Hittite language

Hittite (natively: 𒌷𒉌𒅆𒇷, romanized: neÅ¡ili / "the language of NeÅ¡a", or neÅ¡umnili / "the language of the people of NeÅ¡a"), also known as Nesite (NeÅ¡ite/Neshite, Nessite), is an extinct Indo-European language that was spoken by the Hittites, a people of Bronze Age Anatolia who created an empire centred on Hattusa, as well as parts of the northern Levant and Upper Mesopotamia. The language, now long extinct, is attested in cuneiform, in records dating from the 17th (Anitta text) to the 13th centuries BC, with isolated Hittite loanwords and numerous personal names appearing in an Old Assyrian context from as early as the 20th century BC, making it the earliest attested use of the Indo-European languages.

Hittite
𒌷𒉌𒅆𒇷 nešili
RegionAnatolia
Eraattested 17th to 12th centuries BC
Writing system
Hittite cuneiform
Language codes
ISO 639-2hit
ISO 639-3Variously:
hit â€“ Hittite
oht â€“ Old Hittite
htx â€“ Middle Hittite
nei â€“ New Hittite
Linguist List
hit Hittite
 oht Old Hittite
 htx Middle Hittite
 nei New Hittite
Glottologhitt1242

By the Late Bronze Age, Hittite had started losing ground to its close relative Luwian. It appears that in the 13th century BC, Luwian was the most widely spoken language in the Hittite capital, Hattusa. After the collapse of the Hittite New Kingdom during the more general Late Bronze Age collapse, Luwian emerged in the Early Iron Age as the main language of the so-called Syro-Hittite states, in southwestern Anatolia and northern Syria.

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