Indo-European Languages

The Indo-European language family consists of the languages that are spoken across most of Europe, and areas where Europeans have settled and colonized, throughout the world. It consists of ten major branches:

Anatolian Languages

The Anatolian languages 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.

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 genetic 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-IE)

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 relatively 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 Kızıl 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.

Palaic (North Anatolia)

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, 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 Palā.

Others

• Other Anatolian languages: Palaic, Luwian, Lycian, Lydian, Carian.
• Possible candidates: Pisidian, Sidetic - both poorly attested.
• The oldest texts from Anatolia