Indo-European linguistics and classical philology
O. V. Popova Are the Old Babylonian texts “The Siege of Uršu” and “A Letter of Labarna (Hattusili I) to Tunip-Teššub, ruler of Tigunanum” a transitional stage between the cuneiform tradition of Alalakh VII and the Hittite tradition (pp. 767–779)
Author
O. V. Popova (Institute of Linguistics, Russian Academy of Sciences)
Pages\n 767–779
Summary\n
The article deals with the orthographic system of the stops in the cuneiform texts from Alalakh (modern Tel Açana, shift VII), Old Hittite texts and two Old Babylonian texts “The Siege of Uršu” and “A Letter of Labarna (Hattusili I) to Tunip-Teššub, ruler of Tigunanum”. “The Siege of Uršu” and “A Letter of Labarna” are sometimes considered to be a transitional stage between the cuneiform tradition of Alalakh VII and the Hittite tradition that should prove the hypothesis that Hittite cuneiform was borrowed from Alalakh VII in the middle of the XVII century B.C. In my research the emphasis is made on the analysis of the values of CV signs used for combinations "stop+vowel". The analysis confirms that “The Siege of Uršu” and “A Letter of Labarna” are a product of a North Syrian scribal school, but does not reveal any innovative spelling features that are still absent in Alalakh VII being attested in the OH writing system. Thus, the hypothesis that these texts form a bridge between two cuneiform traditions does not find confirmation. Keywords: Orthography, Cuneiform writing, Akkadian, Hittite, Alalakh VII.
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