This section deals with the linguistic dimensions that define ancient Urkesh. It was a cosmopolitan setting, in which different languages identified ethnic affiliation, cultural traditions, political choices. The major were Hurrian, Sumerian, Akkadian, and Amorite.
The writing, cuneiform, is common to all of them. Complex in nature and the exclusive preserve of a few scribes, it maintains for us so many details of the actual languages that scholars can credibly render its phonetic reality, the “sound”.
While our website is obviously not the place for a detailed discussion of any of these languages, one will find some information about each, with relevant bibliographical information; about Akkadian, see also the companion website Akkadian linguistics.
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