Elamite

Facts

  • Language: Elamite
  • Alternate names:
  • Language code: elx
  • Language family: Isolate (SIL classification)
  • Number of speakers: Extinct
  • Script: Proto-Elamite, Linear Elamite, Elamite Cuneiform

More information:

    Introduction

    Source: http://www.ancientscripts.com/elamite.html
    Proto-Elamite: the direction of reading is right-to-left, then downward when the end of line is reached.

    Elamite is an extinct language spoken by the ancient Elamites. Elamite was the primary language in present day Iran from 2800–550 BCE. The last written records in Elamite appear about the time of the conquest of the Persian Empire by Alexander the Great.

    Elamite Scripts

    There are written records of Elamite in three different scripts:

    The following is an example of a proto-Elamite accounting tablet. The direction of reading is right-to-left, then downward when the end of line is reached.

    The Verb

    Elamite is agglutinative and predominantly suffixing.

    The pure verb base can function as a verbal noun or "infinitive".

    The verb distinguishes three forms functioning as finite verbs, known as “conjugations”.

    The Middle Elamite Conjugation I is formed with the following suffixes:

    Sg.1-h
    Sg.2-t
    Sg.3
    Pl.1-hu
    Pl.2-h-t
    Pl.3-h-š