Editing Urartian language (section)

==Classification==
{{main|Hurro-Urartian languages}}

Urartian is an [[Ergative–absolutive alignment|ergative]], [[agglutinative language]], which belongs to the [[Hurro-Urartian languages|Hurro-Urartian family]], whose only other known member is [[Hurrian language|Hurrian]].<ref>The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East - Page 292 by Eric M. Meyers, American Schools of Oriental Research</ref> It survives in many [[cuneiform]] inscriptions found in the territory of the Kingdom of Urartu. There have been claims<ref>Jeffrey J. Klein, Urartian Hieroglyphic Inscriptions from Altintepe, Anatolian Studies, Vol. 24,   (1974), 77-94</ref> of a separate autochthonous script of "Urartian hieroglyphs" but they remain unsubstantiated.

Urartian is closely related to Hurrian, a somewhat better documented language attested for an earlier, non-overlapping period, approximately from 2000 BCE to 1200 BCE, written by native speakers until about 1350 BCE. The two languages must have developed quite independently from approximately 2000 BCE onwards.<ref>Wilhelm 1982: 5</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Wilhelm |first=Gernot |year=2008 |chapter=Urartian |editor-last=Woodard |editor-first=Roger D. |title=The Ancient Languages of Asia Minor |url=https://archive.org/details/ancientlanguages00wood_436 |url-access=limited |pages=[https://archive.org/details/ancientlanguages00wood_436/page/n127 105]–123 |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521684965 }}</ref> Although Urartian is not a direct continuation of any of the attested dialects of Hurrian,<ref>Academic American Encyclopedia - Page 198</ref> many of its features are best explained as innovative developments with respect to Hurrian as it is known from the preceding millennium. The closeness holds especially true of the so-called Old Hurrian dialect, known above all from Hurro-Hittite bilingual texts.

The external connections of the Hurro-Urartian languages are disputed. There exist various proposals for a [[Hurro-Urartian languages#classification|genetic relationship to other language families]], e.g. [[Northeast Caucasian languages]], [[Indo-European languages]], or [[Kartvelian languages]], but none of these are generally accepted.<ref>{{cite book |last=Wilhelm |first=Gernot |year=2008 |chapter=Hurrian |editor-last=Woodard |editor-first=Roger D. |title=The Ancient Languages of Asia Minor |url=https://archive.org/details/ancientlanguages00wood |url-access=limited |pages=[https://archive.org/details/ancientlanguages00wood/page/n103 81]–104 |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521684965 }}</ref>

Indo-European, namely [[Armenian language|Armenian]] and [[Anatolian languages|Anatolian]], as well as [[Iranian languages|Iranian]] and possibly [[Paleo-Balkan languages|Paleo-Balkan]], etymologies have been proposed for many Urartian personal and topographic names, such as the names of kings [[Arame of Urartu|Arame]] and [[Argishti I of Urartu|Argishti]], regions such as [[Diauehi]] and [[Gegharkunik Province|Uelikulqi]], cities such as [[Arzashkun]], geographical features like [[Murat River|the Arșania River]], as well as some Urartian vocabulary and grammar.<ref>Ivanov, Vyacheslav V. "Comparative Notes on Hurro-Urartian, Northern Caucasian and Indo-European." ''UCLA Indo-European Studies'' '''1''' (1999): 147-264 http://www.pies.ucla.edu/IESV/1/VVI_Horse.pdf {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180924093729/https://pies.ucla.edu/IESV/1/VVI_Horse.pdf |date=2018-09-24 }}</ref><ref>Petrosyan, Armen "The Armenian Elements in the Language and Onomastics of Urartu" ''Aramazd'' ''Vol V. Issue 1'' (2010): 133-140 [https://www.academia.edu/2939663/The_Armenian_Elements_in_the_Language_and_Onomastics_of_Urartu].</ref><ref name="jolr.ru">Hrach Martirosyan (2013). "The place of Armenian in the Indo-European language family: the relationship with Greek and Indo-Iranian*" Leiden University. p. 85-86. [https://www.jolr.ru/files/(128)jlr2013-10(85-138).pdf]</ref> Surviving texts of the language are written in a variant of the cuneiform script called Neo-Assyrian.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Urartian-language | title=Urartian language &#124; Britannica }}</ref> Comparison:
{| class="wikitable"
!Urartian
!Hurrian
!Meaning
|-
|''esi''
|''eše''
|Location
|-
|''šuri''
|''šauri''
|Weapon
|-
|''mane''
|''mane''
|3. Sg. Pers.
|-
|''-ḫi''
|''-ḫi''
|Affiliation affix
|-
|''-še''
|''-š''
|Ergative
|-
|''-di''
|''-tta''
|1. Sg. Abs.
|-
|''ag-''
|''ag-''
|to lead
|-
|''ar-''
|''ar-''
|to give
|-
|''man-''
|''mann-''
|to be
|-
|''nun-''
|''un-''
|to come
|-
|''-di''
|''-da''
|Directive
|-
|''-u-''
|''-o-''
|Transitivity marking
|-
|''qiura''
|''eše''
|Earth
|-
|''lutu''
|''ašte''
|Transitivity marking
|}