Information about Elamite language

Elamite ()
Spoken in:	Elamite Empire (extinct)
Region:	Middle East
Total speakers:
Ranking:
Genetic classification:	possible language isolate, but see Elamo-Dravidian languages
Official status
Official language of:
Regulated by:
Language codes
ISO 639-1
ISO 639-2	elx
SIL
See also: Language – List of languages

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 BC. 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 BC); 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. It has been suggested that some early writing systems, including Proto-Elamite, may not relate to spoken languages in the way that modern writing systems do.
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 system derived from Proto-Elamite, although this cannot be proven. Linear-Elamite was used for a very brief period of time during the last quarter of the third millennium BC. Linear-Elamite has not been deciphered. Several scholars have attempted to decipher linear-Elamite, most notably Walther Hinz and Piero Meriggi.
The Elamite Cuneiform script was used from about 2500 BC to 331 BC, 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, to the Indo-European languages, or to Sumerian, even though it adopted the Sumerian syllabic script.

Elamo-Dravidian versus Afro-Asiatic

There have been two promising attempts at categorization. In one, an Elamo-Dravidian language family, consisting of Elamite and the Dravidian languages, was carried from Elam to India by eastward migration; this is the view proposed by David McAlpin. In the other, proposed by Václav Blažek, Elamite is more closely related to the Afro-Asiatic languages, perhaps forming a distinct subfamily of these.

References

Khačikjan, Margaret: The Elamite Language, Documenta Asiana IV, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche Istituto per gli Studi Micenei ed Egeo-Anatolici, 1998 ISBN 88-87345-01-5
Potts, Daniel T.: The archaeology of Elam: formation and transformation of an ancient Iranian state, Cambridge U., 1999 ISBN 0-521-56496-4 and ISBN 0-521-56358-5

External links

BCE Zayandeh River Civilization Sialk civilization 7500–1000 Jiroft civilization (Aratta) Proto-Elamite civilization Bactria-Margiana Complex Elamite dynasties 2800–550 Kingdom of Mannai Median Empire 728–550 Achaemenid Empire Seleucid Empire Greco-Bactrian
..... Click the link for more information.

This is a list of languages, ordered by the number of native-language speakers, with some data for second-language use. Languages are listed for secondary locations only when spoken by more than 1% of the population.
..... Click the link for more information.

A language family is a group of languages related by descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language. As with biological families, the evidence of relationship is observable shared characteristics.
..... Click the link for more information.

A language isolate, in the absolute sense, is a natural language with no demonstrable genealogical (or "genetic") relationship with other living languages; that is, one that has not been demonstrated to descend from an ancestor common to any other language.
..... Click the link for more information.

The Elamo-Dravidian languages are a hypothesised language family which includes the living Dravidian languages of India and Pakistan, in addition to the extinct Elamite language of ancient Elam, in what is now southwestern Iran.
..... Click the link for more information.

This is a list of bodies that regulate standard languages.

Afrikaans Die Taalkommissie, South Africa
Arabic Academy of the Arabic Language (مجمع اللغة العربية, Syria, Egypt, Jordan,
..... Click the link for more information.

ISO 639 is the set of international standards that lists short codes for language names.

ISO 639 consists of different parts, of which two parts have been approved and a third part that is in the final approval (FDIS) stage. The other parts are works in progress.
..... Click the link for more information.

Ethnologue: Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International (formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics), a Christian linguistic service organization which studies lesser-known languages primarily to provide the speakers with Bibles in
..... Click the link for more information.

See Language (journal) for the linguistics journal.

A language is a system of symbols and the rules used to manipulate them. Language can also refer to the use of such systems as a general phenomenon.
..... Click the link for more information.

lists of languages:

List of languages by name
List of languages by writing system
List of languages by number of native speakers
Ethnologue list of most spoken languages

..... Click the link for more information.

An extinct language is a language which no longer has any native speakers, in contrast to a dead language, which is a language which has stopped changing in grammar, vocabulary, and the complete meaning of a sentence.
..... Click the link for more information.

Alexander III, the Great
Basileus of Macedon, Hegemon of the Hellenic League, Shah of Persia, Pharaoh of Egypt

Alexander fighting Persian king Darius III. From Alexander Mosaic, from Pompeii, Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale.
..... Click the link for more information.

History of Iran

..... Click the link for more information.

Cuneiform
Child systems Old Persian, Ugaritic

Unicode range U+12000 to U+1236E (Sumero-Akkadian Cuneiform)
U+12400 to U+12473 (Numbers)
ISO 15924 Xsux

Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.
..... Click the link for more information.

logogram, or logograph, is a single grapheme which represents a word or a morpheme (a meaningful unit of language). This stands in contrast to other writing systems, such as syllabaries, abugidas, abjads, and alphabets, where each symbol (letter) primarily represents a sound
..... Click the link for more information.

Linear Elamite is a Bronze Age writing system used in Elam, known from a few monumental inscriptions only. It was used contemporarily with Elamite Cuneiform and likely records the Elamite language.
..... Click the link for more information.

The Elamite Cuneiform is a script which was used from about 2500 BC to 331 AD and was adapted from Akkadian Cuneiform. The Elamite Cuneiform script consisted of about 130 symbols, far fewer than most other cuneiform scripts.
..... Click the link for more information.

c. 2900 BC–2334 BC — Mesopotamian wars of the Early Dynastic period.

c. 2500 BC — Scribal schools flourish throughout Sumer.

c. 2500 BC — Cylinder seal from Sumer and its impression are made.
..... Click the link for more information.

4th century BC - 3rd century BC
360s BC 350s BC 340s BC - 330s BC - 320s BC 310s BC 300s BC
334 BC 333 BC 332 BC - 331 BC - 330 BC 329 BC 328 BC

Politics
State leaders - Sovereign states

..... Click the link for more information.

Ancient Mesopotamia

Euphrates Tigris
Cities / Empires
Sumer: Uruk ' Ur ' Eridu
Kish ' Lagash ' Nippur
Akkadian Empire: Akkad
Babylon ' Isin ' Susa
Assyria: Assur Nineveh
..... Click the link for more information.

An agglutinative language is a language that uses agglutination extensively: most words are formed by joining morphemes together. This term was introduced by Wilhelm von Humboldt in 1836 to classify languages from a morphological point of view.
..... Click the link for more information.

Grammar is the study of the rules governing the use of a given natural language, and as such a field of linguistics. Traditionally, grammar included morphology and syntax, in modern linguistics commonly expanded by the subfields of phonetics, phonology, orthography, semantics, and
..... Click the link for more information.

declension (or declination) is the inflection of nouns, pronouns and adjectives to indicate such features as number (typically singular vs. plural), case (subject, object, and so on), or gender.
..... Click the link for more information.

Suffixaufnahme (German for "suffix-absorption") is a linguistic phenomenon whereby prototypically a genitive noun declines to match its head noun. It was first recognized in Old Georgian and some other Caucasian and ancient Middle Eastern languages as well as many Australian
..... Click the link for more information.

Semitic languages are a family of languages spoken by more than 300 million people across much of the Middle East, North Africa, and the Horn of Africa. They constitute the northeastern subfamily of the Afro-Asiatic languages, and the only branch of this group spoken in Asia.
..... Click the link for more information.

Indo-European languages comprise a family of several hundred related languages and dialects ^[1], including most of the major languages of Europe, the northern Indian subcontinent (South Asia), the Iranian plateau (Southwest Asia), and much of Central Asia.
..... Click the link for more information.

Sumerian ( EME.GIR₁₅
..... Click the link for more information.