Indo-European Languages

The Indo-European language family, one of the world's largest language families, encompasses a wide range of languages spoken across Europe, Asia; through much of the world by way of European colonization. Despite the significant diversity in the family, resulting from thousands of years of evolution, migration, and contact with unrelated languages, there are common traits that can be traced back to their shared ancestry. These commonalities, while sometimes abstract or obscured by language change, include phonological, morphological, syntactic, and lexical features.

Common Traits

Indo-European languages split into two groups based on their treatment of certain velar consonants. Centum languages (like Latin, Greek, and Germanic languages) merged or kept these velars distinct, while Satem languages (like Indo-Iranian languages) palatalized them.

Certain phonological changes, such as Grimm's Law in Germanic languages (a systematic shift of consonant sounds) can be traced back to common Indo-European roots.

Many Indo-European languages utilize inflections to convey grammatical relationships. This includes the use of case endings in nouns to indicate their role in a sentence (nominative, accusative, genitive) and verb conjugations to express tense, mood, aspect, and voice. A common trait is the distinction between aspect (perfective versus imperfective) and mood (indicative, subjunctive, imperative) in verb systems, although the specifics can vary widely among the languages.

It is hypothesized that the Proto-Indo-European language might have predominantly used an SOV (Subject Object Verb) word order, which is still found in some modern Indo-European languages, although many have shifted to SVO (Subject Verb Object).

There are many cognates (words derived from a common ancestral word) across Indo-European languages in basic vocabulary such as family terms (mother, father), numbers, and body parts. The reconstruction of the Proto-Indo-European language has provided a basis for identifying these common roots. Similar processes for creating words from roots, including suffixation and prefixation, can be observed across the family.

Comparative mythology has found recurring themes and deities in the mythologies of various Indo-European cultures, suggesting a common proto-mythology. Similarities in poetic and metrical forms have been observed, indicating a shared tradition of oral literature.

It's important to note that while these traits can be identified across Indo-European languages, the extent and manner in which they are present can vary greatly due to the vast time scale of linguistic evolution, geographical dispersion, and contact with non-Indo-European languages. Additionally, the Indo-European family is a historical construct based on linguistic evidence; thus, the features of individual languages have diverged significantly from their proto-language over millennia.

The family consists of ten major subfamilies:

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 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 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.

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. 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:

	Animate			Inanimate
	Singular	Plural		Singular	Plural
Nominative	pišnaš	pišnēš		pēdan	pēda
Accusative	pišnan	pišnuš
Ergative	pišnanza	pišnantēš		pēdanza	pēdantēš
Vocative	pišne			–	–
Genitive	pišnaš			pēdaš
Dative/Locative	pišni	pišnaš		pēdi	pēdaš
Ablative	pišnaz			pēdaz
Allative	pišna	–		pēda	–
Instrumental	pišnit			pēdit

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.

Others

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