Elamite language

Elamite is an extinct language, which was spoken by the ancient Elamites (also known as Ilamids). Elamite was an official language of the Persian Empire from the sixth to fourth centuries BCE. The last written records in Elamite appear about the time of the conquest of the Persian Empire by Alexander the Great.

Elamite scripts

Over the centuries, three distinct Elamite scripts developed.

Proto-Elamite is the oldest known writing system from Iran. It was used during a brief period of time (ca. 3100 - 2900 BCE); clay tablets with proto-Elamite writing have been found at different sites across Iran. The Proto-Elamite script is thought to have developed from early cuneiform (proto-cuneiform). The Proto-Elamite script consists of more than 1,000 signs and is thought to be partly logographic. Since it has not yet been deciphered, it is not known whether the language it represents is Elamite or another language. Some early writing systems are believed to be language neutral, proto-Elamite may not relate to any spoken language, the way traditional writing systems does.

Linear-Elamite is a writing system from Iran attested in a few monumental inscriptions only. It is often claimed that linear-Elamite is a syllabic writing systemderived from Proto-Elamite, although this cannot be proven. Linear-Elamite was used for a very brief period of time during the last quater of the 3^rd millennium BC. Linear-Elamite has not been deciphered. Several scholars have atempted to decipher linear-Elamite, most notably Walther Hinz and Piero Meriggi.

The Elamite Cuneiform script was used from about 2500 BCE to 331 BCE, and was adapted from the Akkadian Cuneiform. The Elamite Cuneiform script consisted of about 130 symbols, far fewer than most other cuneiform scripts.

Linguistic typology

Elamite was an agglutinative language, and Elamite grammar features case agreement between nouns, called Suffixaufnahme. It also had the unusual feature of having a class of animate nouns with separate markers for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person.

Relations to other language families

Elamite is mostly thought to have no close relation to the neighboring Semitic languages, or Indo-European languages, and although it adopted the syllabic script originally used for the Sumerian language, the two appear to be unrelated either.

Elamo-Dravidian versus Afro-Asiatic

There have been two most promising attempts. David McAlpin's Elamo-Dravidian hypothesis postulates a genetic relation between Elamite and Dravidian languages, which then would have been carried from Elam to India by eastward migration, wheareas Václav Blažek proposes a closer Afroasiatic connection, based on possible lexical parallels.

Both approaches have been recently criticized by George Starostin, who considers the evidence insufficient. Applying the method of mass lexical comparison, he finds equally plausible parallels in other language families, notably Altaic, Uralic, Kartvelian and Indoeuropean, pointing to Nostratic, their supposed common ancestor, of which Dravidian is considered a descendant, too. Taking into account the relative scarcity of the Elamite data and the importance of McAlpin and Blažek's independent findings, his preliminary conclusion is that the Elamite language may have actually represented a "bridge" between Proto-Dravidian and the Afro-Asiatic languages, being a single member of an old language family that disappeared once for all.^*

McAlpin's view:

1. Elamo-Dravidian 1.1. Elamite 1.2. Dravidian

Blažek's view:

1. Afro-Asiatic 1.1. Semitic 1.2. Egyptian 1.3. Berber 1.4. Cushitic 1.5. Chadic 1.6. Elamite ???

G. Starostin's view:

1. Nostratic 1.1. Eurasiatic (including Dravidian) 1.2. Elamite 1.3. Afroasiatic

References

Khačikjan, Margaret: The Elamite Language, Documenta Asiana IV, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche Istituto per gli Studi Micenei ed Egeo-Anatolici, 1998 ISBN 8887345015

Potts, Daniel T.: The archaeology of Elam: formation and transformation of an ancient Iranian state, Cambridge U., 1999 ISBN 0521564964 and ISBN 0521563585

Ancient languages | Language isolates | Extinct languages of Asia | Dravidian languages

External links

On the genetic affiliation of the Elamite language