The élamite is a Dead language, which was spoken in the kingdom about Élam. It is a agglutinant Langue which forever been able to be related on the Semitic Langues close, or to the Indo-European Langues. Certain linguists tried to bring closer the élamite and the Sumérien, without managing to convince their pars. Others bound it to the Langues dravidiennes still spoken in India. The élamite was the official language of the Persian Empire of the sixth at the fourth century before Jesus-Christ, and last written testimonys of its use go up at the time of the conquests of Alexandre Large the.

The writing élamite

The proto-élamite is oldest. One finds it as of -2900 with Suse, capital of Élam. The writing proto-élamite would have been developed starting from a preexistent writing sumérienne. It uses approximately a thousand of signs, and would be partially logographic. Not having been able yet to decipher it, one does not know yet with certainty if these signs represent the élamite or another language.

The old élamite is a Syllabaire derived from the proto-élamite and was used with certainty between -2250 and -2220, although it could be developed earlier. It was only partially deciphered, in particular thanks to work of Walter Hinz. The old élamite consists of 80 symbols written in from top to bottom columns vertical, read and from left to right.

The wedge-shaped writing élamite was of use from -2500 to 330, adapted starting from the Akkadien. This writing consists of 130 symbols, that is to say much less than the majority of the others wedge-shaped writings.

Others

• code ISO 639 -2: elx