A Study of Language Contacts among the Cuneiform Languages in the Ancient Near East

古代近东地区的语言交流非常广泛。赫梯语文本中的Glossenkeil-words有一些Luwian元素，如-i stem， -(a)ssa/i-, -(a)lla/i-以及-wi， -ti或-nti的动词结尾。这些形式被认为是从卢语中借用的，这一阶段显示了赫梯语和卢语之间密切联系的证据。这些相互影响也可以从一些赫梯王室的名字，通过卢语家谱和卢语象形文字碑文来理解。苏美尔语中-ma的一种形式被证明是共轭前缀，另一种形式是与阿卡德语中的-ma类似的连接词。赫梯语中的隐状-ma与阿卡德语中的合状-ma在功能上相似，但两者在起源上没有相互关系。以上证据显示了飓风带来的一些实质性影响。胡里安对埃玛语和阿卡德语的书写系统都有很大的影响。苏美尔楔形文字由于辅音的双字书写，没有赋予- cc -书写语言功能，而阿卡德楔形文字则采用苏美尔文字系统，发明了一种新的书写规则，将- cc -书写与双字联系起来。此外，如果我们假设赫梯人从赫里安人那里借用了楔形文字，而fortis/lenis在赫里安人中是独特的，那么阿卡德语中的双音辅音（写为- cc -）对赫里安人来说听起来就像他们的[+fortis]辅音，而赫梯人则认为这是[-voice]。因此，在古代近东的语言接触中被认为是(1)苏美尔语bb0阿卡德语，(2)阿卡德语bb1胡里安语，(3)胡里安语bb2赫梯语。很明显，赫梯人的影响在赫梯王国后期有所增加，这可以从赫梯法律的后期版本中看出，该版本是由赫梯人家族的一些国王编辑的。

The language contact in the Ancient Near East is widespread. Glossenkeil-words in Hittite texts have some Luwian elements such as -i stem, -(a)ssa/i-, -(a)lla/i- and verbal endings of -wi, -ti, or -nti. These forms are regarded as borrowing from Luwian, the phase of which shows evidence of the close contact between Hittite and Luwian. These mutual influences are also understood from some names of Hittite royal family by Luwian genealogy and Luwian Hieroglyphic inscriptions.One of -ma forms in Sumerian is attested as a conjugation prefix, and the other is as a conjunctive particle similar to -ma in Akkadian. The enclitic -ma in Hittite is similar in function to the conjunctive -ma in Akkadian, though there is no mutual relationship in origin between both forms. The evidence above shows some substrative influence from Hurrian.The Hurrian had a great influence on the writing system both Emar and Akkadian. In view of the graphemically double writing of consonants, Sumerian cuneiform imposed no linguistic function on -CC- writing, and Akkadian cuneiform adopted the Sumerian writing system and invented a new graphemic rule, which related -CC- writing with gemination.Further, if we assume that the Hittite borrowed cuneiform script from Hurrian and that fortis/lenis were distinctive in Hurrian, geminated consonants (written -CC-) in Akkadian sounded for the Hurrian like their [+fortis] consonants, which in turn were perceived as [-voice] by the Hittites. Thus in the linguistic contact among the Ancient Near East is considered as (1) Sumerian>Akkadian, (2) Akkadian>Hurrian, (3) Hurrian>Hittite. It becomes clear that Hurrian influence increased in Late Hittite kingdom, being indicated by Late Hittite Law version redacted by some king from a Hurrian family.