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Elamite

Eurasian Language Families

Elamite is an extinct language isolate that was spoken by the ancient Elamites in what is now southwestern Iran, attested in written records from about 2600 BC to AD 330. It was recorded across several historical phases, Old Elamite, Middle Elamite, Neo-Elamite and Achaemenid Elamite, using multiple scripts including the fully deciphered Elamite cuneiform and the earlier, still only partly understood Linear Elamite. Elamite has no demonstrable relatives; proposed connections to the Dravidian languages and to Brahui have been suggested but have not gained acceptance among mainstream linguists, and its lack of established relatives continues to make the language difficult to interpret.

Facts
Region
Southwestern Iran, the historical territory of ancient Elam, attested from about 2600 BC to AD 330 1
Speaker Count
0 1
Proto-Language Status
No proto-language: Elamite is a language isolate, with no demonstrated relationship to any other known language 1
Connections

Written In

Cuneiform, Scripts
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Elamite Language
Wikimedia Foundation
  • Lead section, paragraph 1: region and time span sentence
    It was recorded in what is now southwestern Iran from 2600 BC to AD 330.
  • Lead section, paragraph 1: language isolate sentence
    Elamite is generally thought to have no demonstrable relatives and is usually considered a language isolate.
  • Lead section, paragraph 1: extinct language clause
    Elamite, also known as Hatamtite and formerly as Scythic, Median, Amardian, Anshanian and Susian, is an extinct language
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