1991). A Hurrian Letter from Tell Brak. Iraq, 53, 159-168
Wilhelm, G. (1998). Die Inschrift des Tisatal von Urkes. in G. Buccellati and M. Kelly-Buccellati (eds.) : 117-143.
#hurrian
#neareast
#languageisolate
#protoindoeuropean
#historicallinguistics
#bronzeage
#mesopotamia
#anatolia
#urartian
#northeastcaucasianlanguages
#ancientlanguages
#learnhittite

[@lecros6628]

I think most of your viewers would totally dig a video on the Khoi San languages, which if I remember correctly you mentioned to be your primary linguistic field of study. Of course there are the phonologies, but I would love an examination of some grammatical features. Shared in the Sprachbund or just an examination of one or two example languages

[@LearnHittite]

Good call, I'll look into it. Next will probably be Thracian because people asked for it but I wouldn't mind covering KKG for example.

[@Nastya_07]

Also, it seems that Bomhard does no longer consider Hurro-Urartian to be related to Indo-European, instead arguing the similarities are due to early contact. Wegner, I., Bomhard, A. R. (2020). An Introduction to the Hurrian Language. p. 15. "In 2010, Arnaud Fournet and Allan R. Bomhard prepared a study in which they tried to demonstrate that there were non-Indo-Aryan Indo-European (grammatical and lexical) elements in Hurrian. Bomhard now (2020) takes these to be the result of prehistoric language contact."

[@rocktapperrobin9372]

What I really like about your videos is that you references for where we can find good information. As to affiliated languages, in my opinion we should accept that most of language history is lost. On evolutionary grounds I would argue that fully developed language has been around as long as our species has existed. It follows that language families have come and gone and very ancient relationships, given that there has to be continuity of speech, cannot be established. There is simply no evidence. Proto Urartian-Hurrian has to come from somewhere but it could derive from a family of languages that don’t now exist. Or it may be related to an extant language. Sometimes we can’t connect the dots

[@LearnHittite]

I agree competely, but I think it is human nature, or at least the nature of many linguists, to try a find those deep connections. As futile as it may be.

[@jahanas22]

This is a good presentation. I’ve been studying Hurrian for several years. I haven’t read Woodard but have the others. I’m always interested in gaining new knowledge.

[@LearnHittite]

Yeah I really recommend Woodard's work. Very knowledgeable

[@SporeMurph]

Excellent presentation.

[@LearnHittite]

Thanks very much for the kind words!

[@LuisAldamiz]

Very interesting, I would probably also subscribe to a channel called "Learn Hurrian". That area of Mittani, later Media, is the true heartland of West Asia (as the name suggests, both seem to mean "the middle country") and thus potentially holds many linguistic clues to the labyrinth of Neolithic and post-Neolithic Fertile Crescent (and its ancient scatter to Europe, India, etc.) My suspicion, based on very limited number comparisons, is that Hurrrian is not just linked to East Caucasian but that both may well be distantly related to Sumerian as well (which arguably also originated somewhere in that area and then migrated southwards through Mesopotamia). Some other observations: 1. Hur > > Kurd is plausible (although of course Kurdish is Iranic, surely Median-derived, and not anymore Hurrian, it may well retain much Hurrian substrate vocabulary). 2. When the books locate Urartean in "Armenia" they don't mean the modern residual country but rather Historical Armenia, including all NE Turkey. This is more explicit when they say (and you repeat without paying attention) "lake Van". It's well known and generally accepted that Armenian is the result of Phrygians conquering Urartu in the Iron Age. 3. The professional suffix "-ari" (which you treat as two elements but I'll treat as just one) is extremely intriguing. Until now I was aware of it being Latin ("-arius"), which produces Romance and Germanic -er(o/a) endings and the extremely similar Basque -ari, with identical role (but usually different construct words, such as nekazari, literally "effort-er" or "work-er" more loosely but used for farmers in fact). This suffix lacks satisfactory Indoeuropean etymology, while to me the Basque/Vasconic etymology is obvious (ari = continuous tenses' necessary particle, arin = fast, aritu = to hurry up). Thus I had concluded that the Latin element was necessarily a Vasconic substrate loanword, however now that a Hurrian identical element shows up, I can't say for sure anymore.

[@christopherellis2663]

I cannot imagine an ergative language requiring the accusative. The " and" reminds ne of the noun phrase marker in Basque (-a)

[@LuisAldamiz]

You're absolutely correct about ergative and accusative being totally incompatible, the absolutive is used instead. Word of Basque... but also by definition: in the ergative logic, the subject of an intransitive sentence and the direct object of a transitive one are the same case always (absolutive), what varies is the subject of the transitive form (ergative). Thus the accusative has no room to exist at all. However I see almost no coincidences with Basque, for example in the case table at 14:10, not a single case suffix (except very arguably the directive singular -da, which may resemble Basque -ra) looks even remotely similar to Basque forms. I also don't see much or any similitudes in the rest of the vocabulary, except the professional suffix -ari, which I mention in my separate comment in the last observation.

[@barbaraoztas3686]

Your explanations are always great and very interesting, thank you for your work

[@LearnHittite]

Glad you like them!

[@Yekemcar]

One of modt interesting point is the Hurrian word (" Hil " ) means (to say, to speak). In Kurdish we have word ( Hewal-deh ) a compound verb, by: ▪Hewal-: to say, to speak, to tell ▪-deh: is the root of verb to Do, to done, to make So we say it quotidia in Kurdish: - ji me ra hewal-da (for us tell-did ... told us) - Ka ez ji we ra çîroka Memê Alan hewal-dim (Give me for you count-of Mem-the Alan I do telling ... Let me tell you the count of Mamê Alan). And I see the word ( Hewal-deh, hewl-deh ), as a very obvious an agglutination between Hurrian's root (hewal, hewl) with Indo-European root suffix (-deh). And it's make to remember the historic fact about Hurro-Mittanian Kingdom, where two languages emerged in mixing. To create base foundation to new language later.

[@horoefrin4776]

Till to day as Kurdish peoples we use Horo name in Kurdistan north Syria and in Afrin north Syria we still have ancient town and citadel in the name of King Hori, Hor Khor(means Sun☀️ ,solar Disc) in our native oldest langauges and also in Kurdistan west Iran and North Iraq means Sun . also Hori Khori passed into Christian religion

[@horoefrin4776]

En , Eni till today as Kurdish we use this word which it is Friday's name in our week days name , and as a verb En , Enan means belive , thought

[@LuisAldamiz]

Very interesting. I'm sure there must be many substrate loanwords from Hurrian into Kurdish, even the word Kurd looks like totally derived from Hurr-. Bsically Kurds are Iranized (Medianized, not Persianized) Hurrians, with whatever admixture History always brings by.

[@sahhaf1234]

I vote for an urartian video. the next natural stop after the hurrian..

[@Nastya_07]

Kassian has suggested a connection between Hurro-Urartian, Hattic, Burushaski and Yeniseian Source: Kassian, A. (2009-2010). Hattic as a Sino-Caucasian language

[@LearnHittite]

Very interesting, I'll give the text you cited a read

[@gato-junino]

Great.

[@horoefrin4776]

En , Eni till today as Kurdish we use this word which it is Friday's name in our week days name , and as a verb En , Enan means belive , thought

[@barkos3713]

18:45 would it be thinkable to interpret hill as “tell" like in talk,say and speak. It’s kind a funny because in Turkish ”til/dil” means 👅tongue or language. In German we have a crazy word what is "Dolmetscher” dol/dil+match and means simply who matches tounghes (translator). Hope didn’t get to abstract and you get the idea. Thx and regards 😊

[@LearnHittite]

That interpretation is certainly possible yes. We are quite certain of the meaning of the sign because according to Laroche it occured in an Hurro-Akkadian bilingual text. Til/Dil is also attested in some names and verb forms but its meaning is not fully understood.

[@danielbriggs991]

I'm pretty sure it's the other way around: Tell means hill. Sorry, I had to 😆

[@pierreabbat6157]

Has anyone found a Hurrian or Urartian word for "hundred"? Does it sound anything like "haryoor"?

[@anahit6645]

In Armenian Haryur is 100 . Used today. Հարյուր

[@pierreabbat6157]

@@anahit6645 Yes, but is it from Urartian?

[@mareksagrak9527]

@@pierreabbat6157 No, it's not. But there are certainly some words in Armenian borrowed from Urartian, even though they are much less numerous than Parthian loanwords for example.

[@horoefrin4776]

Till to day as Kurdish peoples we use Horo name in Kurdistan north Syria and in Afrin north Syria we still have ancient town and citadel in the name of King Hori, Hor Khor(means Sun☀️ ,solar Disc) in our native oldest langauges and also in Kurdistan west Iran and North Iraq means Sun . also Hori Khori passed into Christian religion

[@LuisAldamiz]

IMO Kurd looks like linearly derived from Hurr- (Hhur(t)-?, I get the "t" from Urartu, which may be just a variant form of Hurr- and convenient for the etymology). Kurdish should have lots of Hurrian substrate, as does Armenian (via Urartean), what varies here is mostly the Indoeuropean superstrate: Iranic (Median) in the Kurdish case and Phrygian in the Armenian case (originally from the Balcans and surely distantly related to Greek).

[@Seyfudin]

I believe in Russia academics determined it to be a relative of Vainakh (Checheno-Ingush).

[@AndreaMastacht-lj4in]

I wonder if this language has enough corpus so that it could be revived some day again...

[@LearnHittite]

You never know, there could be a huge corpus of Hurrian waiting to be unearthed somewhere....

[@varjovirta3085]

I truly believe that Hurro-Uratian languages have big time connections to some IE-languages like Hittite. It maybe even some kind of para- IE-language branch itself!! Armenian seem to have big time connections to Hurro-Urartian languages which have to be look in to more. Armenian has words common with especially Urartian language.

[@mohammedalwakeel1983]

Genetically Uraratians are definitely armenians but Hurrians are in between Armenians and Kurmanji kurds

[@HozanMzere1063]

Huryan kurdish

[@stefano1005]

Proto asiatik is old Armenian

[@jaca2899]

So the Hurrians were the Kurds of antiquity

[@LuisAldamiz]

Just as "the Pelasgians were the Greeks", "the Urarteans were the Armenians" and "the Vasconic peoples of Karanovo-Gumelnitsa were the Thracians". Or to put it more modernly just as "the Aztec and Mayas are modern Mexicans": there is clearly a serious substrate element but the dominant layer is something else: Indoeuropean by conquest and then elite domination (also often some significant elite immigration).

[@jaca2899]

@@LuisAldamizI think I only said this comment because of the similarities in the geopolitical situation

[@LuisAldamiz]

@@jaca2899 - You're right in a more fundamental sense however: the Kurds derive from the Hhurs (Hurrians) but only after Indoeuropeanization (first in Mittani by an unsuccessful Indo-Aryan elite, later more clearly by a more successful Median one). It's not just geography and geopolitics, it's direct ancestry.