Hattic language

Hattic
RegionAnatolia
EthnicityHattians
Era2nd millennium BC[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3xht
xht
Glottologhatt1246

Hattic, or Hattian, was a non-Indo-European agglutinative[2][3] language spoken by the Hattians in Asia Minor in the 2nd millennium BC. Scholars call the language "Hattic" to distinguish it from Hittite, the Indo-European language of the Hittite Empire.[4] The Hittites referred to the language as "hattili" (there are no attestations of the name of the language in Hattic itself), related to the Assyrian and Egyptian designation of an area west of the Euphrates as "Land of the Hatti" (Khatti).

The heartland of the oldest attested language of Anatolia before the arrival of Hittite-speakers, ranged from Hattusa, then called "Hattus", northward to Nerik. Other cities mentioned in Hattic include Tuhumiyara and Tissaruliya. Hittite-speakers conquered Hattus from Kussara to its south in the 18th century BC. They absorbed or replaced the Hattic-speaking ruling class (Hattians)[citation needed] but retained the name Hatti for the region. The name of the inhabitants of that area is likewise identified with the Biblical Heth, from which, in turn, the English word Hittite is derived.

  1. ^ Hattic at MultiTree on the Linguist List
  2. ^ Kevin James, A Mystery in Clay: Codes, Languages, and a Journey Through Time to the Last Ice Age, p.148, AuthorHouse, 2009: "They called themselves Hattie, and spoke a non-Indo-European language called Hattic."
  3. ^ The New Encyclopædia Britannica, Vol. 22, p.593: "The non-Indo-European Hattic is an agglutinative language ..."
  4. ^ Hattian – Britannica Online Encyclopedia