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Hittite

Hittite

1 9.9
An old language once used in Anatolia and written on clay tablets
  • noun
  • /ˈhɪtaɪt/
  • Specialized
: hitita
  • "It is dark because we have so few inscriptions," says London University's David Hawkins, one of the few specialists fluent in Luwian, a language related to Hittite and used in southern Anatolia and northern Syria during this period.

Examples

  • Many archaeological findings have revealed inscriptions in Hittite, providing insights into the culture of the ancient Hittite people.

  • Lewian was a language that a lot of ancient Turkish or ancient Anatolian people spoke in the Hittite Empire.

  • If for some diplomatic reason the Egyptians had buried the prince, we might expect an official record of it in the Hittite archives or something identifying his mummy.

    Academic text (2006)
  • Linguists study the Hittite language to better understand ancient Indo-European dialects.

  • Inscriptions in Hittite help researchers uncover the political history of the ancient Hittite Empire.

Compounds

Indo-Hittite
  • Specialized
1 9.9

A suggested early group of languages that includes Indo-European and ancient Anatolian languages

Surface Forms

Hittite singular
Hittites plural

Etymology

Hittite as the name of a language comes from the people of Hatti, the ancient 'land' in central Anatolia, so Hittite refers to the old language those people spoke and wrote on clay tablets.