Editing Hittite language (section)

==Phonology==
{{Main|Hittite phonology}}
The limitations of the syllabic script in helping to determine the nature of Hittite phonology have been more or less overcome by means of comparative etymology and an examination of Hittite spelling conventions. Accordingly, scholars have surmised that Hittite possessed the following phonemes:

===Vowels===
{|class="wikitable"
|-
![[Vowel]]s
! [[Front vowel|Front]]
! [[Central vowel|Central]]
! [[Back vowel|Back]]
|-
! [[Close vowel|Close]]
| align=center| {{IPA link|i}}
| &nbsp;
| align=center| {{IPA link|u}}
|-
! [[Mid vowel|Mid]]
| align=center| {{IPA link|e}}
| &nbsp;
| align=center| ({{IPA link|o}})
|-
! [[Open vowel|Open]]
| &nbsp;
| align=center| {{IPA link|a}}
| &nbsp;
|}

*Long vowels appear as alternates to their corresponding short vowels when they are so conditioned by the accent.
*Phonemically distinct long vowels occur infrequently.

===Consonants===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|+ Consonant phonemes
! colspan="2" rowspan="2" |
! rowspan="2" | [[Labial consonant|Labial]]
! rowspan="2" colspan="2" | [[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
! rowspan="2" | [[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
! colspan="2" | [[Velar consonant|Velar]]
! colspan="2" | [[Uvular consonant|Uvular]]
|-
! {{small|plain}} || {{small|[[Labialized consonant|labial]]}}
! {{small|plain}} || {{small|[[Labialized consonant|labial]]}}
|-
! rowspan="2" |[[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]
!{{small|[[Fortis and lenis|lenis]]}}
| {{IPA link|m}}
| colspan="2" | {{IPA link|n}}
|
|
|
|
|
|-
!{{small|[[Fortis and lenis|fortis]]}}
| {{IPA link|m}}{{IPA link|ː}}
| colspan="2" | {{IPA link|n}}{{IPA link|ː}}
|
|
|
|
|
|-
! rowspan="2" |[[Plosive]]
!{{small|[[Fortis and lenis|lenis]]}}
| {{IPA link|p}}
| colspan="2" | {{IPA link|t}}
|
| {{IPA link|k}}
| {{IPA link|kʷ}}
|
|
|-
!{{small|[[Fortis and lenis|fortis]]}}
| {{IPA link|p}}{{IPA link|ː}}
| colspan="2" | {{IPA link|t}}{{IPA link|ː}}
|
| {{IPA link|k}}{{IPA link|ː}}
| {{IPA link|kʷ}}{{IPA link|ː}}
|
|
|-
! rowspan="2" |[[Fricative]]
!{{small|[[Fortis and lenis|lenis]]}}
|
| colspan="2" | {{IPA link|s}}
|({{IPA link|ʃ}})
|
|
| {{IPA link|χ}}
| {{IPA link|χʷ}}
|-
!{{small|[[Fortis and lenis|fortis]]}}
|
| colspan="2" | {{IPA link|s}}{{IPA link|ː}}
|({{IPA link|ʃ}}{{IPA link|ː}})
|
|
| {{IPA link|χ}}{{IPA link|ː}}
| {{IPA link|χʷ}}{{IPA link|ː}}
|-
! colspan="2" | [[Affricate]]
|
| colspan="2" | {{IPA link|t͡s}}
|
|
|
|
|
|-
! rowspan="2" |[[Liquid consonant|Liquid]]
!{{small|[[Fortis and lenis|lenis]]}}
|
| {{IPA link|r}} || {{IPA link|l}}
|
|
|
|
|
|-
!{{small|[[Fortis and lenis|fortis]]}}
|
| {{IPA link|r}}{{IPA link|ː}} || {{IPA link|l}}{{IPA link|ː}}
|
|
|
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" | [[Semivowel|Glide]]
|
| colspan="2" |
| {{IPA link|j}}
|
| {{IPA link|w}}
|
|
|}

===Plosives===
Hittite had two series of consonants, one which was written always [[Gemination|geminate]] in the original script, and another that was always simple. In [[cuneiform]], all consonant sounds except for glides could be geminate. It has long been noticed that the geminate series of plosives is the one descending from [[Proto-Indo-European]] [[Proto-Indo-European phonology|voiceless stops]], and the simple plosives come from both voiced and voiced aspirate stops, which is often referred as [[Sturtevant's law]]. Because of the typological implications of Sturtevant's law, the distinction between the two series is commonly regarded as one of voice. However, there is no agreement over the subject among scholars since some view the series as if they were differenced by [[consonant length|length]], which a literal interpretation of the cuneiform orthography would suggest.

Supporters of a length distinction usually point to the fact that [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]], the language from which the Hittites borrowed the cuneiform script, had voicing, but Hittite scribes used voiced and voiceless signs interchangeably. [[Alwin Kloekhorst]] also argues that the absence of assimilatory voicing is also evidence for a [[consonant length|length]] distinction. He points out that the word "''e-ku-ud-du'' – [ɛ́kʷːtu]" does not show any voice assimilation. However, if the distinction were one of voice, agreement between the stops should be expected since the [[Velar consonant|velar]] and the [[alveolar consonant|alveolar]] plosives are known to be adjacent since that word's "u" represents not a vowel but [[labialization]].

===Laryngeals===
Hittite preserves some very archaic features lost in other Indo-European languages. For example, Hittite has retained two of the three [[laryngeal theory|laryngeals]] ({{PIE |*''h₂''}} and {{PIE|*''h₃''}} word-initially). Those sounds, whose existence had been hypothesized in 1879 by [[Ferdinand de Saussure]], on the basis of vowel quality in other Indo-European languages, were not preserved as separate sounds in any attested Indo-European language until the discovery of Hittite. In Hittite, the phoneme is written as ''ḫ''. In that respect, Hittite is unlike any other attested Indo-European language and so the discovery of laryngeals in Hittite was a remarkable confirmation of Saussure's hypothesis.

Both the preservation of the laryngeals and the lack of evidence that Hittite shared certain [[grammar|grammatical]] features in the other early Indo-European languages have led some philologists to believe that the Anatolian languages split from the rest of Proto-Indo-European much earlier than the other divisions of the [[proto-language]]. See [[#Classification]] above for more details.