| Proto-Euphratean | |
|---|---|
| Region | southernIraq |
| Ethnicity | Samarra culture? |
| Era | EarlyUbaid period (5500-4800 BCE) |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis) |
| Glottolog | None |
Proto-Euphratean is a hypotheticalunclassified language or languages which was considered by someAssyriologists (such asSamuel Noah Kramer) to be thesubstratum language of the people who introduced farming into SouthernIraq in the EarlyUbaid period (5300–4700 BC).
Igor Dyakonov andVladislav Ardzinba identified these hypothetical languages with theSamarran culture.[1]
Benno Landsberger and other Assyriologists argued that by examining the structure ofSumerian names of occupations, as well as toponyms andhydronyms, one can suggest that there was once an earlier group of people in the region who spoke an entirely different language, often referred to as Proto-Euphratean. Terms for "farmer", "smith", "carpenter", and "date" (the fruit) do not appear to have a Sumerian orSemitic origin.[vague]
Dyakonov and Ardzinba proposed a different term, "banana languages", based on a characteristic feature of multiple personal names attested in Sumerian texts, namelyreduplication of syllables (as in the English wordbanana):Inanna,Zababa, Chuwawa/Humbaba,Bunene,Pazuzu, etc found in Sumerian, Akkadian, Assyrian and Babylonian texts. The same feature was attested in some other unclassified languages, includingMinoan. The same feature is allegedly attested by several names ofHyksos rulers:[example needed] although the Hyksos tribes were Semitic Canaanites, some of their names, like Bnon,Apophis, etc. were apparently non-Semitic in origin.[2]
Rubio challenged thesubstratum hypothesis, arguing that there is evidence of borrowing from more than one language. This theory is now predominant in the field (Piotr Michalowski, Gerd Steiner, etc.).
A related proposal by Gordon Whittaker[3] is that the language of the proto-literary texts from the LateUruk period (c. 3350–3100 BC) is an earlyIndo-European language that he terms "Euphratic", although this does not have mainstream support.
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