ANATOLIAN
Map courtesy of The General
Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin
| ANATOLIAN |
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| The
three major Anatolian languages are Palaic, Luwian, and Hittite . Thanks to the
archeological finds at the Hittite capital of Hattusas (modern Bogazhköy
), the last is the most attested, though probably not the language with the greatest
number of speakers. The Anatolian subgroup poses problems because it is significantly
different from other Indo-European languages. One view holds that proto-Anatolian
diverged from proto-Indo-European at a very early date. Divergence was furthered
by heavy contact with various non-Indo-European languages such as Semitic, Hurrian,
and, above all, Hattic. ("Hittite" derives from "Hatti," although
the "Hittites" called themselves the Nes and their language Nesili .)
Another view, which has gained ground in the past two decades, holds that proto-Anatolian
diverged before Proto-Indo-European arose. The Hittite language faded with the
collapse of the empire around 1200 BCE. In southern Anatolia, however, Luwian
speakers continued to predominate. The Biblical "Hittites" were actually
Luwian speakers. |