| Hurrian | |
|---|---|
 TheLouvre lion and accompanying stone tablet bearing the earliest known text in Hurrian | |
| Native to | Mitanni |
| Region | Near East |
| Ethnicity | Hurrians |
| Era | attested 2300–1000 BC |
Hurro-Urartian
| |
| Hittite,Ugaritic | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | xhu |
xhu | |
| Glottolog | hurr1240 |
 Hurrians in 2300 BC | |
| This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. | |
Hurrian is an extinctHurro-Urartian language spoken by theHurrians (Khurrites), a people who entered northernMesopotamia around 2300 BC and had mostly vanished by 1000 BC. Hurrian was the language of theMitanni kingdom in northern Mesopotamia and was likely spoken at least initially in Hurrian settlements in modern-daySyria.
Hurrian is closely related toUrartian, the language of the ancient kingdom ofUrartu. Together they constitute theHurro-Urartian language family. The external connections of the Hurro-Urartian languages are disputed. There exist various proposals for agenetic relationship to other language families (e.g. theNortheast Caucasian languages,Indo-European languages, orKartvelian languages that are spoken inGeorgia). It has also been speculated that it is related to "Sino-Caucasian".[1] However, none of these proposals are generally accepted.[2]
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 KingTish-atal ofUrkesh, at the start of the second millennium BC, and were found on a stone tablet accompanying theHurrian foundation pegs known as the "Urkish lions".[3] Archeologists have discovered the texts of numerous spells, incantations, prophecies and letters at sites includingHattusha,Mari,Tuttul,Babylon,Ugarit and others. Early study of the language, however, was entirely based on theMitanni letter, found in 1887 atAmarna in Egypt, written by the Hurrian KingTushratta to the PharaohAmenhotep 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 theAkkadian Empire,Hurrians began to settle in northernSyria,[4] and by 1725 BC they constituted a sizable portion of the population ofYamhad.[5][better source needed] The presence of a large Hurrian population brought Hurrian culture and religion toAleppo, 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. LetShamash andIshtar 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 from the south by theAssyrians brought the end of the Mitanni empire, which was divided between the two conquering powers. In the following century, attacks by theSea Peoples brought a swift end to the last vestiges of the Hurrian language. It is around this time that other languages, such as theHittite language and theUgaritic language, also became extinct, in what is known as theBronze Age collapse. In the texts of these languages, as well as those ofAkkadian or Urartian, many Hurrian names and places can be found.
Renewed interest in Hurrian was triggered by texts discovered inBoğazköy in the 1910s and Ugarit in the 1930s. In 1941, Speiser published the first comprehensive grammar of Hurrian. Since the 1980s, theNuzi corpus from the archive of Šilwa-Teššup 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).
The Hurrian of the Mitanni letter differs significantly from that used in the texts at Hattusha and other Hittite centers, as well as from earlier Hurrian texts from various locations. The non-Mitanni letter varieties, while not entirely homogeneous, are commonly subsumed under the designationOld Hurrian. Whereas in Mitanni the vowel pairsi/e andu/o are differentiated, in the Hattusha dialect they have merged intoi andu, 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 representdialects 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, except that spelling patterns used elsewhere to represent Hurrian phonemes are virtually ignored in them. There was also a Hurrian-Akkadian creole, calledNuzi, spoken in the Mitanni provincial capital ofArrapha.
| 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 avoiced-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 voicedallophones 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 (forp),d (fort),g (fork),v (forf) orž (forš), and, very rarely,ǧ (forh,ḫ). All consonants except /w/ 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 examplemānnatta ("I am") is writtenma-a-an-na-at-ta.
Since /f/ was not found in theSumerian cuneiform script, the Hurrians used the symbols representing /p/, /b/ or /w/. An /f/ can be recognised in words where this transcription varies from text to text. In cases where a word occurs only once, with ap, it cannot be known if it was originally meant to represent a /p/ or an /f/. In final syllables containinga, /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 byz, and /x/ byḫ orh. In Hurrian, /r/ and /l/ do not occur at the beginning of a word.
| 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 theCV andVC syllables, givingCV-V-VC. Short vowels are indicated by a simpleCV-VC pairing. In the Latin transcription, long vowels are indicated with a macron,ā,ē,ī,ō, andū. For /o/, which is absent in the Sumerian script, the sign forU is used, whereas /u/ is represented byÚ.
While Hurrian could not combine multiple stems to form new stems, a large number ofsuffixes could be attached to existing stems to form new words. For example,attardi (ancestor) fromattai (father),futki (son) fromfut (to beget),aštohhe (feminine) fromašti (woman). Hurrian also provided many verbal suffixes, which often changed thevalency of the verb they modify.
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 throughSuffixaufnahme, 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 generalagglutinative 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.
Almost all Hurriannouns end in a vowel, known as athematic vowel orstem 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 fromNuzi, 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 thearticle suffix. Examples:kāz-ōš (like a cup) fromkāzi (cup),awarra (the fields) fromawari (field).
A minority of Hurrian nounroots have athematic stem vowels, such asšen (brother) in the formsšena and-šenni,mad (wisdom; later becomesi-stem in the formmadi), andmuž (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 thethird millennium BC).
Note: This type of thematic stem vowel is completely different in function to Indo-European stem vowels. For a discussion of those, seehere andhere.
Hurrian has 13cases in its system of declension. One of these, theequative 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 agenitive orallative meaning.
Like many languages in the region, Hurrian is anergative language, which means that the same case is used for thesubject of anintransitive verb as for theobject of a transitive one; this case is called theabsolutive. For the subject of a transitive verb, however, theergative 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 | unattested |
| Ablative-Instrumental (through/by ...) | -n(i),-ne | -(a)šani,-(a)šane |
| Comitative (together with ...) | -ra | -(a)šura |
| Associative (as ...) | -nn(i) | unattested (often extrapolated-(a)šunn(i)) |
| Equative I (like ...) | -ōš | unattested |
| Equative II | -nna | -(a)šunna |
| 'e-Case' | -ē | unattested |
In certain phonological environments, these endings can vary. Thef of the genitive and dative endings merges with a precedingp ort givingpp andtt respectively, e.g.Teššuppe (of Teššup),Hepat-te (of Hepat). The associative can be combined with the instrumental, as inšēna-nn-ae (brother-ass-instr), meaning 'brotherly'.
The so-calledessive 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, thedirect object inantipassive constructions (where the transitive subject receives the absolutive case instead of the ergative), and, in the variety ofNuzi, also the dative.[13]
| 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 typicaldefinite 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 areēni (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 ishafurni (heaven).
One prominent feature of Hurrian is the phenomenon ofSuffixaufnahme, or suffix absorption, which it shares with Urartian and the geographically proximateKartvelian 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 ōmīnneš
ḫurw-oḫḫe-ne-š ōmīn-ne-š
Hurrian-ADJ-ART.SG-ERG.SG 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 ōmīnīfe
šēn-iffu-fe-ne-fe ōmīni-i-fe
brother-my-GEN.SG-ART.SG-GEN.SG 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
aštīnna
ašti-i=nna
lady-his=she
ōmīni Mizrinefenefe efrīfe aštīnna
ōmīni Mizri-ne-fe-ne-fe efri-i-fe ašti-i=nna
country Egypt-ART.SG-GEN.SG-ART.SG-GEN.SG ruler-its-GEN.SG lady-his=she
"she is the lady of the ruler of the country Egypt"
The verbal morphology of Hurrian is extremely complex, but it is constructed only through the affixation of suffixes (indicated by '-') andclitics (indicated by '='). Hurrian clitics stand for unique words, but are attached to other words as though they were suffixes.Transitivity andintransitivity 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, includingvalency-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 sectionPersonal pronouns.
After the derivational suffix come those markingtense. Thepresent tense is unmarked, thepreterite is marked by-ōš and thefuture byēt. The preterite and future suffixes also include the suffix-t, which indicates intransitivity, but occurs only in truly intransitive forms, not inantipassive 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 theindicative 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 [something]" 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:
| 1st person singular | 1st person plural | 2nd person singular | 2nd person plural | 3rd person sing/pl | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| with-i (transitive) (only Mitanni) | -af, -au | -auša | -i-o | -*aššo, -*aššu | -i-a |
| with-wa (negated) | -uffu | -uffuš(a) | -wa-o | -uššu | -wa-a |
| with other morphemes (no merging) | -...-af, -...-au | -...-auša | -...-o | -...-aššo, -...-aššu | -...-a |
The suffixes of the first person, both plural and singular, and the second person plural suffix merge with the preceding suffixes-i and-wa. However, in the Mari and Hattusha dialects, the suffix of transitivity-o does not merge with other endings. The distinction between singular and plural in the third person is provided by the suffix-t, which comes directly after the tense marker. In the third person, when the suffix-wa occurs before the subject marker, it can be replaced by-ma, also expressing the negative:irnōhoš-i-ā-ma, (like-trans-3rd-neg) "He does not like [it]".
In the Old Hurrian of Hattusha the ending of the third person singular ergative subject was-m. A third personplural ergative subject was marked with the suffix-it-, which, however, unlike the other ergative endings, occurredbefore instead ofafter the transitivity vowel: contrastuv-o-m "she slaughtered" withtun-it-o "they forced".[16][17][18] In the intransitive and antipassive, there was also a subject marker,-p for the third person but unmarked for the others. It is unknown whether this suffix was also found on transitive objects.
If a verb form is nominalised, e.g. to create arelative clause, then another suffix is used:-šše. Nominalised verbs can undergo Suffixaufnahme. Verb forms can also take other enclitic suffixes; see the sectionEnclitic particles below.
For a list of the enclitics that mark the person and number of the absolutive participant, see the sectionPersonal pronouns above.
To express nuances ofgrammatical mood, several special verb forms are used, which are derived from the indicative (non-modal) forms. Wishes and commands are formed with anoptative system, whose principal characteristic is the element-i, which is attached directly to the verb stem. There is no difference between the form for transitive and intransitive verbs, there being agreement with the subject of the sentence. Tense markers are unchanged in the optative.
| Person | Number | Negation | Ending | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | singular | affirmative | -ile, after /l/ or /r/,-le and-re | "I want to..." |
| negative | -ifalli | "I do not want to..." | ||
| plural | unattested | |||
| 2nd person | singular | affirmative | -i,-e | "you will (imperative) |
| negative | -ifa,-efa | "you will not..." | ||
| plural | affirmative | -i(š),-e(š) | "you will..." | |
| negative | -ifa(š),-efa(š) | "you will not..." | ||
| 3rd person | singular | affirmative | -ien1 | "he/she/it can..." |
| negative | -ifaen1 | "he/she/it cannot..." | ||
| plural | affirmative | -iten1 | "may they..." | |
| negative | -itfaen1 | "may they not..." | ||
1 In the optative forms of the third person, the /n/ ending is present in the Mari/Hattuša dialect when the following word begins with a consonant.
The so-called final form, which is needed to express a purpose ("in order to"), has different endings. In the singular, the suffixes-ae,-ai,-ilae and-ilai are found, which after /l/ and /r/ become-lae/-lai and-rae/rai respectively. In the plural the same endings are used, although sometimes the plural suffix-ša is found as well, but this is not always the case.
To express a possibility, the potential form must be used. For intransitive verbs, the ending is-ilefa orolefa (-lefa and-refa after /l,r/), which does not need to agree with the subject. Transitive potential forms are formed with-illet and-allet, which are suffixed to the normal endings of the transitive indicative forms. However, this form is only attested in Mitanni and only in the third person. The potential form is also occasionally used to express a wish.
The desiderative form is used to express an urgent request. It is also only found in the third person, and only with transitive verbs. The ending for the third person singular is-ilanni, and for the plural,-itanni.
The following tables give examples of verb forms in various syntactic environments, largely from the Mitanni letter:
TRANS:transitive verb
| Ex. | Form |
|---|---|
| (4) | |
| (5) | pal-i-a-mā-šše=mān pal-i-a-mā-šše=mān know-TRANS-3rd-NEG-NOM=but "..., but which he doesn't know" |
| (6) | |
| (7) | |
| (8) | |
| (9) | |
| (10) | |
| (11) | |
| (12) | |
| (13) |
Infinitive forms of the verb in Hurrian include both nominalised verbs (participles) and a more conventionalinfinitive. The first nominalised participle, the present participle, is characterised by the ending-iri or-ire, e.g.pairi, "the one building, the builder",hapiri, "the one moving, the nomad". The second nominalised participle, the perfect participle, is formed with the ending-aure, and is only attested once, in Nuzi:hušaure, "the bound one". Another special form is only found in the dialect of Hattusha. It can only be formed from transitive verbs, and it specifies an agent of the first person. Its ending is-ilia, and this participle can undergo Suffixaufnahme.
pailianeš šuḫnineš
pa-ilia-ne-š šuḫni-ne-š
build-I.PRET.PTCP-ART.SG-ERG.SG wall-ART.SG-ERG.SG
"the wall built by me" (here in the ergative, so a subject of a transitive verb)
The infinitive, which can also be found nominalised, is formed with the suffix-umme, e.g.fahrumme, "to be good", "the state/property of being good"
Hurrian uses both enclitic and independent personal pronouns. The independent pronouns can occur in any case, whereas the enclitic ones represent only the absolutive. It is irrelevant to the meaning of the sentence to which word in the sentence the enclitic pronoun is attached, so it is often attached either to the first phrase or to the verb. The following table gives the attested forms of the personal pronouns, omitting those that cannot be determined.
| Case | 1st Singular (I) | 2nd Singular (you) | 3rd Singular (he/she/it) | 1st Plural (we) | 2nd Plural (you) | 3rd Plural (they) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Absolutive (indep.) | ište | fe | mane,manni | šattil,šattitil(la) | fella | manella |
| Absolutive (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 | šofa | fefa | šaša (?) | feša | manša | |
| Locative | feša (?) | |||||
| Allative | šuta | šašuta (?) | ||||
| Ablative | manutan | |||||
| Comitative | šura | manura | manšura,manšora | |||
| Equative II | šonna | manunna |
The variant forms-me,-ma and-lle of the third person absolutive pronouns only before certain conjunctions, namelyai (when),inna (when),inu,unu (who),panu (though), and the relative pronounsiya andiye. When an enclitic personal pronoun is attached to a noun, an extensive system of sound changes determines the final form. The enclitic-nna of the third person singular behaves differently from the other pronouns: when it is preceded by an ergative suffix it, unlike the other pronouns, combines with the suffix to formšša, whereas with all other pronouns theš of the ergative is dropped. Moreover, a word-final vowel /i/ changes to /e/ or /a/ when any enclitic pronoun other than-nna is attached.
The Hurrianpossessive pronouns cannot occur independently, but are only enclitic. They are attached to nouns or nominalised verbs. The form of the pronoun is dependent on that of the following morpheme. The table below outlines the possible forms:
| Fall | 1st Singular (my) | 2nd Singular (your) | 3rd Singular (his/her/its) | 1st Plural (our) | 2nd Plural (your) | 3rd Plural (their) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| word-finally | -iffe | -f | -i | -iffaš | -šše | -yaš |
| before consonants (except /f,w/) | -iffu | -fu | -i | -iffaš | -šu | -yaš |
| before vowels and /f,w/ | -iff | -f | -i | -iffaš | unattested | -yaš |
The final vowel of the noun stem is dropped before an attached possessive pronoun, e.g.šeniffe ("my brother", fromšena "brother"). It remains, however, when a consonant-initial pronoun is attached:attaif ("your father", fromattai, "father")
Hurrian also has severaldemonstrative pronouns:anni (this),anti/ani (that),akki...aki (one...the other). The final vowel /i/ of these pronouns is retained only in the absolutive, becoming /u/ in all other cases, e.g.akkuš "the one" (erg.),antufa ("to that [one]"). There are also the relative pronounsiya andiye. Both forms are free interchangeable. The pronoun has the function of the absolutive in the relative clause, and so represents an intransitive subject or a transitive object. The interrogative pronoun (who/what) is only attested in the ergative singular (afeš), and once in the absolutive singular (au).
Hurrian contains many expressions that denote spatial and abstract relations and serve asadpositions, most of them built on the dative and genitive cases. They are almost exclusively postpositions – only one preposition (āpi + dative, "for"), is attested in the texts from Hattusha. All adpositions can themselves generally be in the allative, rarely in the dative or in the "e-case".
Some examples:N-fa āyita orN-fenē āyē (in the presence of; fromāyi "face").N-fa etīta orN-fa etīfa (for, because of; frometi "body, person"),N-fenē etiyē (concerning),N-fa furīta (in sight of; fromfuri, "sight, look"), and only in HattushaN-fa āpita (in front of; fromāpi, "front"). Besides these, there isištani "space between," which is used with a plural possessive pronoun and the locative, for "between us/you/them", e.g.ištaniffaša (between us, under us).
Only a few sentence-initialparticles are attested. In contract with nouns, which also end in /i/, the final vowel of the conjunctionsai (when) andanammi (therefore) is not dropped before an enclitic personal pronoun. Other conjunctions includealaše (if),inna (when),inu (like) andpanu (although). Hurrian has only a small amount of adverbs. The temporal adverbs arehenni (now),kuru (again) andunto (then). Also attested areatī (thus, so) andtiššan (very).
The enclitic particles can be attached to any word in a sentence, but most often they are attached to the first phrase of the sentence or to the verb. They are much more diverse and frequent in the Mitanni letter than in Old Hurrian. Common ones include=ān (and),=mān (but),=mmaman (to be sure) and=nīn (truly!).
atīnīn
atī=nīn
so=truly
atīnīn mānnattamān
atī=nīn mānn-a=tta=mān
so=truly be-INTR=1.SG.ABS=but
"But I really am thus"
In addition to the irregular number wordšui (every), all thecardinal numbers from 1 to 10 as well as a few higher ones are attested.Ordinal numbers are formed with the suffix-(š)še orši, which becomes-ze or-zi after /n/. The following table gives an overview of the numeral system:
| Cardinal number | Ordinal number | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | šukko, šuki | unattested |
| 2 | šini | šinzi |
| 3 | kike | kiški |
| 4 | tumni | tumnušše |
| 5 | nariya | narišše |
| 6 | šeše | unattested |
| 7 | šinti | šintišše |
| 8 | kiri, kira | unattested |
| 9 | tamri | unattested |
| 10 | ēmani | ēmanze |
| 13 or 30 | kikmani | unattested |
| 17 or 70 | šintimani | unattested |
| 18 or 80 | kirmani | kirmanze |
| 10000 | nupi | unattested |
| 30000 | kike nupi | unattested |
Distributive numbers carry the suffix-ate, e.g.kikate (by threes),tumnate (by fours). The suffix-āmha denotes multiplicatives, e.g.šināmha (twice),ēmanāmha (thrice). All cardinal numbers end in a vowel, which drops when an enclitic is attached.
Hurrian's basicword order is a matter of dispute. According to Speiser's 1941 grammar, the normal word order of a Hurrian sentence is essentiallyobject–subject–verb (OSV). However, since Hurrian is an ergative–absolutive language, the syntactic roles of a Hurrian phrase do not exactly correspond to the "subject" and "object" of anominative–accusative language (such asEnglish). For this reason, Speiser says that Hurrian's word order can be more accurately described as "goal–agent–action", with the absolutive case corresponding to the "grammatical subject" (i.e.specifier).[19]
šeniff išaš tatau
šen-iff-Ø iša-š tat-au
brother-my-ABS me-ERG.SG love-1.SG
"I love my brother"
Geoffrey K. Pullum (1977) is doubtful of Speiser's analysis. He argues that the available corpus of Hurrian text is not large enough to definitively determine its word order, and that it can only be identified as generally verb-final (i.e. either OSV orSOV). Pullum gives the following example of a Hurrian sentence with SOV order:[20]
Immuriyaššan zalamši tanoša
Immuriya-šš-an zalamši-Ø tan-oš-a
Immuriya-ERG.SG-and statue-ABS make-PRET-3
"And Immuriya made the statue"
Maria Polinsky (1995) notes that the structure of Hurrian'sditransitive clauses is subject–object (as in SOV) rather thanobject–subject (as in OSV). Specifically, the order is subject–indirect object–direct object–verb. However, she still refers to Hurrian as an example of an OSV language.[21]
Withinnoun phrases, the noun regularly comes at the end. Adjectives, numbers, and genitive modifiers come before the noun they modify.Relative clauses, however, tend to surround the noun, which means that the noun the relative clause modifies stands in the middle of the relative clause. Hurrian has at its disposal several paradigms for constructing relative clauses. It can either use the relative pronounsiya andiye, which has already been described under 'pronouns' above, or the nominalising suffix-šše attached to a verb, which undergoes Suffixaufnahme. The third possibility is for both these markers to occur (see example 16 below). The noun, which is represented by the relative clause, can take any case, but within the relative clause can only have the function of the absolutive, i.e. it can only be the subject of an intransitive relative clause or the object of a transitive one.
iyallānīn šēniffuš tiwēna tānōšāššena
iya=llā=nīn šēn-iffu-š tiwē-na-Ø tān-ōš-ā-šše-na-Ø
REL.PRO=3.PL.ABS=truly brother-my-ERG.SG object-ART.PL-ABS send-PRET-3.SG.SUBJ-NOM-ART.PL-ABS
"those, which my brother sent"
As has been outlined above, Hurrian transitive verbs normally take a subject in the ergative and an object in the absolutive (except for the antipassive constructions, where these are replaced by the absolutive and the essive respectively). The indirect object of ditransitive verbs, however, can be in the dative, locative, allative, or with some verbs also in the absolutive.
olaffa katulle
ola-Ø=ffa katul-le
other-ABS=2.PL.ABS say-OPT.1.SG
"I want to tell youabs something elseabs"
The attested Hurrian lexicon is quite homogeneous, containing only a small number ofloanwords (e.g.tuppi ('clay tablet'),Mizri ('Egypt'; cf. Aramaic/HebrewMizraim, 'id.') both fromAkkadian). The relative pronounsiya andiye may be a loan from theIndo-Aryan language of the Mitanni people who had lived in the region before the Hurrians; cf.Sanskritya. Conversely, Hurrian gave many loan words to the nearby Akkadian dialects, for examplehāpiru ('nomad') from the Hurrianhāpiri ('nomad'). There may also be Hurrian loanwords among thelanguages of the Caucasus, but this cannot be verified, as there are no written records of Caucasian languages from the time of the Hurrians. The source language of similar sounding words is thus unconfirmable.
The Hurrian language was written using a modified form of thecuneiform script. Several non-standardized systems for writing Hurrian in cuneiform were in use across the various polities with a Hurrian scribal tradition. Generally, these systems are characterized by a limited use oflogograms and an emphasis onsyllabic writing. This sets Hurrian orthography apart from Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform, which is heavily reliant on logograms.
Notably, in addition to the prototypical cuneiform vowel inventory consisting ofa,e,i, andu, the syllabary of the Mitanni Letter also includes the vowelo. In this respect it is unique among all forms of cuneiform writing. The scribe of the Mitanni Letter also frequently employs independent vowel signs in order to disambiguate the readings of uncertain CV signs through a technique called "plene spelling." For example, the sign𒊑 (RI) can be read as eitherri orre. When necessary, the syllableri could be written unambiguously as𒊑𒄿 (RI-I) and the syllablere as𒊑𒂊 (RI-E). It is uncertain whether plene-spelling was also used to mark vowel length.
| -a | -e | -i | -o | -u | a- | e- | i- | o- | u- | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| – | A | 𒀀 | E | 𒂊 | I | 𒄿 | U | 𒌋 | U₂ | 𒌑 | A | 𒀀 | E | 𒂊 | I | 𒄿 | U | 𒌋 | U₂ | 𒌑 | – | |
| p- | PA | 𒉺 | BE | 𒁁 | BI | 𒁉 | BU | 𒁍 | BU | 𒁍 | AB | 𒀊 | IB | 𒅁 | IB | 𒅁 | UB | 𒌒 | UB | 𒌒 | -p | |
| t- | TA | 𒋫 | TE | 𒋼 | TI | 𒋾 | DU | 𒁺 | DU | 𒁺 | AD | 𒀜 | ID | 𒀉 | ID | 𒀉 | UD | 𒌓 | UD | 𒌓 | -t | |
| k- | KA | 𒅗 | GI | 𒄀 | KI | 𒆠 | KU | 𒆪 | GU | 𒄖 | AG | 𒀝 | IG | 𒅅 | IG | 𒅅 | UG | 𒊌 | UG | 𒊌 | -k | |
| ḫ- | ḪA | 𒄩 | ḪE₂ | 𒃶 | ḪI | 𒄭 | ḪU | 𒄷 | ḪU | 𒄷 | AḪ | 𒄴 | AḪ | 𒄴 | AḪ | 𒄴 | AḪ | 𒄴 | AḪ | 𒄴 | -ḫ | |
| l- | LA | 𒆷 | LI | 𒇷 | LI | 𒇷 | LU | 𒇻 | LU | 𒇻 | AL | 𒀠 | EL | 𒂖 | IL | 𒅋 | UL | 𒌌 | UL | 𒌌 | -l | |
| m- | MA | 𒈠 | ME | 𒈨 | MI | 𒈪 | MU | 𒈬 | MU | 𒈬 | AM | 𒄠 | IM | 𒅎 | IM | 𒅎 | UM | 𒌝 | UM | 𒌝 | -m | |
| n- | NA | 𒈾 | NI | 𒉌 | NI | 𒉌 | NU | 𒉡 | NU | 𒉡 | AN | 𒀭 | EN | 𒂗 | IN | 𒅔 | UN | 𒌦 | UN | 𒌦 | -n | |
| r- | RA | 𒊏 | RI | 𒊑 | RI | 𒊑 | RU | 𒊒 | RU | 𒊒 | AR | 𒅈 | IR | 𒅕 | IR | 𒅕 | UR | 𒌨 | UR | 𒌨 | -r | |
| s- | SA | 𒊓 | [SI] | 𒋛 | [SI] | 𒋛 | SU | 𒋢 | SU | 𒋢 | [AZ] | 𒊍 | [IZ] | 𒄑 | [IZ] | 𒄑 | [UZ] | 𒊻 | [UZ] | 𒊻 | -s | |
| š- | ŠA | 𒊭 | ŠE | 𒊺 | ŠI | 𒅆 | ŠU | 𒋗 | ŠU | 𒋗 | AŠ | 𒀸 | EŠ | 𒌍 | IŠ | 𒅖 | UŠ | 𒍑 | UŠ | 𒍑 | -š | |
| z- | ZA | 𒍝 | [ZI] [ZE₂?] | 𒍣 𒍢 | ZI | 𒍣 | ZU | 𒍪 | ZU | 𒍪 | AZ | 𒊍 | IZ | 𒄑 | IZ | 𒄑 | UZ | 𒊻 | UZ | 𒊻 | -z | |
| w- | PI | 𒉿 | PI | 𒉿 | PI | 𒉿 | PI | 𒉿 | PI | 𒉿 | [AB] | 𒀊 | IB | 𒅁 | IB | 𒅁 | UB | 𒌒 | UB | 𒌒 | -w | |
From the Mitanni-Letter, Column IV, Lines 30–32
Untomān
unto=mān
now=but
Untomān iyallēnīn tiwēna šūallamān šēniffuš katōšāššena ūriāššena, antillān ēmanāmḫa tānōšau.
unto=mān iya=llē=nīn tiwē-na-Ø šū-a=lla=mān šēn-iffu-š kat-ōš-ā-šše-na-Ø ūr-i-ā-šše-na-Ø anti=lla=an ēman-āmḫa tān-ōš-au
now=but REL.PRO=3.PL.ABS=truly thing-ART.PL-ABS every-LOC=3.PL.ABS=but brother-my-ERG.SG say-PRT.TR-3.SG.SUBJ-NMZ-ART.PL-ABS want-TR-3.SG.SUBJ-NMZ-ART.PL-ABS those=PL.ABS=and ten-MUL do-PRT.TR-1.SG.SUBJ
"Those things, which my brother truly said and wanted as a whole, now I have done them, but tenfold."
Texts in the Hurrian language itself have been found atHattusa,Ugarit (Ras Shamra), andSapinuwa (but unpublished). Also, one of the longest of theAmarna letters is Hurrian; written by KingTushratta of Mitanni to PharaohAmenhotep III. It was the only long Hurrian text known until a multi-tablet collection of literature in Hurrian with aHittite translation was discovered at Hattusa in 1983.
Important finds were made atOrtaköy (Sapinuwa) in the 1990s, including several bilinguals. Most of them remain unedited as of 2007.
No Hurrian texts are attested from the first millennium BC (unless considering Urartian a late Hurrian dialect), but scattered loanwords persist in Assyrian, such as the goddessSavuska mentioned bySargon II.[23]
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