The Indo-European Elements in Hurrian
The Indo-European Elements in Hurrian
The Indo-European Elements in Hurrian
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14 2. Phonology, Writ<strong>in</strong>g Systems, Texts<br />
also an <strong>in</strong>stance of Õ <strong>in</strong> the obscure word or syntagm [t z Õ r p n m]. <strong>The</strong> presence of */"/ seems<br />
probable, but it must be noted that there is also the case of Šauška [t w t k], with no aleph.<br />
Speiser (1941:19) dismisses the evidence of < d Te-eš-šu-ub-"a-ri> (VS VII 72.10) and of <br />
Mit. IV 50, which he proposes to <strong>in</strong>terpret as *[aje]. We will show below that this is most<br />
probably *[ā"ī"ī]. <strong>The</strong> comparison of Arip-atal with Arip-¯uppi <strong>in</strong> Gelb (1944:114) is also a<br />
powerful clue that a glottal stop prevents the connection between p and the next (")a.<br />
As regards gem<strong>in</strong>ates, [nn] is attested <strong>in</strong> Ugaritic script for the plural article . <strong>The</strong><br />
graphic gem<strong>in</strong>ates and result<strong>in</strong>g from the assimilation of -r- and -l- with the s<strong>in</strong>gular<br />
article -ni are most probably phonetic gem<strong>in</strong>ates. <strong>The</strong> case of the Absolutive plural may<br />
not be a gem<strong>in</strong>ate but a voiceless fricative. As for , the case of suni and summi ‘hand’<br />
suggests that summi is sun=mi with assimilation to the suffix -mi. This is most probably a<br />
phonetic gem<strong>in</strong>ate. As noted above, graphic gem<strong>in</strong>ation is a device to <strong>in</strong>dicate voicelessness, but<br />
it is possible that, <strong>in</strong> some cases, morpheme boundaries resulted <strong>in</strong> phonetic gem<strong>in</strong>ates. Potential<br />
examples are: (1) -ittu, -itta ‘P3 pl. + future’, which can be analyzed as *-id=ta, *-id=tu; (2) -tta<br />
‘P1sg. + Abs.’, which can be analyzed as *-t=wa. Phonetic gem<strong>in</strong>ation appears only at<br />
morpheme boundaries.<br />
On this basis, we would propose the follow<strong>in</strong>g phonological system for <strong>Hurrian</strong>:<br />
Labial Dental Affricate Palatal Liquids Velar Glottal<br />
Voiced /b/ /d/ /m/ /ź/ /l/ /ll/ /g/<br />
Voiceless /p/ /t/ /ˆ/ /ś/ /k/ /"/<br />
Voiced /z/ /r/ /rr/ /γ/<br />
Voiceless /s/ /x/<br />
Nasals /m/ /n/ /nn/<br />
Glides /w/ /y/<br />
A f<strong>in</strong>al remark on the consonants is the tendency of <strong>Hurrian</strong> “laryngeals” (/γ/, /x/ and /"/)<br />
to mute out. <strong>The</strong> word ‘Egypt’ is attested <strong>in</strong> the Mitanni letter as Mit. II 69<br />
and Mit. II 71, which suggests *[ma:sri"a"] with two different treatments<br />
of the f<strong>in</strong>al glottal stop: vowel lengthen<strong>in</strong>g or gem<strong>in</strong>ation. <strong>The</strong> word šu¯uri ‘life’ is also attested<br />
with writ<strong>in</strong>gs like or *[suwri] with no .<br />
Laroche assumes that <strong>Hurrian</strong> had the follow<strong>in</strong>g vowels: /i/, /a/, /u/; he does not exclude<br />
that /e/ and /o/ may have existed, but none of the writ<strong>in</strong>g systems used for <strong>Hurrian</strong> can provide<br />
any support for the existence of /e/ and /o/. It is well-known that the cuneiform system is not far<br />
from be<strong>in</strong>g hopelessly unable to denote this dist<strong>in</strong>ction, even where it may have existed. It can<br />
be noted that tan ‘to do’ (< *dheH÷-) and taše ‘gift’ (< *doHú-) are both written with -a-.<br />
This triangular system /i/, /a/, /u/ is typologically frequent. Apparently, as shown by the<br />
Hebrew and Greek rendition of the word ¯urru¯e ‘<strong>Hurrian</strong>’, the phoneme */u/ <strong>in</strong> <strong>Hurrian</strong> must<br />
have been rather open and sounded like *[o]. As regards the phoneme */a/, it seems to be fairly<br />
anterior and close to *[æ/ε]. An <strong>in</strong>stance of stand<strong>in</strong>g for is šarri ‘k<strong>in</strong>g’ and šerri, šerši