Editing Hittite language

{{Short description|Extinct Bronze Age Indo-European language}}
{{redirect|Old Hittite|the Old Hittite Kingdom|Hittites#Old Kingdom}}
{{Infobox language
| name             = Hittite
| altname          = Nesite
| nativename       = {{lang|hit|{{cuneiform|ana|𒌷𒉌𒅆𒇷}}}} {{Transliteration|hit|nešili}}
| region           = [[Anatolia]]
| era              = attested 17th to 12th centuries BC
| script           = [[Hittite cuneiform]]
| familycolor      = Indo-European
| fam2             = [[Anatolian languages|Anatolian]]
| iso2             = hit
| lc1              = hit
| ld1              = Hittite
| lc2              = oht
| ld2              = Old Hittite
| lc3              = htx
| ld3              = Middle Hittite
| lc4              = nei
| ld4              = New Hittite
| linglist         = hit
| lingname         = Hittite
| linglist2        = oht
| lingname2        = Old Hittite
| linglist3        = htx
| lingname3        = Middle Hittite
| linglist4        = nei
| lingname4        = New Hittite
| glotto           = hitt1242
| glottorefname    = Hittite
| image            = Hittite Cuneiform Tablet- Legal Deposition(?).jpg
}}
{{Contains special characters|cuneiform}}

'''Hittite''' ({{langx|hit|{{cuneiform|ana|𒌷𒉌𒅆𒇷}}|translit=nešili|label=[[Hittite cuneiform]]|lit=the language of [[Kültepe|Neša]]}},<ref>Hoffner & Melchert (2008), p. 2</ref> or {{Transliteration|hit|nešumnili}} {{lit|the language of the people of Neša}}), also known as '''Nesite''' (Nešite/Neshite, Nessite), is an extinct [[Indo-European language]] that was spoken by the [[Hittites]], a people of [[Bronze Age Anatolia]] who created an empire centred on [[Hattusa]], as well as parts of the northern [[Levant]] and [[Upper Mesopotamia]].{{sfn|Yakubovich|2020|pp=221–237}} The language, now long extinct, is attested in [[Hittite cuneiform|cuneiform]], in records dating from the 17th<ref>van den Hout, Theo, (2020).  A History of Hittite Literacy: Writing and Reading in Late Bronze-Age Anatolia (1650–1200&nbsp;BC), Published online: 18 December 2020, Print publication: 07 January 2021, [https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/history-of-hittite-literacy/introduction/2665C532BD423C96A11075D908A9EF09 "Introduction"]: "...The hero of this book is literacy, writing and reading, in the Hittite kingdom in ancient Anatolia, or modern-day Turkey, from roughly 1650 to 1200&nbsp;BC, give or take several years or perhaps even a decade or two..."</ref> ([[Anitta text]]) to the 13th centuries&nbsp;BC, with isolated Hittite loanwords and numerous personal names appearing in an [[Akkadian language|Old Assyrian]] context from as early as the 20th century&nbsp;BC, making it the earliest attested use of the Indo-European languages.

By the [[Late Bronze Age]], Hittite had started losing ground to its close relative [[Luwian language|Luwian]]. It appears that Luwian was the most widely spoken language in the Hittite capital of Hattusa during the 13th century&nbsp;BC.<ref>Yakubovich 2010, p. 307</ref> After the collapse of the [[Hittite New Kingdom]] during the more general [[Late Bronze Age collapse]], Luwian emerged in the early [[Iron Age]] as the main language of the so-called [[Syro-Hittite states]], in southwestern [[Anatolia]] and northern [[Syria]].

==Name==
[[File:IndoEuropeanTree.svg|thumb|upright=1.4|Indo-European family tree in order of first attestation. Hittite belongs to the family of Anatolian languages and is among the oldest written Indo-European languages.]]

''Hittite'' is the modern scholarly name for the language, based on the identification of the Hatti (''Ḫatti'') kingdom with the [[Biblical Hittites]] ({{langx|hbo|*חתים}} {{lang|hbo-Latn|Ḥittim}}), although that name appears to have been applied incorrectly:{{sfn|Bryce|2012|p=73}} The term ''[[Hattians|Hattian]]'' refers to the indigenous people who preceded the Hittites, speaking a non-Indo-European [[Hattic language]].

In multilingual texts found in Hittite locations, passages written in Hittite are preceded by the adverb {{Lang|hit-Latn|nesili}} (or {{Lang|hit-Latn|nasili}}, {{Lang|hit-Latn|nisili}}), "in the [speech] of [[Neša]] (Kaneš)", an important city during the early stages of the [[Hittite Old Kingdom]]. In one case, the label is ''Kanisumnili'', "in the [speech] of the people of Kaneš".<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=441hAAAAMAAJ&q=Kanisumnili|title=Perspectives on Hittite civilization|last1=Güterbock|first1=Hans Gustav|last2=Hoffner|first2=Harry A.|last3=Diamond|first3=Irving L.|date=1997|publisher=Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago|isbn=9781885923042|pages=188|language=en}}</ref>

Although the [[Hittite New Kingdom]] had people from many diverse ethnic and linguistic backgrounds, the Hittite language was used in most secular written texts. In spite of various arguments over the appropriateness of the term,{{sfn|Glatz|2020|p=35}} ''Hittite'' remains the most current term because of convention and the strength of association with the [[Biblical Hittites]]. The [[endonymic]] term {{Lang|hit-Latn|nešili}}, and its Anglicized variants (''Nesite'', ''Nessite'', ''Neshite''), have never caught on.{{sfn|Hout|2011|p=2}}

==Classification==
Hittite is one of the Anatolian languages and is known from [[Hittite cuneiform|cuneiform]] tablets and inscriptions that were erected by the Hittite kings. The script formerly known as "Hieroglyphic Hittite" is now termed Hieroglyphic Luwian. The Anatolian branch also includes [[Cuneiform Luwian]], [[Hieroglyphic Luwian]], [[Palaic language|Palaic]], [[Lycian language|Lycian]], [[Milyan language|Milyan]], [[Lydian language|Lydian]], [[Carian language|Carian]], [[Pisidian language|Pisidian]], [[Sidetic language|Sidetic]] and [[Isaurian language|Isaurian]].<ref>Kloekhorst, Alwin. "[https://www.academia.edu/86912968/Anatolian_2022_ Anatolian]". In: ''The Indo-European Language Family: A Phylogenetic Perspective''. Edited by Thomas Olander. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022. pp. 63–65. {{doi|10.1017/9781108758666.005}}.</ref>

Unlike most other Indo-European languages, Hittite does not distinguish between masculine and feminine grammatical gender, and it lacks subjunctive and [[optative mood]]s as well as aspect. Various hypotheses have been formulated to explain these differences.<ref>{{harvnb|Melchert|2012|pp=2–5}}.</ref>

Some [[linguists]], most notably [[Edgar H. Sturtevant]] and [[Warren Cowgill]], have argued that Hittite should be classified as a [[sister language]] to [[Proto-Indo-European]], rather than as a [[daughter language]]. Their [[Indo-Hittite]] hypothesis is that the parent language (Indo-Hittite) lacked the features that are absent in Hittite as well, and that Proto-Indo-European later innovated them.

Other linguists, however, prefer the ''Schwund'' ("loss") Hypothesis in which Hittite (or Anatolian) came from Proto-Indo-European, with its full range of features, but the features became simplified in Hittite.

According to [[Craig Melchert]], the current tendency (as of 2012) is to suppose that Proto-Indo-European evolved and that the "prehistoric speakers" of Anatolian  became isolated "from the rest of the PIE speech community, so as not to share in some common innovations".<ref>{{harvnb|Melchert|2012|p=7}}.</ref> Hittite and the other [[Anatolian languages]] split off from [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] at an early stage. Hittite thus preserved archaisms that would be lost in the other Indo-European languages.<ref>{{harvnb|Jasanoff|2003|p=20 with footnote 41}}</ref>

Hittite has many loanwords, particularly religious vocabulary from the non-Indo-European [[Hurrian language|Hurrian]] and [[Hattic language|Hattic]] languages. The latter was the language of the [[Hattians]], the local inhabitants of the land of [[Hattians|Hatti]] before they were absorbed or displaced by the [[Hittites]]. Sacred and magical texts from [[Hattusa]] were often written in Hattic, [[Hurrian]] and [[Luwian language|Luwian]] even after Hittite had become the norm for other writings.

== History ==
The Hittite language has traditionally been stratified into Old Hittite (OH), Middle Hittite (MH) and New Hittite or Neo-Hittite (NH, not to be confused with the [[polysemic]] use of "[[Neo-Hittite]]" label as a designation for the later period, which is actually post-Hittite), corresponding to the Old, Middle and New Kingdoms of the Hittite history ({{Circa|1750}}–1500 BC, 1500–1430 BC and 1430–1180 BC, respectively). The stages are differentiated on both linguistic and paleographic grounds.{{sfn|Hout|2011|p=2-3}}{{sfn|Inglese|2020|p=61}}

Hittitologist [[Alwin Kloekhorst]] (2019) recognizes two dialectal variants of Hittite: one he calls "Kanišite Hittite", and a second he named "Ḫattuša Hittite" (or Hittite proper).<ref>Kloekhorst, Alwin. ''Kanišite Hittite: The Earliest Attested Record of Indo-European''. Leiden, The Netherlands, Boston: Brill, 2019. p. 246. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004382107</ref> The first is attested in clay tablets from Kaniš/Neša ([[Kültepe]]), and is dated earlier than the findings from Ḫattuša.<ref>Kloekhorst, Alwin. "[https://www.academia.edu/86912968/Anatolian_2022_ Anatolian]". In: ''The Indo-European Language Family: A Phylogenetic Perspective''. Edited by Thomas Olander. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022. pp. 63–64, 75. {{doi|10.1017/9781108758666.005}}</ref>

==Script==
{{Main|Hittite cuneiform}}
Hittite was written in an adapted form of Peripheral Akkadian [[cuneiform]] orthography from Northern Syria. The predominantly syllabic nature of the script makes it difficult to ascertain the precise phonetic qualities of some of the [[Hittite phonology|Hittite sound inventory]].

The syllabary distinguishes the following consonants (notably, the Akkadian ''s'' series is dropped),
:''b, d, g, ḫ, k, l, m, n, p, r, š, t, z'', combined with the vowels ''a, e, i, u''. Additionally, ''ya'' (= I.A : {{cuneiform|ana|𒄿𒀀}}), ''wa'' (= PI : {{cuneiform|ana|𒉿}}) and ''wi'' (= ''wi<sub>5</sub>'' = GEŠTIN : {{cuneiform|ana|𒃾}}) signs are introduced.

The Akkadian unvoiced/voiced series (k/g, p/b, t/d) do not express the voiced/unvoiced contrast in writing, but double spellings in intervocalic positions represent voiceless consonants in Indo-European ([[Sturtevant's law]]).

==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.

==Morphology==
{{Main|Hittite grammar}}
Hittite is the oldest attested Indo-European language,<ref>Coulson 1986, p. xiii</ref> yet it lacks several grammatical features that are exhibited by other early-attested [[Indo-European languages]] such as [[Vedic Sanskrit|Vedic]], [[Classical Latin]], [[Ancient Greek]], [[Old Persian]] and [[Avestan language|Old Avestan]]. Notably, Hittite did not have a masculine–feminine gender system. Instead, it had a rudimentary noun-class system that was based on an older animate–inanimate opposition.

===Nouns===
Hittite [[inflection|inflects]] for nine [[grammatical case|cases]]: [[Nominative case|nominative]], [[Vocative case|vocative]], [[Accusative case|accusative]], [[Genitive case|genitive]], [[Dative case|dative]]-[[Locative case|locative]], [[Ablative case|ablative]], [[Ergative case|ergative]], [[Allative case|allative]], and [[Instrumental case|instrumental]]; two [[grammatical number|numbers]]: singular, and plural; and two [[animacy]] classes: animate (common), and inanimate (neuter).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.assyrianlanguages.org/hittite/hittite_grammar.pdf |title=Hittite Grammar |website=Assyrianlanguages.org |access-date=2017-01-17}}</ref> Adjectives and pronouns agree with nouns for [[animacy]], [[grammatical number|number]], and [[grammatical case|case]].

The distinction in [[animacy]] is rudimentary and generally occurs in the [[nominative case]], and the same noun is sometimes attested in both animacy classes. There is a trend towards distinguishing fewer cases in the plural than in the singular. The [[ergative case]] is used when an inanimate noun is the [[subject (grammar)|subject]] of a [[transitive verb]]. Early Hittite texts have a [[vocative case]] for a few nouns with ''-u'', but it ceased to be productive by the time of the earliest discovered sources and was subsumed by the nominative in most documents. The [[allative case|allative]] was subsumed in the later stages of the language by the [[dative case|dative]]-[[locative case|locative]]. An archaic [[genitive case|genitive]] plural ''-an'' is found irregularly in earlier texts, as is an [[instrumental case|instrumental]] plural in ''-it''. A few nouns also form a distinct [[locative case|locative]], which had no case ending at all.

The examples of ''pišna-'' ("man") for animate and ''pēda-'' ("place") for inanimate are used here to show the Hittite noun declension's most basic form:

{| class=wikitable style=text-align:center
|-
! rowspan="2" | &nbsp;
! colspan="2" | Animate
| rowspan="11" | &nbsp;
! colspan="2" | Inanimate
|-
! Singular || Plural || Singular || Plural
|-
! Nominative
| pišnaš || pišnēš || rowspan="2" | pēdan || rowspan="2" | pēda
|-
! Accusative
| pišnan || pišnuš
|-
! Ergative
| pišnanza || pišnantēš || pēdanza || pēdantēš
|-
! Vocative
| colspan="2" | pišne || – || –
|-
! Genitive
| colspan="2" | pišnaš || colspan="2" | pēdaš
|-
! Dative/Locative
| pišni || pišnaš || pēdi || pēdaš
|-
! Ablative
| colspan="2" | pišnaz || colspan="2" | pēdaz
|-
! Allative
| pišna || – || pēda || –
|-
! Instrumental
| colspan="2" | pišnit || colspan="2" | pēdit
|}

===Verbs===
The verbal morphology is less complicated than for other early-attested [[Indo-European languages]] like [[Ancient Greek]] and [[Vedic Sanskrit|Vedic]]. Hittite verbs [[inflection|inflect]] according to two general [[grammatical conjugation|conjugations]] (''mi''-conjugation and ''hi''-conjugation), two [[grammatical voice|voices]] ([[Active voice|active]] and [[Mediopassive voice|medio-passive]]), two [[grammatical mood|moods]] ([[indicative mood]] and [[imperative mood|imperative]]), two aspects (perfective and imperfective), and two [[grammatical tense|tenses]] ([[present tense|present]] and [[preterite]]). Verbs have two [[infinitive]] forms, a [[verbal noun]], a [[supine]], and a [[participle]]. Rose (2006) lists 132 ''hi'' verbs and interprets the ''hi''/''mi'' oppositions as vestiges of a system of grammatical voice ("centripetal voice" vs. "centrifugal voice").

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! style="background:#C0F0C0"| &nbsp;
! style="background:#C0F0C0"| ''mi''-conjugation active
! style="background:#C0F0C0"| ''ḫi''-conjugation active
! style="background:#C0F0C0"| Shared medio-passive
|-
|colspan="4" style="background:#FFDEAD; text-align:center;"| '''Indicative present'''
|-
| 1. Singular || ''-mi'' || ''-ḫḫi'' || ''-ḫḫa/-ḫḫari/-ḫḫaḫari''
|-
| 2. Singular || ''-ši'' (also: ''-ti'') || ''-ti'' || ''tta/-ttari'' (or ''-tati'')
|-
| 3. Singular || ''-zzi'' || ''-i'' || ''a/-ari/-tta/-ttari''
|-
| 1. Plural ||colspan="2" style="text-align:center"| ''-wēni/-wāni/-uni'' || ''-wašta'' (or ''-waštari'')
|-
| 2. Plural ||colspan="2" style="text-align:center"| ''-ttēni/-ttāni'' (or ''-šteni'') || ''-dduma/-ddumari'' (or ''-ddumat'')
|-
| 3. Plural ||colspan="2" style="text-align:center"| ''-anzi'' || ''-anta/-antari''
|-
|colspan="4" style="background-color:#FFDEAD; text-align:center"| '''Indicative preterite'''
|-
| 1st singular|| ''-un/-nun'' || ''-ḫḫun'' || ''-ḫḫat/-ḫḫati/-ḫḫaḫat/-ḫḫaḫati''
|-
| 2nd singular|| ''-š/-ta'' || ''-ta'' (also: ''-š'') || ''-ttat/-ttati'' (or ''-tta/-at'')
|-
| 3rd singular || ''-ta'' || ''-š/-iš/-eš/-ta'' (or ''-šta'') || ''-at/-ati/-ta/-ttat/-ttati''
|-
| 1st plural ||colspan="2" style="text-align:center"| ''-wen'' || ''-waštat/-waštati''
|-
| 2nd plural ||colspan="2" style="text-align:center"| ''-tten'' (or ''-šten'') || ''-ddumat/-ddudumati''
|-
| 3rd plural ||colspan="2" style="text-align:center"| ''-ir'' || ''-antat/-antati''
|-
|colspan="4" style="background-color:#FFDEAD; text-align:center"| '''Imperative present'''
|-
| 1st singular|| ''-allu'' || ''-allu/-lu'' || ''-ḫḫaru/-ḫḫaḫaru''
|-
| 2nd singular|| null, ''-t'' (or ''-i'') || nul, ''-i'' || ''-ḫuti/-ḫut''
|-
| 3rd singular|| ''-tu'' || ''-u'' (or ''-štu'') || ''-aru/-ttaru''
|-
| 1st plural ||colspan="2" style="text-align:center"| ''-wēni/-wāni'' || *''-waštati''
|-
| 2nd plural ||colspan="2" style="text-align:center"| ''-tten'' (or ''-šten'') || ''-ddumat/-ddumati''
|-
| 3rd plural ||colspan="2" style="text-align:center"| ''-andu'' || ''-antaru''
|}

==Syntax==
Hittite is a [[Head final|head-final]] language: it has [[subject-object-verb]] [[word order]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/eieol/hitol-2-X.html |title=The Telepenus "Vanishing God" Myth (Anatolian mythology) |website=Utexas.edu |access-date=2017-01-17 |archive-date=2016-07-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160703162310/http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/eieol/hitol-2-X.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> a [[split ergative]] [[Morphosyntactic alignment|alignment]], and is a [[synthetic language]]; [[Prepositions and postpositions|adpositions]] follow their [[complement (linguistics)|complement]], adjectives and genitives precede the nouns that they modify, adverbs precede verbs, and [[Subordination (linguistics)#Subordinate clauses|subordinate clauses]] precede [[independent clause|main clauses]].

Hittite syntax shows one noteworthy feature that is typical of Anatolian languages: commonly, the beginning of a sentence or clause is composed of either a sentence-connecting particle or otherwise a fronted or topicalized form, and a "chain" of fixed-order [[clitic]]s is then appended.

==Decipherment==
[[File:Traité entre Tudhaliya IV du Hatti et Kurunta de Tarhuntassa.jpg|thumb|''Treaty between Tudhaliya IV of Hatti and Kurunta of Tarhuntassa'' (Bo 86/299), the only known bronze Hittite tablet, discovered in Hattusa, 1986. Museum of Anatolian Civilisation in Ankara]]
The first substantive claim as to the affiliation of Hittite was made by [[Jørgen Alexander Knudtzon]]<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20190801114400mp_/https://www.britishmuseum.org/pdf/Hawkins.pdf|author=J. D. Hawkins|title=The Arzawa Letters in Recent Perspective|journal=British Museum Studies in Ancient Egypt and Sudan|volume=14|date=2009|pages=73–83}}</ref> in 1902, in a book devoted to two letters between the king of Egypt and a Hittite ruler, found at [[El-Amarna]], [[Egypt]]. Knudtzon argued that Hittite was Indo-European, largely because of its [[morphology (linguistics)|morphology]]. Although he had no bilingual texts, he was able to provide a partial interpretation of the two letters because of the formulaic nature of the diplomatic correspondence of the period.<ref name="Beckman">{{cite journal|author=Beckman, Gary|title=The Hittite Language: Recovery and Grammatical Sketch|date=2011|journal=The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Anatolia 10,000-323 B.C.E.|editor1=S.R. Steadman|editor2=G. McMahon|pages=518–519|hdl=2027.42/86652}}</ref>

Knudtzon was definitively shown to have been correct when many tablets written in the familiar [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] [[cuneiform script]] but in an unknown language were discovered by [[Hugo Winckler]] in what is now the village of [[Boğazkale|Boğazköy]], Turkey, which was the former site of [[Hattusa]], the capital of the Hittite state.<ref>Silvia Alaura: "Nach Boghasköi!" Zur Vorgeschichte der Ausgrabungen in Boğazköy-Ḫattuša und zu den archäologischen Forschungen bis zum Ersten Weltkrieg, Benedict Press 2006. {{ISBN|3-00-019295-6}}</ref> Based on a study of this extensive [[Bedřich Hrozný#Deciphering of the Hittite language|material]], [[Bedřich Hrozný]] succeeded in analyzing the language. He presented his argument that the language is Indo-European in a paper published in 1915 (Hrozný 1915), which was followed by a grammar of the language (Hrozný 1917).<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Fortson|2004|p=154}}</ref>

Hrozný's argument for the Indo-European affiliation of Hittite was thoroughly modern although poorly substantiated. He focused on the striking similarities in idiosyncratic aspects of the morphology that are unlikely to occur independently by chance or to be borrowed.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Fortson|2004|p=154}}</ref> They included the ''r''/''n'' [[alternation (linguistics)|alternation]] in some noun stems (the [[heteroclitic stem|heteroclitics]]) and vocalic [[ablaut]], which are both seen in the alternation in the word for ''water'' between the nominative singular, ''wadar'', and the genitive singular, ''wedenas''. He also presented a set of regular sound correspondences.

After a brief initial delay because of disruption during the [[First World War]], Hrozný's decipherment, tentative grammatical analysis and demonstration of the Indo-European affiliation of Hittite were rapidly accepted and more broadly substantiated by contemporary scholars such as [[Edgar H. Sturtevant]], who authored the first scientifically acceptable Hittite grammar with a [[chrestomathy]] and a glossary. The most up-to-date grammar of the Hittite language is currently Hoffner and Melchert (2008).

==Corpus==
{{Main|Hittite inscriptions}}
More than 30,000 tablets or fragments have been excavated from the royal archives of the capital of the Hittite Kingdom [[Hattusa]], close to the modern town of Boğazkale or Boğazköy. While Hattusa has yielded the majority of tablets, other sites where they have been found include: [[Maşat Höyük]], Ortaköy, Kuşaklı or Kayalıpınar in Turkey, [[Alalakh]], [[Ougarit]] and [[Emar]] in [[Syria]], [[Amarna]] in [[Egypt]].

The tablets are mostly conserved in the Turkish museums of Ankara, Istanbul, Boğazkale and Çorum (Ortaköy) as well as in international museums such as the [[Pergamonmuseum]] in Berlin, the [[British Museum]] in London and the  [[Musée du Louvre]] in Paris.<ref>Hoffner & Melchert 2008, 2-3</ref>
{{clear}}

===The proclamation of [[Anitta (king)|Anitta]]===
This text has been found in three versions, the earliest of which is considered the oldest known of all Hittite language texts, dated from between the end of the 17th century BCE and the middle of the 16th century BCE.
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Transliteration
!Translation
|-
|<sup>M</sup>''A-ni-it-ta DUMU'' <sup>M</sup>''Pi-it-ha-a-na LUGAL'' <sup>URU</sup>''Ku-us-sa-ra QÍ-BÍ-MA''
''ne-pi-is-za-as-ta'' <sup>D</sup>''IŠKUR-un-ni a-as-su-us e-es-ta''

''na-as-ta'' <sup>D</sup>''IŠKUR-un-ni-ma ma-a-an a-as-su-us e-es-ta'' <sup>URU</sup>''Ne-e-sa-as LUGAL-us'' <sup>URU</sup>''Ku-us-sa-ra-as LUGAL-i ...''

''LUGAL'' <sup>URU</sup>''Ku-us-sa-ra URU-az kat-ta pa-an-ga-ri-it ú-e-et nu'' <sup>URU</sup>''Ne-e-sa-an is-pa-an-di na-ak-ki-it da-a-as''

<sup>URU</sup>''Ne-e-sa-as LUGAL-un IṢ-BAT Ù DUMU''<sup>MEŠ</sup> <sup>URU</sup>''Ne-e-sa-as i-da-a-lu na-at-ta ku-e-da-ni-ik-ki tak-ki-is-ta''

''an-nu-us at-tu-us i-e-et''

''nu'' <sup>M</sup>''Pi-it-ha-a-na-as at-ta-as-ma-as a-ap-pa-an sa-ni-ya ú-et-ti hu-ul-la-an-za-an hu-ul-la-nu-un''

<sup>D</sup>''UTU-az ut-ne-e ku-it ku-it-pat a-ra-is nu-us hu-u-ma-an-du-us-pat hu-ul-la-nu-un''

''ka-ru-ú'' <sup>M</sup>''U-uh-na-as LUGAL'' <sup>URU</sup>''Za-a-al-pu-wa'' <sup>D</sup>''Si-ú-sum-mi-in'' <sup>URU</sup>''Ne-e-sa-az'' <sup>URU</sup>''Za-a-al-pu-wa pe-e-da-as''

''ap-pe-ez-zi-ya-na'' <sup>M</sup>''A-ni-it-ta-as LUGAL.GAL'' <sup>D</sup>''Si-ú-sum-mi-in'' <sup>URU</sup>''Za-a-al-pu-wa-az a-ap-pa'' <sup>URU</sup>''Ne-e-sa pe-e-tah-hu-un''

<sup>M</sup>''Hu-uz-zi-ya-na LUGAL'' <sup>URU</sup>''Za-a-al-pu-wa hu-su-wa-an-ta-an'' <sup>URU</sup>''Ne-e-sa ú-wa-te-nu-un''

<sup>URU</sup>''Ha-at-tu-sa''

''tak-ki-is-ta''

''sa-an ta-a-la-ah-hu-un''

''ma-a-na-as ap-pe-ez-zi-ya-na ki-is-ta-an-zi-at-ta-at''

''sa-an'' <sup>D</sup>''Hal-ma-su-i-iz'' <sup>D</sup>''si-i-us-mi-is pa-ra-a pa-is''

''sa-an is-pa-an-di na-ak-ki-it da-a-ah-hu-un''

''pe-e-di-is-si-ma ZÀ.AH-LI-an a-ne-e-nu-un''

''ku-is am-me-el a-ap-pa-an LUGAL-us ki-i-sa-ri nu'' <sup>URU</sup>''Ha-at-tu-sa-an a-ap-pa a-sa-a-si na-an ne-pi-sa-as'' <sup>D</sup>''IŠKUR-as ha-az-zi-e-et-tu''
|<blockquote>Anitta, Son of Pithana, King of Kussara, speak!

He was dear to the Stormgod of Heaven,

And when he was dear to the Stormgod of Heaven, the king of Nesa [verb broken off] to the king of Kussara.

The king of Kussara, Pithana, came down out of the city in force, and he took the city of Nesa in the night by force.

He took the King of Nesa captive, but he did not do any evil to the inhabitants of Nesa; instead,

He made them mothers and fathers.

After my father, Pithana, I suppressed a revolt in the same year.

Whatever lands rose up in the direction of the sunrise, I defeated each of the aforementioned.

Previously, Uhna, the king of Zalpuwas, had removed our Sius from the city of Nesa to the city of Zalpuwas.

But subsequently, I, Anittas, the Great King, brought our Sius back from Zalpuwas to Nesa.

But Huzziyas, the king of Zalpuwas, I brought back alive to Nesa.

The city of Hattusas [tablet broken]

Contrived.

And I abandoned it.

But afterwards, when it suffered famine,

My goddess, Halmasuwiz, handed it over to me.

And in the night I took it by force;

and in its place, I sowed weeds.

Whoever becomes king after me and settles Hattusas again, may the Stormgod of Heaven smite him!</blockquote>
|}

==See also==
{{Portal|Languages|Asia}}
* [[Hittitology]]
{{columns-list|colwidth=25em|
* [[Albrecht Goetze]]
* [[Bedřich Hrozný]]
* [[Harry A. Hoffner]]
* [[Johannes Friedrich (linguist)|Johannes Friedrich]]
* [[Alwin Kloekhorst]]
* [[Craig Melchert]]
* [[Archibald Sayce]]
* [[Edgar Howard Sturtevant]]
* [[Henri Wittmann]]
}}

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

==Sources==
{{Refbegin|2}}

===Introductions and overviews===
* {{Cite book|last=Bryce|first=Trevor R.|author-link=Trevor R. Bryce|title=Life and Society in the Hittite World|year=2002|location=New York|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780199241705|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8-MTDAAAQBAJ}}
* {{Cite book|last=Bryce|first=Trevor R.|author-link=Trevor R. Bryce|title=The Kingdom of the Hittites|year=2005|orig-year=1998|edition=2nd revised|location=New York|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780199279081|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HMHmCwAAQBAJ}}
* {{Cite book|last=Bryce|first=Trevor R.|author-link=Trevor R. Bryce|title=The World of The Neo-Hittite Kingdoms: A Political and Military History|year=2012|location=New York|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780191505027|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gp8lMpoFAUsC}}
* {{cite book | last=Fortson |first=Benjamin W. | title=Indo-European Language and Culture : an Introduction | location=Malden | publisher=Blackwell | year=2004 | isbn=1-4051-0316-7}}
* {{Cite book|last=Glatz|first=Claudia|author-link=Trevor R. Bryce|title=The Making of Empire in Bronze Age Anatolia: Hittite Sovereign Practice, Resistance, and Negotiation|year=2020|location=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9781108491105|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SPwAEAAAQBAJ}}
* {{cite book | last=Held Jr. |first=Warren H. | title=Beginning Hittite | location=Columbus OH  | publisher=Slavica | year=1988 | isbn=0-89357-184-9}}
* {{cite web | first=H. Craig | last=Melchert | title=The Position of Anatolian |  url=http://www.linguistics.ucla.edu/people/Melchert/The%20Position%20of%20AnatolianRevised3.pdf | year=2012}}
* {{cite book | last=Rieken |first=Elisabeth | title=Einführung in die hethitische Sprache und Schrift | location=Münster | publisher=Ugarit-Verlag | year=2022 | edition=3rd | isbn=978-3-86835-352-5}}
* {{cite book | last=Zeilfelder |first=Susanne | title=Hittite Exercise Book| location=Wiesbaden | year=2005 | isbn=978-3-447-05206-1}}

===Dictionaries===
*Goetze, Albrecht (1954). "Review of: Johannes Friedrich, ''Hethitisches Wörterbuch'' (Heidelberg: Winter)", ''Language'' 30, pp.&nbsp;401–5.
*Kloekhorst, Alwin. ''Etymological Dictionary of the Hittite Inherited Lexicon''. Leiden–Boston: Brill, 2008.
*Puhvel, Jaan (1984–). ''Hittite Etymological Dictionary''. 10 vols. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
* Sturtevant, Edgar H. (1931). "Hittite glossary: words of known or conjectured meaning, with Sumerian ideograms and Accadian words common in Hittite texts", ''Language'' 7, no. 2, pp.&nbsp;3–82., ''Language Monograph'' No. 9.
* The ''[[Chicago Hittite Dictionary]]''

===Grammar===
* {{cite book |author1=Hoffner, Harry A.  |author2=Melchert, H. Craig |title=A Grammar of the Hittite Language | location=Winona | publisher=Eisenbrauns | year=2008 | isbn=978-1-57506-119-1}} 2nd Edition, 2024 {{ISBN|9781646023066}}
* {{Cite book|last=Hout|first=Theo van den|title=The Elements of Hittite|year=2011|location=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9781139501781|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QDJNg5Nyef0C}}
* {{cite book | author=Hrozný, Bedřich | title=Die Sprache der Hethiter: ihr Bau und ihre Zugehörigkeit zum indogermanischen Sprachstamm|year=1917|location=Leipzig | publisher=Hinrichs}}
* {{Cite book|last=Inglese|first=Guglielmo|title=The Hittite Middle Voice: Synchrony, Diachrony, Typology|year=2020|location=Leiden-Boston|publisher=Brill|isbn=9789004432307|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iKnwDwAAQBAJ}}
* {{cite book | last=Jasanoff | first=Jay H. | author-link=Jay Jasanoff |title=Hittite and the Indo-European Verb | location=Oxford | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=2003 | isbn=0-19-924905-9}}
* {{cite book | author=Luraghi, Silvia |title=Hittite | location=Munich | publisher=Lincom Europa | year=1997 | isbn=3-89586-076-X}}
* {{cite book | author=Melchert, H. Craig | author-link=Craig Melchert |title=Anatolian Historical Phonology | location=Amsterdam | publisher=Rodopi | year=1994 | isbn=90-5183-697-X}}
* {{cite book | author=Patri, Sylvain | title=L'alignement syntaxique dans les langues indo-européennes d'Anatolie | location=Wiesbaden | publisher=Harrassowitz | year=2007 | isbn=978-3-447-05612-0}}
* {{cite book | author=Rose, S. R. | title=The Hittite -hi/-mi conjugations | location=Innsbruck | year=2006 | isbn=3-85124-704-3 | publisher=Institut für Sprachen und Literaturen der Universität Innsbruck }}
* Sturtevant, Edgar H. A. (1933, 1951). ''Comparative Grammar of the Hittite Language''. Rev. ed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1951. First edition: 1933.
* Sturtevant, Edgar H. A. (1940). ''The Indo-Hittite laryngeals''. Baltimore: Linguistic Society of America.
* {{cite journal | author=Watkins, Calvert | title=Hittite |
journal=The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages |pages=551–575 |year=2004|isbn=0-521-56256-2 }}
* {{cite book | author=Yakubovich, Ilya | title=Sociolinguistics of the Luwian Language | location=Leiden| year=2010 | isbn=9789004177918 | publisher=Brill }}

===Text editions===
* Goetze, Albrecht & Edgar H. Sturtevant (1938). ''The Hittite Ritual of Tunnawi''. New Haven: American Oriental Society.
* Sturtevant, Edgar H. A., & George Bechtel (1935). ''A Hittite Chrestomathy''. Baltimore: Linguistic Society of America.
* {{cite book | author=Knudtzon, J. A.|year=1902|title=Die Zwei Arzawa-Briefe: Die ältesten Urkunden in indogermanischer Sprache| url=https://archive.org/details/diezweiarzawabr01torpgoog|location=Leipzig | publisher=Hinrichs}}

===Articles===
* {{Cite book|last=Archi|first=Alfonso|chapter=When Did the Hittites Begin to Write in Hittite?|title=Pax Hethitica: Studies on the Hittites and Their Neighbours in Honour of Itamar Singer|year=2010|location=Wiesbaden|publisher=Harrassowitz Verlag|pages=37–46|isbn=9783447061193|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gJjwCflv2q4C}}
* {{cite book |last1=Giusfredi |first1=Federico |first2=Valerio|last2=Pisaniello|first3=Alvise|last3=Matessi|title=Contacts of Languages and Peoples in the Hittite and Post-Hittite World: The Bronze Age and Hatti |date=2023 |publisher=Brill |isbn=9789004548602}}
* {{cite journal | author=Hrozný, Bedřich | title=Die Lösung des hethitischen Problems|
journal=Mitteilungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft|volume=56|pages=17–50|year=1915}}
* {{Cite book|last=Melchert|first=Craig|author-link=Craig Melchert|chapter=Luwian|title=A Companion to Ancient Near Eastern Languages|year=2020|location=Hoboken|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|pages=239–256|isbn=9781119193296|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LFbPDwAAQBAJ}}
* {{cite journal | author=Sturtevant, Edgar H. | title=The Development of the Stops in Hittite|
journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society|volume=52|pages=1–12|year=1932 | doi=10.2307/593573 | issue=1 | publisher=American Oriental Society | jstor=593573}}
* {{cite journal | author=Sturtevant, Edgar H. | title=Evidence for voicing in Hittite g|
journal=Language |volume=16|pages=81–87|year=1940 | doi=10.2307/408942 | issue=2 | publisher=Linguistic Society of America | jstor=408942}}
* {{cite journal | author=Wittmann, Henri | title=A note on the linguistic form of Hittite sheep|
journal=Revue hittite et asianique|volume=22|pages=117–118|year=1969}}
* {{cite journal | author=Wittmann, Henri | title=Some Hittite etymologies|
journal=Die Sprache|volume=10, 19|pages=144–148, 39–43|orig-year=1964|year=1973}}
* {{cite journal | author=Wittmann, Henri | title=The development of K in Hittite|
journal=Glossa|volume=3|pages=22–26|year=1969}}
* {{cite journal | author=Wittmann, Henri | title=The Indo-European drift and the position of Hittite|
journal=International Journal of American Linguistics|volume=35 | issue=3|pages=266–268|year=1969 | doi=10.1086/465065| s2cid=106405518}}
* {{Cite book|last=Yakubovich|first=Ilya|chapter=Hittite|title=A Companion to Ancient Near Eastern Languages|year=2020|location=Hoboken|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|pages=221–237|isbn=9781119193296|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LFbPDwAAQBAJ}}
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{wiktionary|Appendix:Hittite Swadesh list}}
* [https://lrc.la.utexas.edu/eieol/hitol Hittite Online] by Winfred P. Lehmann and Jonathan Slocum, free online lessons at the [https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/lrc Linguistics Research Center] at the [[University of Texas at Austin]]
* {{cite web | url=http://www.assyrianlanguages.org/hittite/ | title=The Hittite Grammar Homepage | first=Olivier | last=Lauffenburger | year=2006}}
* [https://www.hethport.uni-wuerzburg.de/HPM/index.php Portal Mainz] (in German; includes text corpora of Hittite texts in various genres with German translations)
* {{cite web | title=Digital etymological-philological Dictionary of the Ancient Anatolian Corpus Languages (eDiAna) | url=http://www.ediana.gwi.uni-muenchen.de | publisher=[[Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München]] | access-date=18 February 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170225141334/https://www.ediana.gwi.uni-muenchen.de/ | archive-date=25 February 2017 | url-status=dead }}
* [http://humanities.uchicago.edu/orgs/xstar/eCHD The Electronic Edition of the Chicago Hittite Dictionary] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605074348/http://humanities.uchicago.edu/orgs/xstar/eCHD/ |date=2011-06-05 }} – The University of Chicago
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20040113013247/http://www.etana.org/abzu/ ABZU] – a guide to information related to the study of the Ancient Near East on the Web
* [http://www.wordgumbo.com/ie/cmp/hitt.htm Hittite Dictionary]
* [http://starling.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/response.cgi?root=new100&morpho=0&basename=new100\ier\ana&limit=-1 Hittite basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database]
*[https://wikis.hu-berlin.de/interlinear_glossing/Hittite:Glossing_of_common_Hittite_forms Hittite in the wiki ''Glossing Ancient Languages''] (recommendations for the [[Interlinear gloss|Interlinear Morphemic Glossing]] of Hittite texts)
* [https://spw.uni-goettingen.de/projects/aig/lng-hit.html glottothèque – Ancient Indo-European Grammars online], an online collection of introductory videos to Ancient Indo-European languages produced by the University of Göttingen

{{Anatolian languages}}
{{Indo-European languages}}
{{Ancient Mesopotamia}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hittite Language}}
[[Category:Hittite language| ]]
[[Category:Anatolian languages]]
[[Category:Extinct languages of Asia]]
[[Category:Languages attested from the 16th century BC]]
[[Category:Languages extinct in the 13th century BC]]