Hurro-Urartian languages
| Hurro-Urartian | |
|---|---|
| Hurrartian, Asianic | |
| Geographic distribution: |
Anatolia |
| Linguistic classification: |
Alarodian ?
|
| Subdivisions: | |
| Glottolog: | hurr1239 |
The Hurro-Urartian languages are an extinct language family of the Ancient Near East, comprising only two known languages: Hurrian and Urartian, both of which were spoken in the Taurus mountains area.
Hurro-Urartian was related neither to the Semitic (a branch of Afro-Asiatic, such as Aramaic and Akkadian) nor to the Indo-European languages (such as Persian or Armenian) of the region.
Proponents of linguistic macrofamilies have suggested that Hurro-Urartian and Northeast Caucasian form an "Alarodian" family, but this is without support in mainstream linguistics.
The poorly attested Kassite language may have been related to Hurrian.
Hurrian was the language of the Hurrians (occasionally called "Hurrites"), and was spoken in the northern parts of Mesopotamia and Syria and the southeastern parts of Anatolia between at least last quarter of the third millennium BC and its extinction towards the end of the second millennium BC. There have been various Hurrian-speaking states, of which the most prominent one was the kingdom of Mitanni (1450–1270 BC). It has also been proposed that two little known groups, the Nairi and the Mannae, might have been Hurrian speakers, but as little is known about them, it is hard to draw any conclusions about what languages they spoke. Furthermore, the Kassite language was possibly related to Hurro-Urartian.
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