Besides their fairly consistent ergative alignment and their generally agglutinative morphology ( despite a number of not entirely predictable morpheme mergers ), Hurrian and Urartian are also both characterized by the use of suffixes in their derivational and inflectional morphology ( including ten to fifteen grammatical cases ) and postpositions in syntax ; both are considered to have the default order subject – object – verb, although there is significant variation, especially in Urartian.

Hurrian has special negative verbal suffixes that negate a verb and are placed before the ergative person agreement suffixes ; Urartian has no such thing and instead uses negative particles that are placed before the verb.

Hurrian is an ergative, agglutinative language that, together with Urartian, constitutes the Hurro-Urartian family.

Urartian was an ergative, agglutinative language, which belongs to neither the Semitic nor the Indo-European families but to the Hurro-Urartian family ( whose only other known member is Hurrian ).

Urartian is an ergative language, meaning that the subject of an intransitive verb and the object of a transitive verb are expressed identically, with the so-called absolutive case, whereas the subject of a transitive verb is expressed with a special ergative case.

Hurrian clearly marks tense or aspect through special suffixes ( the unmarked form is the present tense ) whereas Urartian has not been shown to do so in the attested texts ( the unmarked form functions as a past tense ).

A phenomenon typical of Urartian is Suffixaufnahme-a process in which dependent modifiers of a noun ( including genitive case modifiers ) agree with the head noun by absorbing its case suffixes.

As for possessive pronouns, besides the possessive suffixes ( 1st singular-uka-and 3rd singular-iya ) that were adduced above, Urartian also makes use of possessive adjectives formed with the suffix -( u ) sə: 1st singular šusə, 3rd singular masə.

In general, the profusion of freely moving pronominal and conjunctional clitics that characterize Hurrian, especially that of the Mitanni letter, has few parallels in Urartian.

This was around the same time that an aristocracy speaking Urartian, similar to old Hurrian, seems to have first imposed itself on the population around Lake Van, and formed the Kingdom of Urartu.

Here have been found Urartian cuneiform inscriptions dating to the 8th and 7th centuries BC.

The Ibero-Caucasian group would also include three extinct languages: Hattic, which has been connected by some linguists to the Northwest ( Circassian ) family, and Hurrian and Urartian, which have been connected to the Northeast ( Nakh – Dagestanian ) family.

Their languages were not identical, but seem to possibly have been related ( Urartian biani to Ersh buni, to use the house root ).

There have been claims of a separate autochthonous script of " Urartian hieroglyphs " but these remain unsubstantiated.

Approximately two hundred inscriptions written in the Urartian language, which adopted and modified the cuneiform script, have been discovered to date.

Some Armenian linguists have proposed that dolma, which is pronounced tolma in Armenia, is borrowed from the Urartian word for grape vine, toli, which would make dolma a derivative of tolma which in turn comes from toli.

Some sources have also indicated that Artashes built his city upon the remains of an old Urartian settlement.

Hurrian indicates the plural of nouns through a special suffix-až -, which only survives in fossilized form merged into some case endings in Urartian.

As elements of the Urartian language blended with that of the Armenian one, the name eventually evolved into Yerevan ( Erebuni

In the phonology, written Hurrian only seems to distinguish a single series of phonemic obstruents without any contrastive phonation distinctions ( the variation in voicing, though visible in the script, was allophonic ); in contrast, written Urartian distinguishes as many as three series: voiced, voiceless and " emphatic " ( perhaps glottalized ).

Urartian is also characterized by the apparent reduction of some word-final vowels to schwa ( e. g. Urartian ulə vs Hurrian oli " another ", Urartian eurišə vs Hurrian evrišše " lordship ", Hurrian 3rd person plural enclitic pronoun-lla vs Urartian-lə ).

Urartian generally uses postpositions ( e. g. ed ( i )- i-nə " for ", ed ( i )- i-a-both originally case forms of edi " person, body "-pei " under ", etc ..) which govern certain cases ( often ablative-instrumental ).

Hurrian is related to Urartian, the language of Urartu, both belonging to the Hurro-Urartian language family.

Others who believe the so-called " Urartian version ", such as George Anchabadze and Amjad Jaimoukha, still hold that those original migrants contributed to both the genetic and cultural traits of the modern Ingush and Chechens, but that the primary ancestors were Nakh-speaking migrants from what became Northeastern Urartu.

The Hurro-Urartian languages are an extinct language family of the Ancient Near East, comprising only two known languages: Hurrian and Urartian, both of which were spoken in the Taurus mountains area.

The most notable architectural remains from early Mesopotamia are the temple complexes at Uruk from the 4th millennium BC, temples and palaces from the Early Dynastic period sites in the Diyala River valley such as Khafajah and Tell Asmar, the Third Dynasty of Ur remains at Nippur ( Sanctuary of Enlil ) and Ur ( Sanctuary of Nanna ), Middle Bronze Age remains at Syrian-Turkish sites of Ebla, Mari, Alalakh, Aleppo and Kultepe, Late Bronze Age palaces at Bogazkoy ( Hattusha ), Ugarit, Ashur and Nuzi, Iron Age palaces and temples at Assyrian ( Kalhu / Nimrud, Khorsabad, Nineveh ), Babylonian ( Babylon ), Urartian ( Tushpa / Van Kalesi, Cavustepe, Ayanis, Armavir, Erebuni, Bastam ) and Neo-Hittite sites ( Karkamis, Tell Halaf, Karatepe ).

Diakonoff and S. Starostin, the Hurrian, Hattic, and Urartian languages are related to the Northeast Caucasian languages.

The most notable architectural remains from early Mesopotamia are the temple complexes at Uruk from the 4th millennium BC, temples and palaces from the Early Dynastic period sites in the Diyala River valley such as Khafajah and Tell Asmar, the Third Dynasty of Ur remains at Nippur ( Sanctuary of Enlil ) and Ur ( Sanctuary of Nanna ), Middle Bronze Age remains at Syrian-Turkish sites of Ebla, Mari, Alalakh, Aleppo and Kultepe, Late Bronze Age palaces at Bogazkoy ( Hattusha ), Ugarit, Ashur and Nuzi, Iron Age palaces and temples at Assyrian ( Kalhu / Nimrud, Khorsabad, Nineveh ), Babylonian ( Babylon ), Urartian ( Tushpa / Van Kalesi, Cavustepe, Ayanis, Armavir, Erebuni, Bastam ) and Neo-Hittite sites ( Karkamis, Tell Halaf, Karatepe ).

As the last two examples shows, the Hurrian geminates are also absent in Urartian.

Urartian, Vannic, and ( in older literature ) Chaldean ( Khaldian, or Haldian ) are conventional names for the language spoken by the inhabitants of the ancient kingdom of Urartu that was located in the region of Lake Van, with its capital near the site of the modern town of Van, in the Armenian Highland, modern-day Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey.

Although Urartian is not a direct continuation of any of the attested dialects of Hurrian, many of its features are best explained as innovative developments with respect to Hurrian as we know it from the preceding millennium.

Hurrian and Urartian elements are quite probable, as are Northeast Caucasian ones.

Between 1878 and 1882 Rassam greatly improved the Museum's holdings with exquisite objects including the Cyrus Cylinder from Babylon, the bronze gates from Balawat, and a fine collection of Urartian bronzes.

Some scholars also see in Urartian art, architecture, language, and general culture traces of kinship to the Etruscans of the Italian peninsula.

However, it is likely that the city's name is derived from the Urartian military fortress of Erebuni ( Էրեբունի ), which was founded on the territory of modern-day Yerevan in 782 BC by Argishti I.

Archaeological evidence, such as a cuneiform inscription, indicates that the Urartian military fortress of Erebuni ( Էրեբունի ) was founded in 782 BC ( 29 years earlier than Rome ) by the orders of King Argishti I at the site of current-day Yerevan, to serve as a fort and citadel guarding against attacks from the north Caucasus.

During the height of Urartian power, irrigation canals and an artificial reservoir were built on Yerevan's territory.

He is thought to be a syncretic deity, a combination of the autochthonous Urartian figure Ara and the Iranic Ahura Mazda.

The Iron Age Urartian language is closely related to or a direct descendant of Hurrian.

Under the ancient name of Tushpa, Van was the capital of the Urartian kingdom in the 9th century BC.

The name ' Van ' comes from the Urartian Biaina.

In the History of Armenia attributed to Moses of Chorene, the city is called Tosp, from Urartian Tushpa.

The founder of the Urartian Kingdom, Aramé, united all the principalities of the Armenian Highland and gave himself the title " King of Kings ", the traditional title of Urartian Kings.

Menuas ( 810 – 785 BC ) extended the Urartian territory up north, by spreading towards the Araratian fields.

He left more than 90 inscriptions by using the Mesopotamian cuneiform scriptures in the Urartian language.

In 714 BC, the Assyrians under Sargon II defeated the Urartian King Rusa I at Lake Urmia and destroyed the holy Urartian temple at Musasir.

The Medes under Cyaxares invaded Assyria later on in 612 BC, and then took over the Urartian capital of Van towards 585 BC, effectively ending the sovereignty of Urartu.

One Urartian army had been completely annihilated, and the general Qaqqadanu taken prisoner.

When news reached him that king Rusas I of Urartu was moving against him, he turned back to Lake Urmia in forced marches and defeated a Urartian army in a steep valley of the Uaush ( probably the Sahend, east of Lake Urmia, or further to the south, in Mannaea country ), a steep mountain that reached the clouds and whose flanks were covered by snow.

In the royal resort of Ulhu, the wine-cellar of the Urartian kings was plundered ; wine was scooped up like water.