Amorite language

Updated on Sep 27, 2024

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Extinct 2nd millennium BC Glottolog amor1239		ISO 639-3 None (mis)

Native to ancient Mesopotamia, by the Amorites Language family Afro-AsiaticSemiticCentral SemiticNorthwest SemiticAmorite

Amorite is an early Northwest Semitic language, spoken by the Amorite tribes prominent in ancient Near Eastern history. It is known exclusively from non-Akkadian proper names recorded by Akkadian scribes during periods of Amorite rule in Babylonia (the end of the 3rd and the beginning of the 2nd millennium), notably from Mari, and to a lesser extent Alalakh, Tell Harmal, and Khafajah. Occasionally, such names are also found in early Egyptian texts; and one placename "Sənīr" (שְׂנִיר) for Mount Hermon, is known from the Bible (Deuteronomy 3:9). Notable characteristics include the following:

The usual Northwest Semitic imperfective-perfective distinction is found: Yantin-Dagan, 'Dagon gives' (ntn); Raṣa-Dagan, 'Dagon was pleased' (rṣy). It included a 3rd-person suffix -a (unlike Akkadian or Hebrew), and an imperfect vowel, a-, as in Arabic rather than the Hebrew and Aramaic -i-.

There was a verb form with a geminate second consonant — Yabanni-Il, 'God creates' (root bny).

In several cases that Akkadian has š, Amorite, like Hebrew and Arabic, has h, thus hu 'his', -haa 'her', causative h- or ʼ- (I. Gelb 1958).

The 1st-person perfect is in -ti (singular), -nu (plural), as in the Canaanite languages.

References

Amorite language Wikipedia

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