Can we truly reconstruct the spoken languages of the ancient world?
In this lecture, Professor Rebecca Hasselbach-Andee examines the complexities of linguistic contact. Using the 24th-century BCE site of Ebla, she explores why determining how ancient populations actually spoke remains a profound archaeological challenge.
While writing has provided evidence of language contact since the early third millennium BCE—such as the interaction between Sumerian and Akkaya in Mesopotamia—reconstructing the 'on the ground' reality is difficult. Ancient Near Eastern sources rarely clarify if written scripts reflected everyday oral communication or which languages individuals actually spoke.
The lecture focuses on Eblaite, an idiom found at Tell Mardikh in northern Syria. By analyzing this 24th-century BCE case, Hasselbach-Andee highlights the inherent difficulties in assessing the extent and duration of contact between extinct languages.
Source: Rebecca Hasselbach-Andee | Language and Cultural Contact: The Case of Ebla
