Urartian language

Urartian cuneiform tablet on display at the Erebuni Museum in Yerevan. The inscription reads: By the greatness of God Khaldi, Argishtis, son of Menuas, built this mighty stronghold and proclaimed it Erebuni for the glory of the country of Bianili and for holding the enemy's countries in awe, by the greatness of God Khaldi, Argistis, son of Menuas, mighty king, king of the country of Biainili, ruler of the city of Tushpa

Urartian is the conventional name for the language spoken by the inhabitants of the ancient kingdom of Urartu in Northeast Anatolia (present-day Turkey), in the region of Lake Van.

Urartian was an agglutinative language, which belongs to neither the Semitic nor the Indo-European families but to the Hurro-Urartian family. It survives in many inscriptions found in the area of the Urartu kingdom, written in the Assyrian cuneiform script. The Urartians also possessed a native hieroglyphic script, but in later Urartu this script was restricted to use in accounting and religion.

Based on linguistic similarities with Northeast Caucasian languages, some scholars place it and the closely related Hurrian language in the Alarodian family. There is also possibly a connection between Urartian and the modern Armenian language.