Back الركيزة اللغوية الهندوآرية في ميتاني Arabic سنگنوشته میتانی Persian Mitannin indoarjalainen superstraattikieli Finnish Superstratum Indo-Arya di Mitanni ID Indoarijų superstratas Mitanyje Lithuanian Det indoariske superstrat i Mitanni NB Митаннийский арийский язык Russian Мітаннійська арійська мова Ukrainian
 | This article may be too technical for most readers to understand. (April 2020) |
| Indo-Aryan superstrate in Mitanni | |
|---|---|
| Mitanni-Aryan | |
| Native to | Mitanni |
| Region | Upper Mesopotamia |
| Ethnicity | Indo-Aryan peoples of Mitanni |
| Extinct | after 1300s BC[1] |
Indo-European
| |
| Cuneiform | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis) |
| Glottolog | None |
The ancient Middle Eastern state of Mitanni (modern-day Northeast Syria, Southeastern Turkey, 2nd millennium BCE) used a dialect of Hurrian as its main language. This dialect however contains some loanwords of evidently Indo-Aryan origin, i.e. related to Sanskrit, the ancestor of many modern languages of the Indian subcontinent. The loaned vocabulary seems to be related to an elite group in Mitanni society, as they appear in the names of rulers and gods as well as in relation to horse-breeding and the military (thus forming a so-called superstrate).[2]
It is thus generally believed that Indo-Aryan peoples settled in Upper Mesopotamia and northern Syria, and established the kingdom of Mitanni following a period of political vacuum, while also adopting Hurrian. This is considered a part of the Indo-Aryan migrations.[3][4][5]
- ^ Sigfried J. de Laet 1996, p. 196.
- ^ Kümmel 2022, p. 246.
- ^ Sigfried J. de Laet 1996, p. 562.
- ^ Beckwith 2009, pp. 39–41.
- ^ Bryce 2005, p. 55.