Elamite language

Elamite is an extinct language spoken by the ancient Elamites. Elamite was the primary language in present-day Iran from 2800 to 550 BC. The last written records in Elamite appear about the time of the conquest of the Persian Empire by Alexander the Great. Elamite has no demonstrable relatives and is usually considered a language isolate. The lack of established relatives is one reason that interpretation of the language is difficult.

Writing system

Elamite cuneiform, adapted from Akkadian cuneiform, was used from ca. 2500 to 331 BC. Elamite cuneiform was largely a syllabary of some 130 glyphs at any one time and retained only a few logograms from Akkadian, but over time, the number of logograms increased.

Two earlier scripts of the area remain undeciphered but plausibly have encoded Elamite: