Hurritisch: Eine Einfuhrung.

• Author: Campbell, Dennis R.M.
• Position: Book review

Hurritisch: Eine Einfuhrung. By ILSE WEGNER. 2nd, revised ed. Wiesbaden: HARRASSOWITZ VERLAG, 2007. Pp. 304. [euro]49.90 (paper).

In 2000 Wegner first published her fine grammar of Hurrian. In the years following this publication, a number of new discoveries have come to light, most notably the first articles detailing the Hurrian from Qatna by Thomas Richter. The author was able to include this and related material into her grammar to create a revised second edition that expands upon the original without compromising its quality. Wegner's grammar is not meant to be a detailed linguistic treatment of the language, but rather a learning grammar to be used by both those who already work on Hurrian and newcomers to the language.

The book is made up of four sections: a temporal and geographic breakdown of Hurrian language material (pp. 21-34), the grammar (pp. 35-148), text samples (pp. 149-244), and a word glossary/morpheme index/text register (pp. 245-308). The first section now includes a short synopsis of the material from me Syrian site of Qatna. The format of the grammatical section remains unchanged from the first edition, although it has been revised and expanded, especially the section on "Althurritisch" (pp. 125-39). The text examples from the Mittani Letter, the Hurro-Hittite Bilingual, and the Tis-atal inscription remain the same as in the first edition. Wegner has, however, added new and updated commentary on these texts and new samples of Hurrian material from Mari, Ugarit, and Qatna. With these additions, the reader is given a very nice sample of known Hurrian texts.

Our understanding of Hurrian is full of uncertainties, making any publication of a grammar of this language a difficult task. It is inevitable that there will be disagreements with how the author has treated various forms, an issue that has not been lost to the author. She understands that some aspects of her grammar will have to be modified, while others may prove to be completely wrong (p. 11). In this positive spirit, I would like to offer several observations, comments, and points of criticism that I have with this grammar. These are in no way meant to take away from this extremely valuable work. In the following notes, I have opted to follow the style used by Wegner in her grammar.

p. 49: To the author's discussion of metathesis in Hurrian should be added the genitive form Hebapte "of Hebat."

p. 63: Epenthetic vowels are often found between possessive affixes...