Among the numerous languages of ancient near east, Hurrian is an important one, but in contrast to Akkadian or Hittite there are few investigations of this language, and summary works documenting present knowledge are non-existent. The present “Introduction” shall then be interested in providing access to the grammar as reflected in present research.
Many grammatical phenomena that are introduced here may however in the future be modified or even completely reevaluated by others, especially since the study of the Hurrian language is strongly contested. A scientific grammar in the strict sense is not included in this introduction. The previous aids to the learning of Hurrian are however all out-of-date (?) and derive from three grammars and one glossary as well as from numerous scattered published articles.
Works that introduce grammar to the student by means of largely coherent text fragments do not exist. These details shall here be taken into account. As reading pieces artificially formed sample sentences are not used. The sample texts originate primarily from the Mittani letters and a few examples of the Boğazköy texts.
Following after a strictly grammatical portion comes a series of transcriptions, with a translation and a commentary provided as lessons. Lessons 1-10 are text passages from the Mittani letters, Lesions 11-13 originate from the Hurrian-Hittite bilinguals of Boğazköy, and lesson 14 treats the Tišatal-Inscription. The text passages that are taken from the Mittani letters are not arranged by content criteria, but instead suitable text fragments are chosen so that the grammatical material progresses from introductory to difficult.
I give many heartfelt thank in this connection to Dr. Chr. Girbal for reviewing the manuscript, for valuable references and corrections. For the Hurrian, above all the Mittani letters in many cases we had conservations through which I received important advice, but also some errors were preserved.
Introduction to the Hurrian Language by Ilse Wegner
Filed under: Uncategorized
