Allan R. Bomhard

To anyone with a reasonable familiarity with the linguistic situation in the ancient Near East, the title of Fournet and Bomhard's book must bring to mind the presence in Hurrian of various loanwords and names of Indo-Aryan origin, most notably the names of the kings of the Mitanni empire. That, however, isn't at all what the book is about. Instead, Fournet and Bomhard seek to demonstrate that Hurrian (and by implication the entire Hurro-Urartian family) is a distant genetic relative of the show more Indo-European family as a whole. I didn't find their arguments particularly convincing, and, judging by some googling, neither do actual experts; on top of which Bomhard has apparently changed his mind since publication and no longer considers the connection demonstrable. show less