# Whittaker's Euphratic contact language

> Still possible: An early Indo-European language, Euphratic, was spoken in southern Iraq in the Uruk period and left about 200 loanwords in Sumerian.

Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform/answers/ANS0DEDWYC3NPZ9/whittakers-euphratic-contact-language  
Publisher: Mysteries Department  
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (credit Mysteries Department and link the page)  

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[Questions](https://mysteriesdept.com/questions)[Unread cuneiform: half a million tablets and the limits of Sumerian](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform)[Does Sumerian have any demonstrable relative or substratum, or is it an isolate?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform/questions/QST0DEDT86CFAB2/does-sumerian-have-any-demonstrable-relative-or-substratum)Answer

Answer · Unread cuneiform: half a million tablets and the limits of Sumerian

# Whittaker's Euphratic contact language

An early Indo-European language, Euphratic, was spoken in southern Iraq in the Uruk period and left about 200 loanwords in Sumerian.

**Still possible** Answers **1** question0

## Where it stands

**Still possible** One piece of evidence for, one against. It needs two reviews to be accepted.

## What it predicts

- The proposed loanwords show consistent sound correspondences with reconstructed Proto-Indo-European and cluster in semantic fields typical of contact borrowing.

## What would rule it out

- Most of the proposed matches are shown to have better Sumerian-internal or Semitic etymologies, or the correspondences prove to be irregular.

## Evidence 1 for · 1 against

[Whittaker presents about 200 proposed loanwords and argues that loans can only be demonstrated by identifying a donor…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform/evidence/EVD0DEDYX61W8XG/whittaker-presents-about-200-proposed-loanwords-and-argues)

Speculative

FOR

[Mainstream opinion rejects Euphratic, chiefly because Indo-European is not expected in fourth-millennium Iraq and the…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform/evidence/EVD0DEDYWEH6TNJ/mainstream-opinion-rejects-euphratic-chiefly-because-indo)

Supported

AGAINST

## The questions it answers

[Does Sumerian have any demonstrable relative or substratum, or is it an isolate?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform/questions/QST0DEDT86CFAB2/does-sumerian-have-any-demonstrable-relative-or-substratum)

Part of [What about the Sumerian language itself is still unknown after 170 years of study?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform/questions/QST0DEDT3N5AH6P/what-about-the-sumerian-language-itself-is-still-unknown)

Open4 answers, none ahead

## Cite it

```
Mysteries Department. (2026). Whittaker's Euphratic contact language [Answer ANS0DEDWYC3NPZ9]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/ANS0DEDWYC3NPZ9
```

Key

**ANS** 0DEDWYC3NPZ9

Kind

Answer · hypothesis

Proposed

[Session 1](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform/sessions/SES0DEE9K0P47XS/session-1-the-unread-cuneiform-seeded-corpus-readings-and) · 31 Oct 2026

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