Anatolian Languages

The Anatolian languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family; all constituents are now extinct but were commonly spoken in Asiatic Türkiye and N Syria during the 1st and 2nd millennia BCE. The most important of the Anatolian languages was Hittite, official to the Hittite Empire of the 2nd millennium BCE.

Subregions of Anatolia (and Surroundings)

• Lydia: W Anatolia, bordered by Mysia to the north, Phrygia to the east, Caria to the south, and the Aegean Sea to the west.
• Troas (Troad): NW Anatolia, around the Hellespont (Dardanelles), bordered by the Aegean Sea and Mysia.
• Mysia: NW Anatolia, north of Lydia and east of the Aegean Sea, including the southern shore of the Sea of Marmara, bordering Bithynia to the east.
• Caria: SW Anatolia, north of Lycia, south of Lydia and Mysia, bordering the Aegean Sea to the west.
• Pisidia: SW Anatolia, in the interior north of Lycia and Pamphylia, south of Phrygia.
• Lycia: S coast of Anatolia, between Caria to the west and Pamphylia to the east.
• Pamphylia: S-Central coast of Anatolia, between Lycia to the west and Cilicia to the east.
• Cilicia: SE Anatolia, along the Mediterranean coast, east of Pamphylia; includes Cilicia Trachea (rough, mountainous region) and Cilicia Pedias (flat, fertile region).
• Cappadocia: Central Anatolia, east of Phrygia, north of Cilicia, and west of the Euphrates River.
• Armenia: E of Cappadocia beyond the Euphrates River, traditionally divided into Lesser Armenia (west) and Greater Armenia (east).
• Pontus: N Anatolia, along the southern coast of the Black Sea, east of Bithynia and Paphlagonia.
• Paphlagonia: N Anatolia, along the Black Sea, between Bithynia to the west and Pontus to the east.
• Bithynia: NW Anatolia, east of Mysia, bordering the Black Sea to the north and Phrygia to the south.
• Thracia (Thrace): Not in Anatolia but closely connected in various historical periods. Located to the northwest of Anatolia, across the Hellespont (Dardanelles), it includes parts of modern-day Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey.
• Syria: Not in Anatolia, but closely connected in various historical periods. Southwest of Cilicia, extending south along the eastern Mediterranean coast.
• Mesopotamia: Not in Anatolia, but closely connected in various historical periods. Located between the Tigris River and Euphrates River, covering modern-day Iraq, parts of northeastern Syria, southeastern Türkiye, and southwestern Iran. Divided into: Northern Mesopotamia (Assyria), characterized by hills and plains; Southern Mesopotamia (Sumer), which features flat, alluvial plains.

The earliest recovered documents from Anatolia are the Cappadocian tablets, which date to before 1700 BCE; however, they are written in Old Assyrian, a dialect of Akkadian, and represents the presence of Assyrian trade colonies rather than reflecting the linguistic landscape of Anatolia itself. It is a Semitic language, closely associated with other languages from the Fertile Crescent. The prominence of Old Assyrian is closely linked to the commercial activities of Assyrian merchants, who established a network of trade outposts across the region, with the most notable being at Nesha / Kanesh (modern Kültepe, Turkey).

The disappearance of these Assyrian trade colonies from Anatolia and the concurrent rise of the Hittite Empire in central Anatolia marked a significant linguistic transition in the region. This change was not merely the replacement of one language by another but reflected broader shifts in political power, economic structures, and cultural exchanges.

The exact date when Indo-European peoples entered the Anatolian region is unknown but is generally held to be in the 3rd millennium BCE. The first language of the Anatolian sub-family attested in history is Hattian, a pre-Indo-European language that is believed to be a language isolate with no known genealogical links to other languages.

Generally, the Indo-European Anatolian languages (that followed Hattian) are split into four sub-divisions: Palaic (northern Anatolia), Hittite (central Anatolia), Luwic (southern Anatolia), and Lydian (western Anatolia).

Hattian Language (pre-Indo-European language isolate; ~2000-1400 BCE)

Hattian (or Hattic) was called Hattili in later Hittite cuneiform texts, and it is sometimes referred to as proto-Hittite. Hattian has left behind a scant linguistic record, primarily because it was not written in its own script. Our knowledge of Hattian comes from later cuneiform texts written by the Hittites, who adopted and adapted their cuneiform writing system from Mesopotamia. The Hittites used this script to record Hattian in a number of religious texts and rituals, which provides the primary evidence for linguistic study.

The Halys River, now known as the Kızılırmak River, was a significant geographical marker, serving not just as a physical boundary but also as a linguistic and cultural demarcation line; the Hattians inhabited the region around and inside the bend of the Halys River, primarily in central and north-central Anatolia, south of the Black Sea. They settled on a central plateau, surrounded by mountains and intersected by fertile river valleys; the Halys River was a crucial waterway for agriculture, trade, and communication; this was a region called Hatti (Biblical Heth). The Assyrian and Egyptian designation of an area west of the Euphrates was the 'Land of the Hatti' (, or Khatti). This position also provided some measure of isolation for the Hattians, separated geographically from the influences of neighboring cultures in its earliest stages of their development. In the narrative of the Bible (Genesis 10:15), Heth is a son of Noah who was given the land of Canaan. The Hittites, among other groups, represent the indigenous populations that the Israelites encountered and sometimes fought against, according to biblical narratives.

The heartland of the language before the arrival of Hittite-speakers ranged from Hattusa (then called Hattus; near modern Boğazkale, central Türkiye) northward to Nerik (coastal north-central Türkiye). By the rise of the Hittite New Empire (~1400 BCE), this language had been replaced even in its heartland, outcompeted by Indo-European Hittite.

Hattian language seems to have been agglutinative, with a variety of both prefixes and suffixes that when added to its root word can change its meaning; these markers could represent tense, mood, and possession. Unlike Indo-European languages, Hattian seems to have lacked gender distinctions for its nouns / pronouns, and it is believed to have a case system to denote grammatical functions such as subject, object, and possession (typical for languages of the region). It also seems to have favored a subject-object-verb (SOV) word order, which is common for agglutinative languages, as well, as for languages that possess a rich lexicon of case markers.

Hittite texts frequently incorporated religion-oriented Hattian words and phrases in rituals, prayers, and descriptions of gods, indicating a deep respect for the religious traditions of their predecessors. This adoption seems to have extended beyond vocabulary, influencing the structure and practice of Hittite religious ceremonies and belief systems.

Aside from religious terms, Hittite absorbed a number of Hattian loanwords, particularly in the areas of agriculture, flora, and fauna, which suggests a degree of cultural exchange and influence in everyday life and knowledge.

While the core structure of Hittite remained Indo-European, the prolonged contact with Hattian may have influenced certain syntactic or morphological aspects, especially in the context of ritual language. Isolating these influences is challenging due to the nature of the available texts, which are primarily religious and therefore might not reflect everyday language use.

Luwian (Western and Southern Anatolia; ~2000-600 BCE)

Luwian (also known as Luvian or Luish) is an extinct language associated with the Luwian people of Anatolia and N Syria. Luwian comes from Luwiya (also spelled Luwia or Luvia) - the name of the region in which the Luwians lived. The two varieties of the language are known after the scripts in which they were written: Cuneiform Luwian (or Kizzuwatna Luwian, adapted from Old Babylonian cuneiform, the same script used by the Hittites) and Hieroglyphic Luwian (formerly incorrectly known as Hieroglyphic Hittite; a unique, native script); these may have been used to write the same spoken language, or they could represent closely-related variants.

It is believed that several other Anatolian languages, notably Carian, Lycian, and Milyan (all described below) are linked to Luwian, more closely connected to each other than other members of the same filial branch. This likely represents a later-developing sub-branch from which they mutually descended. Luwian has been proposed as one of the likely candidates for the language spoken by the Trojans. According to some, the name of Priam, king of Troy at the time of the Trojan War, is connected to the Luwian compound Priimuua, which meant "exceptionally courageous."

The earliest Luwian texts in cuneiform are attested in connection with the Kingdom of Kizzuwatna in southeastern Anatolia, as well as a number of locations in central Anatolia. Beginning in the 1300s BCE, Luwian-speakers came to constitute the majority in the Hittite capital Hattusa. It appears that by the time of the collapse of the Hittite Empire ~1180 BCE, the royal family were fully fluent in Luwian. Long after the extinction of the Hittite language, Luwian continued to be spoken in the Neo-Hittite states of Syria, such as Milid and Carchemish, as well as in the central Anatolian kingdom of Tabal that flourished in the 8th century BCE. Luwian hieroglyphic texts contain a limited number of lexical borrowings from Hittite, Akkadian, and Northwest Semitic; the lexical borrowings from Ancient Greek are limited to proper nouns.

Luwian possessed two grammatical genders (based on animacy), and two grammatical number distinctions (singular or plural), and three persons (1st, 2nd, and 3rd, both singular and plural). Some animate nouns could also take a collective plural in addition to the regular numerical plural. Luwian had six cases (below), though the vocative case occurs rarely in surviving texts and only in the singular. The usual word order is SOV, but words can be moved to the front of the sentence for stress or to start a clause.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative animate	-s	-anzi, -inzi
Accusative animate	-n, -an
Nominative/accusative inanimate	-Ø, -n	-a, -aya
Genitive	-s, -si	–
Dative/locative	-i, -iya, -a	-anza
Ablative/instrumental	-ati

Hittite (Central Anatolia; ~1650-1100 BCE)

Hittite (natively: 𒌷𒉌𒅆𒇷, nešili / "the language of Neša", or nešumnili / "the language of the people of Neša") is the extinct language of the long-lived Hittite peoples; by the 13th century BCE, Hittite was the primary language of Hattusa, the Hittite capital. Hittite was given its name based on an incorrect correlation between the Hittites and the earlier Hattians; in reality the Hattians were an earlier pre-Indo-European people in the region. A more appropriate Anglicized designation would be Nesite / Nessite / Neshite, but these have not yet caught on.

In multilingual texts from Hattusa, passages written in Hittite are preceded by the adverb nesili (or nasili, 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.'

Hittite is primarily known from cuneiform tablets and inscriptions on stelae and other objects; the written script is technically known as Hieroglyphic Luwian. It has traditionally been stratified into Old Hittite (OH), Middle Hittite (MH) and New Hittite, corresponding to the Old, Middle and New Kingdoms (~1750–1500 BCE, ~1500–1430 BCE and ~1430–1180 BCE, respectively).

Hittite is the oldest attested Indo-European language, and it lacks several grammatical features that are exhibited by other early-attested Indo-European languages such as Vedic, Classical Latin, Ancient Greek, Old Persian and Old Avestan. Hittite did not have a masculine-feminine gender system, instead utilizing a rudimentary noun-class system that was based on an older animate - inanimate opposition.

Hittite inflects for nine cases: nominative, vocative, accusative, genitive, dative-locative, ablative, ergative, allative, and instrumental; two numbers: singular, and plural; and two animacy classes: animate (common), and inanimate (neuter). Adjectives and pronouns agree with nouns for animacy, number, and case.

Cases of the Hittite Language

• Nominative: The subject. The man eats. / The place is here.
• Accusative: The direct object. I see the man. / I found the place.
• Vocative: Used for direct address. Man, you are acting crazy. / Place, I love you!
• Genitive: Possession or relation. The house of the man. / The place of the spirits.
• Dative/Locative: Indirect object or location. I gave it to the man. / I am at the place.
• Ablative: Movement away. I ran from the man / I departed from the place.
• Allative: Movement toward. I moved toward the man / She drove toward the place.
• Instrumental: How an action is done. I walked with the man / I switched my home with the place.

Palaic (North Anatolia; ~1600-1200 BCE)

Palaic was spoken in Palā, a land located to the northwest of Hittite territory and across the Halys River; this region became known as Blaëne by the Greeks and Paphlagonia by the Romans, both likely representing linguistic continuity from its indigenous root name. There is scant evidence for Palaic - about a dozen ritual fragments were preserved in Hittite cuneiform in archives at Hattusa; the Hittite word palaumnili seems to mean 'in Palaic' or 'of the people of Palā'.

While evidence is sparse, it is clear that the language was contemporary with Hittite, and it was Indo-European in origin. The presence of the /f/ sound in Palaic (through Hattian loanwords) indicates direct linguistic interaction between the two linguistic communities; perhaps surpassing the Hittites, who did not adopt the /f/ phoneme (instead replacing it with /p/ and /h/ sounds when it appeared).

The language appears to have slipped out of daily use ~1400s BCE, when the Kaška (Kaskians) entered the region and possibly displaced the 'people of Palā.'

Lycian A (Lycian; Southwestern Anatolia; 500-200 BCE)

Lycian (𐊗𐊕𐊐𐊎𐊆𐊍𐊆 Trm̃mili) is an extinct language spoken by the Lycian peoples of southwestern Anatolia, in a region then known as Lycia. West of Lycia was the region of Caria, and north was the region called Phrygia; at its south and west was the Mediterranean Sea, providing it with an extensive coastline. To Lycia's east was the Pamphylian plain (Pamphylia). The natural border between Lycia and Pamphylia was generally considered to be the Limyra River (modern Alakır Çayı). Lycia was known for its rugged terrain adjacent to the Taurus Mountains, stacked up against the coastline; this allowed for the creation of numerous settlements in defensive positions, on hills or cliffs overlooking the sea.

Evidence for Lycian consists of more than 150 inscriptions on stone, some 200 on coins, and a handful on other objects. Lycian became extinct ~200 BCE, replaced by Ancient Greek during the Hellenization of Anatolia. The Lukka (as they were referred to in Egyptian sources, which mention them as a constituent of the Sea Peoples) probably inhabited the region called Lycaonia, located between the modern cities of Antalya and Mersin.

As indicated above, modern scholarship generally considers Lycian to be closely related to Luwian (outlined above), along with other close relatives that likely form a separate branch within the family: Carian, Sidetic, Milyan, and Pisidian. Of the so-called Luwic languages, only Luwian is attested prior to 1000 BCE, so it is unknown when the others diverged.

Nouns and adjectives distinguish singular and plural forms; there are two genders (animate / common and inanimate / neuter). A trilingual text (Lycian-Greek-Aramaic) describing the establishment of a cult shrine for the goddess Leto was discovered by French excavators in 1973 CE; it confirmed much previous scholarship. While the language does have much in common with Luwian, Lycian also shows crucial divergences that clearly mark it as an independent branch. Two Lycian texts are written in a dialect known as Lycian B / Milyan (described below), whose precise relationship to Lycian A is indeterminate.

Lycian B (Milyan; 500-200 BCE)

Lycian B, also known as Milyan (previously Lycian 2), is an extinct Anatolian language, attested from three inscriptions: two poems on the Xanthian Stele, and another inscription on a sarcophagus. All known 'Milyan' language inscriptions come from the near-coastal cities of Xanthos and Antiphellos, and are not associated with the Milyae (inhabitants of Milyas, an isolated, inland part of Lycia) for whom they were initially named. Regardless of the name used, the consensus view is that Milyan/Lycian B is a dialect of Lycian. Diether Schürr characterizes Lycian B as "poetical Lycian, with some conservative traits, a few idiosyncratic developments, and some elements that it shares with Carian."

On the Xanthan stele, there are two poems; the first, on the northern side, is 34 lines in length. Its leitmotiv seems to be how the Lycian king Kheriga received his orders for military activities as well as divine help from the gods, especially from Natri (Lycian Apollo) and the weather god Trqqiz (Tarḫunz). Below the last strophe there is an empty space, which shows that the poem is complete and that the text on the west side of the stele is a separate poem.

The west side has 71 engraved lines, but the text is not complete: it breaks off in the middle of the 23rd strophe. This seems to be due to miscalculation of the engraver, who also made the mistake to engrave one strophe twice. This poem also relates to Kheriga and Trqqiz, but Natri is absent and instead the Nymphs of Phellos (a city in Lycia) are mentioned. Some entity named Muni is also named, possibly the widow of Kheriga who ordered the poem to be written. Dieter Schürr suspects that the central theme of the poem may be the legitimization of Muni's regency, perhaps after her husband's death or killing.

The third text is the Pixre Poem on a grave monument from Antiphellos. Its nine lines make up thirteen strophes; Pixre is supposedly the name of a Lycian poet buried there, who in the inscription tells of the nymphs who acted as his Muses. In Greek and Roman mythology, nymphs are minor gods or spirits of nature, often associated with specific features like rivers, mountains, trees, and seas. They were believed to inhabit and personify the vital essence of these natural places.

Lydian (Western Anatolia; 700-200 BCE)

Lydian is an extinct language spoken in the region of Lydia, in western Anatolia. The language is attested in graffiti and in coin legends from 700s-200s BCE, but well-preserved inscriptions of significant length are so far limited to the 400s-300s BCE, during the period of Persian domination. Thus, Lydian texts are effectively contemporaneous with those in Lycian. Strabo mentions that around his time (1st century BCE), the Lydian language was no longer spoken in Lydia proper but was still being spoken among the multicultural population of Kibyra (now Gölhisar) in southwestern Anatolia, by the descendants of Lydian colonists who founded the city.

Nouns and adjectives distinguish singular and plural forms; words in the texts are predominantly singular. Plural forms are scarce, and a dual has not been found in Lydian. There are two genders (animate/common and inanimate/neuter); only three cases are securely attested: nominative, accusative, and dative-locative. A genitive case seems to be present in the plural, but in the singular usually a possessive is used instead, which is similar to the Luwic languages. Just as in other Anatolian languages, verbs in Lydian were conjugated in the present-future and preterite tenses with three persons singular and plural. The basic word order is subject-object-verb, but constituents may be extraposed to the right of the verb. Like other Anatolian languages, Lydian features clause-initial particles with enclitic pronouns attached in a chain. It also has a number of preverbs and at least one postposition. Modifiers of a noun normally precede it.

Though the language is extinct, there are arguably still words of Lydian origin in use today. Labrys (Greek: λάβρυς, lábrys) is the term for a symmetrical double-bitted axe originally from Crete, one of the oldest symbols of Greek civilization. The priests at Delphi were called Labryades (the men of the double axe). The term labrys "double-axe" is not found in any surviving Lydian inscription, but on the subject, Plutarch states that "the Lydians call the axe labrys" (Λυδοὶ γὰρ ‘λάβρυν’ τὸν πέλεκυν ὀνομάζουσι).

Another possibly Lydian loanword may be tyrant "absolute ruler", which was first used in Ancient Greek sources, without negative connotations, from ~800s BCE. It is possibly derived from the native town of King Gyges of Lydia, founder of the Mermnad dynasty, which was Tyrrha in classical antiquity and is now Tyre, Türkiye. Yet another is the element molybdenum, borrowed from Ancient Greek mólybdos, "lead", from Mycenaean Greek mo-ri-wo-do, which in Lydian was mariwda- "dark". All of those loanwords confirm a strong cultural interaction between the Lydians and the Greeks since the Creto-Mycenaean era (~2000s BCE).

Carian (Southwestern Anatolia; 700-200 BCE)

Carian, an extinct language once spoken in Caria, southwest Anatolia. Most evidence for the language comes from Egypt, where Carian mercenaries in the service of the pharaohs from the 600s-400s BCE left behind more than a hundred tomb inscriptions and numerous instances of graffiti. Caria itself has yielded a limited number of texts, dated roughly to the 500s-300s BCE. In the 1980s CE, the pervasive theory that Carian was an Indo-European language of the Anatolian group was confirmed after the decipherment of such features as an -s suffix forming patronymic and the relative pronoun xi.

No undisputable verb forms have yet been discovered in Carian; if verbal conjugation resembles the other Anatolian languages, it likely possessed 3rd person singular and plural forms, in both present and preterite, which ended in -t or -d, or a similar sound. Virtually nothing is known of Carian syntax: first, due to uncertainty as to which words are verbs; second, the longer Carian inscriptions show very few word dividers.

Examples of Carian names in Greek

Greek	Transliterated	Carian
Ἑκατόμνω	Hekatomnō	𐊴𐊭𐊪𐊳𐊫𐊸 K̂tmñoś
Καύνιος	Kaunios	𐊼𐊬𐊢𐊿𐊵 Kbdwn
Καῦνος	Kaunos	𐊼𐊬𐊹𐊢 Kbid
Πιγρης	Pigrēs	𐊷𐊹𐊼𐊥𐊺 Pikre
Πονυσσωλλος	Ponussōllos	𐊷𐊵𐊲𐊸𐊫𐊦 Pnuśoλ
Σαρυσσωλλος	Sarussōllos	𐊮𐊠𐊥𐊲𐊸𐊫𐊦 Šaruśoλ
Υλιατος	Uliatos	𐊿𐊣𐊹𐊠𐊭 Wliat

Examples of Greek names in Carian

Greek	Transliterated	Carian
Λυσικλέους (genitive)	Lysikleous	𐊣𐊿𐊰𐊹𐊼𐊣𐊠𐊰 Lùsiklas
Λυσικράτους (genitive)	Lysikratous	𐊣𐊿𐊰𐊹𐊼𐊥𐊠𐊭𐊠𐊰 Lùsikratas
Ἀθηναῖον (accusative)	Athēnaion	𐊫𐊭𐊫𐊵𐊫𐊰𐊵 Otonosn
Φίλιππος (nominative)	Philippos	𐊷𐊹𐋃𐊹𐊷𐊲𐊰 Pilipus

Pisidian (~200-1 BCE)

Pisidian is an extinct language of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family, spoken in Pisidia, in Anatolia. Pisidia was north of Pamphylia, northeast of Lycia, west of Isauria and Cilicia, and south of Phrygia (roughly equivalent to the province of Antalya, Türkiye). Pisidia appears to have been part of the region the Hittites called Arzawa.

There can be little doubt that the Pisidians and Pamphylians descended from the same people, but a distinction between the two seems to have been established at an early period. Herodotus, who does not mention the Pisidians, enumerates the Pamphylians among the nations of Asia Minor, while Ephorus mentions them both, correctly including one among the nations on the interior and the other among those of the coast.

Known from some fifty short inscriptions dating from ~0-200 CE, it appears to be closely related to Lycian (A and B) and Sidetic. Pisidian is known from about fifty funeral inscriptions, most of them from Sofular (classical Tymbrias). The first were discovered in 1890; five years later sixteen of them were published and analyzed by Scottish archaeologist William Mitchell Ramsay. The texts are basically of a genealogical character (strings of names) and are usually accompanied by a relief picturing the deceased. Recently inscriptions have also been found at Selge, Kesme (near Yeşilbağ), and Deḡirmenözü. Four inscriptions from the Kesme region seem to offer regular text, not merely names. By far the longest of them consists of thirteen lines. The specific form of patronymics, with an -s suffix matching that of Luwian, Lycian, Carian, and Sidetic, points to Pisidian being a close relation.

Sidetic (~400-200 BCE)

Sidetic was an extinct Anatolian language, spoken in the ancient city of Side on the coast of Pamphylia. The language is known from a few coins and some half-dozen inscriptions, which appear to be votive in nature, which date from 200-100s BCE; the coins are probably somewhat older. Patronymics with an -s suffix, and a word for ‘god’ that is likely cognate with that of Luwian, Lycian, and Carian, argue that Sidetic is closely related.

The Greek historian Arrian in his Anabasis Alexandri (~150 CE) mentions the existence of a peculiar indigenous language in the city of Side. Texts in Sidetic are written right to left in an alphabet of about 25 characters. The inscriptions show that Sidetic was already strongly influenced by Greek at the time when they were created. Like Lycian and Carian, it was part of the Luwian language family, and a few words can be derived from Luwian roots, like maśara 'for the gods' (Luwian masan(i)-, 'god', 'divinity'), and possibly malwadas 'votive offering' (Luwian malwa-). Like the neighboring Pamphylian Greek dialect, aphaeresis (a sound-change in which a word-initial vowel is lost) is frequent in names in Sidetic (Poloniw for Apollonios, Thandor for Athenodoros), as is syncope, the loss of one or more sounds from the interior of a word, especially the loss of an unstressed vowel (Artmon for Artemon).