Elamite language

Modern Elamite
Lisan Haltamtime
Pronunciation	[li.sän häl.täm.ti.me]
Native to	Elam
Ethnicity	Elamites
Native speakers	5.7 million (2018)
Language family	language isolate
Early forms	Old Elamite Classical Elamite Achaemeno-Sasanian Elamite Middle Elamite Early Neo-Elamite
Writing system	Elamite Latin alphabet Perso-Arabic script (in Iran)
Official status
Official language in	Elam
Recognised minority language in	Iran
Regulated by	Elamite College of Grammar Kuliyah Nahume Haltamtime
Language codes
ISO 639-1	ELY
ISO 639-3	–

The Elamite Language (lisan Haltamtime, [li.sän häl.täm.ti.me]), sometimes referred to as Modern Elamite to distinguish it from its historical forms, is a language spoken primarily in Elam and in bordering regions of neighbouring Iran. Linguistically, Elamite is unrelated to the other languages of the region and is a language isolate unrelated to any other known living language. The Elamites are indigenous to and primarily inhabit the region of Elam.

Native speakers of Elamite live in a contiguous area that straddles the edge of the Iranian plateau and follows the course of the Karun river to the Persian gulf. The northern and central parts of Elam and the Iranian provinces of Ilam, Khorramabad, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, and Chahar Mahaal form the core of the historically Elamite speaking area. In the southern- and westernmost parts of Elam, Arabic has either displaced Elamite or Elamite was never spoken natively to begin with.

Under Qajar rule, public use of Elamite was frowned upon and often regarded as a sign of separatism and growing nationalism. After Elam became independent in 1921, this trend reversed and education and publishing in Elamite began to flourish. As part of this process, a standardised form of the Elamite language was developed by the University of the Republic (now the Royal Elamite University) in the early 1920s. Although variation within dialects still exists, the standardised form is considered universally easy to understand and employ in formal situations (education, mass media, literature).

A language isolate, Elamite is believed to be one of the few surviving Pre-Semitic and Pre-Indo-Iranian languages of the ancient Near East. The origin of the Elamites and their language isn't conclusively known, though the most accepted theory is that early forms of Elamite developed in the area well before the arrival of Semitic peoples. A relationship to the Dravidian language family was suggested by Igor M. Diakonoff and later defended by David McAlpin; this hypothesis has not gained mainstream acceptance however. Elamite has borrowed extensively from surrounding languages over the years — particularly from Arabic following the Islamic conquest of Elam and Iran.

Grammar

Syntax

While literary Elamite has a canonical subject-object-verb (SOV) word order, it is not strongly left-branching. However, because Elamite is a pro-drop language, the subject of a sentence is often not apparent until the end of the finite verb.

• Kitab dabantiname in berah. (I am reading the blue book)
• Kitab dabantiname in berat. (You are reading the blue book)
• Kitab dabantiname in beraš. (He/she is reading the blue book)

^a singular informal form.

In the colloquial language, there has been a leftward migration of the verbal element in that, in day-to-day speech, word order can often appear as subject-verb-object (SVO); this is particularly common in the southwestern part of the language area.

• Berah kitabi dabantinameyn. (I am reading the blue book)
• Berahu kitabi dabantinameyn. (We are reading the blue book[s])

This ordering of phrases is considered nonstandard and stylistically unsound in prose.

Main clauses precede subordinate clauses.

• Una iddakšu ha al'ahad inna izzinšu. (He told me that he wouldn't come on Sunday)

There exists an interrogative particle, mi, which indicates a polar question. It isn't used in the literary form of the language, but in colloquial speech it can be heard at the end of the question.

• Berat kitab in mi? (Are you reading the book?)

Grammatical modifiers, such as adjectives, follow the nouns they modify. In the literary form, the noun takes no morphological modification; in the colloquial form, an adjunct structure similar to Persian izâfah marks the relationship between the noun and its modifier. After a consonant it appears as -i, and after a vowel or y it appears as -ye.

• Literary: kitab dabantiname (blue book); arayan šilhame (powerful government); ayli šišniri (beautiful girl)
• Colloquial: kitabi dabantiname (blue book); arayani šilhame (powerful government); ayliye šišniri (beautiful girl)

Nouns

Gender

Elamite nouns and pronouns are categorised according to two grammatical genders: animate and inanimate. Nouns themselves will not display animacy distinction — the distinction will be made apparent only when modifiers are appended to the noun (or pronoun) in question. Additionally, no distinction is made in nouns between singular and plural. Plural forms are only distinguished by modifiers appended to animate nouns.

• kitab dabantiname (blue book — inanimate)
• tyut dabantinari (blue bird — animate singular)
• tyut dabantinape (blue birds — animate plural).

Appended modifiers are inflected differently when their referent is the speaker or a second-person.

• dabantinaki (I, the blue one — first person)
• dabantinati (You, the blue one — second person)

This system also applies to genitive relationships between nouns.

• u šak Ahmadiki (I, the son of Ahmad — first person)
• ni ra'is serikatiti sirime (you, the manager of the rich company — second person)
• sunki Haltamtiri (king of Elam — third person singular)
• sunki Haltamtipe (kings of Elam — third person plural)
• rahmat addame (blessing of the father — third person inanimate)

An exception exists when a genitive follows an adjective — in this case, the modifier ending is replaced with -ina after consonants and -na after vowels and y.

• u šak aki Ahmadina (I, the good son of Ahmad — first person)
• ni ra'is ibbakiti serikatina sirime (you, the powerful manager of the rich company — second person)
• sunki rišari Haltamtina (great king of Elam — third person singular)
• sunki rišape Haltamtina (great kings of Elam — third person plural)

As in other modifiers, in colloquial speech genitive nouns are often attached by means of the izâfah-like construction.

• Literary: rahmat addame (father's blessing); sunki haltamtiri (King of Elam)
• Colloquial: rahmati addame (father's blessing); sunkiye haltamtiri (King of Elam)

Cases

In modern Elamite, three morphological cases exist: the nominative case, the dative case, and accusative case. The nominative is the unmarked form of a noun; the accusative is marked by the particle in which follows the noun and all of its modifiers; similarly, the dative is marked by the particle ina. Other oblique cases are marked with postpositions.

• Kitab dabantina šaš. (The book is blue) — Kitab is the subject, and therefore governs the nominative.
• U kitab in berah. (I read the book) — Kitab is the direct object, and is therefore modified with the particle in.
• U kitab in ayli ina berah. (I read the book to the girl) — Ayli is the indirect object, and is therefore marked with the particle ine.

In colloquial speech, the accusative particle in(a) becomes the suffix -yn(a) after a, u, and e, and -n(a) after i and y.

• Literary: kazira in (blacksmith); kursi ina (chair); mutay in (case/instance)
• Colloquial: kazirayn (blacksmith); kursina (chair); mutayn (case/instance)

Pronouns

Personal pronouns

Elamite is a null-subject, pro-drop language, so subject personal pronouns are largely optional. The third person pronoun distinguishes between animate and inanimate referents in the accusative and dative cases.

Nominative Forms

Person	Singular	Plural
1st	u	nuku
2nd	ni	num
3rd	i (no animacy distinction)	ap

Accusative Forms

Person	Singular	Plural
1st	un	nukun
2nd	nun	numun
3rd	ir (animate) in (inanimate)	appin

Dative Forms

Person	Singular	Plural
1st	una	nukuna
2nd	nuna	numuna
3rd	ira (animate) ina (inanimate)	appina

Possessive determiners

To form a possessive determiner, simply take the nominative form of a pronoun and add the adjective/genitive modifier endings.

• Kitab ume (my book); adda nukuri (our father); šappana ime (his/her grapes)

Adjectives

Adjectives typically follow the nouns they modify, taking the adjective/genitive modifier endings. There is no set order in which adjectives must be arranged after a noun, except that they must precede any genitives. Comparative forms are formed by appending the prefix mila- before consonants and mil- before vowels.

• kitab dabantiname (blue book); kitab miladabantiname (bluer/more blue book)
• ayli šišniri (beautiful girl); ayli milašišniri (more beautiful girl).

The superlative form is formed by appending the prefix unra- before consonants and unr- before vowels.

• kitab dabantiname (blue book); kitab unradabantiname (bluest book)
• ayli šišniri (beautiful girl); ayli unrašišniri (most beautiful girl).

Verbs

Simple tenses

Verbal stems in modern Elamite must end in a vowel (e.g. arru "to grow"; rabbaka "to tie/bind"). The plain, uninflected verbal stem can act as a verbal noun or infinitive.

Elamite verbs can be conjugated into one of three simple finite conjugations. These are known as:

• conjugation I, which acts as a general present tense;
• conjugation II, which acts as a general past tense;
• conjugation III, which acts as a present subjunctive; conjugation III is...
  • used for indefinite relative clauses such as the following:
    • Kiri šaš, agga lisan Haltamtime in turunšu? ("Is there someone who speaks Elamite?")
  • used with conjunctions such as tibbe (before) and ha (that; so that):
    • Tibbe agaluntu, han in andumantu. ("Before you leave, take this.")
  • also used instead of an infinitive after verbs such as 'I want', 'I can', 'I must', 'it is possible that', and in indirect commands:
    • Ulluh ha agalunut. ("I must leave", literally I must that I may leave)
    • Appina šerakšu ha galpi huddaneš. ("He ordered them to kill", literally "He ordered them that they would kill")
  • additionally, the imperative is formed by affixing the prefix an- to conjugation III.

Any of the three simple finite conjugations can be made into progressive tenses by adding the prefix ma- before consonants and may- before vowels.

The active/present participle is formed by appending -n to the stem; the passive/past participle is formed by appending -k.

The following tables will demonstrate the simple finite conjugations for kulla "to pray".

Conjugation I

Person	Singular	Plural
1st	kullah I pray	kullahu we pray
2nd	kullat you (sg.) pray	kullahet you (pl.) pray
3rd	kullaš (s)he prays	kullaheš they pray

Conjugation II

Person	Singular	Plural
1st	kullakut I prayed	kullaku we prayed
2nd	kullaktu you (sg.) prayed	kullaket you (pl.) prayed
3rd	kullakšu (s)he prayed	kullakeš they prayed

Conjugation III

Person	Singular	Plural
1st	kullanut I may/would pray	kullanu we may/would pray
2nd	kullantu you (sg.) may/would pray	kullanet you (pl.) may/would pray
3rd	kullanšu (s)he may/would prays	kullaneš they may/would pray

Compound tenses and moods

Further verbal tenses and moods can be formed in Elamite by combining forms.

• The past subjunctive can be formed by combining the passive participle to the conjugation III form of ša (to be).
  • Fikrih ha agaluk šanšu. ("I think he may have left")
• The passive voice is formed by combining the auxiliary verb a (to become) with the passive participle.
  • Ginyu tuššup ma galpi huddak akšu. ("The witness was killed by the thief").
  • Ikrar sugir ma dalluk mayaš. ("The declaration is being written by the prime minister")

Phonology

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i /i/		u /u/
Mid	e /e/
Open		a /ä/

The Elamite language features only four vowels: /ä/, /e/, /i/, and /u/.

Consonants

Table of consonant phonemes of Standard Elamite

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal or postalveolar	Velar or labiovelar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal		m /m/	n /n/
Plosive	voiceless	p /p/	t /t/		k /k/
	voiced	b /b/	d /d/		g /ɡ/		(apostrophe) /ʔ/
Affricate				j /d͡ʒ/
Fricative	voiceless	f /f/	s /s/	š /ʃ/		x /χ/	h /h/
	voiced		z /z/			q /ʁ/
Lateral			l /l/
Approximant				y /j/	w /w/
Rhotic			r /ɾ~r/

^A Not found in native words; only occur in loanwords.
^B /ʁ~ʀ/ in some regional varieties

Writing system

The Elamite language is written in a Latin alphabet that was developed in 1928 by Elamite poet Kaysar Mubali and British linguist and diplomat Edmund Gallagher Byrne. It replaced the previously dominant Perso-Arabic script, which was not standardised and often written in an ad hoc fashion. The Perso-Arabic script only marks three vowels — long ā, ū and ī — and includes several consonants which are redundant in Elamite. The omission of all short vowels made the script largely unsuitable for Elamite, which has no vowel length distinctions and also has a fourth vowel phoneme, /e/.

The reform of the script was an important step in the cultural reforms that dominated in the period. The introduction of the new Elamite alphabet was supported by public education centers opened throughout the country, cooperation with publishing companies, and by the encouragement of the Emir himself, who toured the country teaching the new alphabet to members of the public. As a result, the following decade was marked by a dramatic increase in literacy.

The modern Elamite alphabet is well suited to the sounds of the language: the spelling is for the standard form of the language entirely phonemic, with one letter corresponding to one phoneme. In neighbouring Iran, the Perso-Arabic script is still widely used.

Vowels

Phoneme	Latin alphabet	Perso-Arabic script	Example
/ä/	a	آ، ـا، ا	adda	ادّه	'father'
/e/	e	ای، ـیـ، ـی، ی	el	ایل	'eye'
/i/	i		ipši	ایپشی	'fear'
/u/	u	او، ـو، و	kidur	کدور	'exterior'

Consonants

Phoneme	Latin alphabet	Perso-Arabic script	Example
/m/	m	مـ، ـمـ، ـم، م	mawt	موت	'deadly'
/n/	n	نـ، ـنـ، ـن، ن	sin	سن	'month'
/p/	p	پـ، ـپـ، ـپ، پ	ipši	ایپشی	'fear'
/t/	t	تـ، ـتـ، ـت، ت طـ، ـطـ، ـط، ط هٔ، ـهٔ	taššwip	تشّویپ	'nation'
/k/	k	کـ، ـکـ، ـک، ک قـ، ـقـ، ـق، ق	kidumma	کدمّه	'outside'
/b/	b	بـ، ـبـ، ـب، ب	adab	آدب	'civilised'
/d/	d	د، ـد
/g/	g	گـ، ـگـ، ـگ، گ	gil	گل	'command'
/ʔ/	'	ء	ra'is	رئس	'president'
/j/	j	جـ، ـجـ، ـج، ج	abjadi	ابجدی	'alphabet'
/f/	f	فـ، ـفـ، ـف، ف	safir	سفیر	'ambassador'
/s/	s	سـ، ـسـ، ـس، س ثـ، ـثـ، ـث، ث
/ʃ/	š	شـ، ـشـ، ـش، ش	mušnuk	مشنک	'bad'
/χ/	x	خـ، ـخـ، ـخ، خ	maxluk	مخلوق	'creature'
/h/	h	هـ، ـهـ، ـه، ه حـ، ـحـ، ـح، ح	halkini	هلکنی	'dog'
/z/	z	ز، ـز ذ، ـذ ضـ، ـضـ، ـض، ض ظـ، ـظـ، ـظ، ظ	zitka	زتکه	'dry'
/ʁ/	q	غـ، ـغـ، ـغ، غ	Qazawi	غزوی	Qazawi
/l/	l	لـ، ـلـ، ـل، ل	maxluk	مخلوق	'creature'
/j/	y	یـ، ـیـ، ـی، ی	siyasat	سياسهٔ	'policy'
/w/	w	و، ـو	wast	وست	'thing'
/ɾ~r/	r	ر، ـر	šara	شره	'under'