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An Elamite Etymology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2026

Herbert H. Paper
Herbert H. Paper*
Affiliation:
Cornell University
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Extract

This note discusses an Elamite etymology, hitherto unrecognized, to show how certain hypotheses concerning the interpretation of Elamite cuneiform writing can lead to a deeper understanding of Elamite phonology and morphology, and to a more precise identification of particular forms known from Elamite texts. Among the Elamite documents, the royal texts from the Achaemenid period represent a particular dialect that we shall call Royal Achaemenid Elamite (RAE). The existence of a large number of graphic variants for the same form in the RAE texts led Weissbach, as early as 1890, to certain phonemic conclusions regarding the Elamite cuneiform symbols.

Information

Type
Miscellanea
Information
Language , Volume 29 , Issue 1: January-March , March 1953 , pp. 66 - 68
Copyright
Copyright © 1953 Linguistic Society of America

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References

4 Weissbach, Die Keilinschriften der Achämeniden 24-5 (Leipzig, 1911). Weissbach's transliteration is here modified in the following respects: superscript d, h, v, lg represent respectively the Sumerian DINGIR-sign, the single horizontal cuneiform stroke, the single vertical cuneiform stroke, and the Sumerian MEŠ-sign, which merely marks the logographic use of the preceding sign.

5 Ibid. 66-7.

6 Cf. my dissertation (unpublished), The phonology and morphology of Royal Achaemenid Elamite (University of Chicago, 1951).