Anatolian languages

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The Anatolian languages are a group of extinct Indo-European languages, which were spoken in Asia Minor, the best attested of them being the Hittite language.

List

Hittite (nesili), attested from ca. 1600 BC to 1100 BC, official language of the Hittite Empire
Luwian (luwili), a close relative of Hittite spoken in adjoining regions sometimes under Hittite control

Cuneiform Luwian, glosses and short passages in Hittite texts written in Cuneiform script
Hieroglyphic Luwian, written in Anatolian hieroglyphs on seals and in rock inscriptions

Palaic, spoken in north-central Anatolia, extinct around the 13th century BC, known only fragmentarily from quoted prayers in Hittite texts
Lycian, spoken in Lycia in the Iron Age, a descendant of Luwian, extinct in ca. the 1st century BC, fragmentary.
Lydian, spoken in Lydia, extinct in ca. the 1st century BC, fragmentary.
Carian, spoken in Caria, fragmentarily attested from graffiti by Carian mercenaries in Egypt from ca. the 7th century BC, extinct ca. in the 3rd century BC.
Pisidian and Sidetic (Pamphylian), fragmentary.
Milyan, known from a single inscription.

There were likely other languages of the family that have left no written records, such as the languages of Mysia, Cappadocia and Paphlagonia.

Properties

Hittite seems to exhibit a simpler morphology than other, older Indo-European languages. Some Indo-European characteristics seem to have disappeared in Hittite, and other IE language branches developed different innovations. Hittite contains a number of archaisms that have disappeared from other IE languages. Notably, Hittite doesn't have the IE gender system opposing masculine : feminine; instead we have a rudimentary noun class system based on an older animate : inanimate opposition.

Origins

The Anatolian branch is generally considered the earliest to split off the Proto-Indo-European language, from a stage referred to either as Indo-Hittite or "Middle PIE", typically a date in the mid-4th millennium BC is assumed. In a Kurgan framework, there are two possibilities of how early Anatolian speakers could have reached Anatolia: from the north via the Caucasus, and from the west, via the Balkans, with the Balkans route being considered somewhat more likely by Steiner (1990).

It has been proposed that the Tyrsenian and wider Aegean language family is related to the Anatolian branch, but in mainstream linguistics the evidence in support of such claims is not considered conclusive.

Extinction

Anatolia was heavily Hellenized following the conquests of Alexander the Great, and it is generally thought that by the 1st century BC the native languages of the area were extinct. This makes Anatolian the first known branch of Indo-European that has become extinct, the only other known branch that has no living descendants being Tocharian, which ceased to be spoken around the 8th century.

References

G. Steiner, The immigration of the first Indo-Europeans into Anatolia reconsidered, JIES 18 (1990), 185–214.
Patri, Sylvain (2007), L'alignement syntaxique dans les langues indo-européennes d'Anatolie, (StBoT 49), Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, ISBN 978-3-447-05612-0

External links

Anatolian Languages (by D. E. Landon)
"Lenguas Anatolias", Linguæ Imperii. (in Spanish) – includes map and timeline of Anatolian languages.

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Last updated on Saturday January 26, 2008 at 15:36:47 PST (GMT -0800)
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