Eblaite language

Ancient Near East portal

Eblaite Spoken in: Ebla Language extinction: before the 2nd millennium BC Language family: Afro-Asiatic  Semitic   East Semitic    Eblaite Language codes ISO 639-1: none ISO 639-2: sem ISO 639-3: xeb Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Eblaite (also known as Eblan [ISO 639-3]) is an extinct, perhaps East Semitic language, which was spoken in the 3rd millennium BCE in the ancient city of Ebla, in modern Syria. It is considered to be the oldest written Semitic language.

The language, closely related to Akkadian, is known from about 17,000 tablets written with cuneiform script which were found between 1974 and 1976 in the ruins of the city of Ebla (Tell Mardikh). The tablets were first translated by Giovanni Pettinato.

[edit] References

• A. Archi. 1987. "Ebla and Eblaite," Eblaitica 1. Ed. C.H. Gordon. Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns. Pages 7-17.
• Cyrus H. Gordon. 1990. "Eblaite and Northwest Semitic," Eblaitica 2. Ed. C.H. Gordon. Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns. Pages 127-139.
• Cyrus H. Gordon. 1997. "Amorite and Eblaite," The Semitic Languages. Ed. Robert Hetzron. New York: Routledge. Pages 100-113.

[edit] Links

This Afro-Asiatic languages-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

 This Ancient Near East-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.