Heterography
Contents
Translations
eterografia | hétérographie | Heterographie
Article
While the uses of the word heterogram differ in literature, a general and very effective definition has been proposed by Kudrinski and Yakubovich (2016). A heterogram is the writing of a word (or, more precisely, a linguistic sign) belonging to a language reproducing the word of a different language. It is opposed to the concept of allogram (on alloglottography cf. Gershevitch 1979; von Dassow 2004; Andrason and Vita 2016), which is a consequence of proper linguistic interference. Both concepts are, thus, sub-cases of the wider umbrella label xenography, which merely describes the process of writing a foreign form.
Example
Heterograms in Hittite include Sumerograms and Akkadograms. Being phenomena linked to the graphemic tradition, they do not imply language interference, even if these may be involved in some instances. An example is represented by the writings of the word for “lord” in Hittite cuneiform:
- Hittite writing and form: iš-ha-aš, “lord” (nominative)
- Akkadian heterogram: BE-LU-aš “lord” (nominative), written akkadographically but read in Hittite as suggested by the Hittite complementation
- Akkadian allogram: BE-LU-uš “lords” (HKM 52, 26), pronounced BELU in Akkadian and inflected in Hittite (if this rare or unique instance is not merely a mistake, this also implies an occasional foreignism or a loanword).
- Sumerian heterogram: EN-aš “lord” (nominative), written akkadographically but read in Hittite as suggested by the Hittite complementation.
- Undecidable cases: akkadogram BE-LU or sumerogram EN with no Hittite complementation.
References
Andrason, A. and Vita,J.-P. 2016. Contact Languages of the Ancient Near East – Three more Case Studies (Ugaritic-Hurrian, Hurro-Akkadian and Canaano-Akkadian); Gershevitch, I. 1979. The alloglottography of Old Persian; Kudrinski, M. and Yakubovich, I. 2016. Sumerograms and Akkadograms in Hittite: Ideograms, Logograms, Allograms, or Heterograms? Altorientalische Forschungen 43, pp. 53-66; Von Dassow, E. 2004. Canaanite in Cuneiform.
