Linguistic encyclopedic dictionary - Hittite language. Hittite writing, its decipherment Hittite language

Until very recently, our information about the history of the ancient East was limited to what we could learn about it from other sources. For example, Assyro-Babylonian cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions, deciphered and studied during the 19th century. But we still knew very little about the peoples and destinies of ancient Asia Minor and Syria.

The 20th century was destined to radically change this situation. Namely, thanks to the deciphering of Hittite cuneiform and hieroglyphic inscriptions. Hittology, which emerged at the beginning of the twentieth century, reveals a whole series of unknown states, peoples and languages ​​in Asia Minor and Northern Syria. Science will be busy studying them in detail for several more decades.

Starting to study the Hittite language

True, the people of the Hittites or “Sons of Heth” were partly known to us already from Old Testament. According to the Old Testament, the Hittites settled in Syria. Although at the same time they, together with the Amorites and Hivites, made up a significant part of the population of Canaan. This information from the Old Testament was somewhat expanded by ancient Egyptian sources, which in 1500-1200 BC. e. They report constant relations and frequent clashes between Egypt and the powerful northern state of Het.

But, in general, all this material was very insignificant. First of all, it was insufficient to convey anything about the origin and language of the Hatti people. In the 19th century It was possible to find special works of art in Syria and Asia Minor that could not be considered either Babylonian-Assyrian or Egyptian. And which were often accompanied by hitherto unknown hieroglyphs. Then the Hittite people began to be considered the authors of these works in most cases. This assumption was all the more justified because the persons depicted often belonged to a completely different anthropological type. He is distinguished primarily by his large crooked nose and slanting forehead.

Hittite hieroglyphs belong to the category of pictographic writing, but the original meaning of many signs is unclear to us. Hittite language inscriptions are written alternately from right to left and left to right. Moreover, the figures and heads are always directed towards the beginning of the line. These writings were until recently almost incomprehensible, because suitable bilingual inscriptions had not been found. Thus, until the beginning of the twentieth century. very little was known about the Hittite people.

In 1272, Pharaoh RamsesIIentered into a treaty with the Hittite king HattushilIIIand subsequently took his daughter as his wife. But a few decades later, around 1200 BC. e., the Hittite state was conquered by the so-called northern peoples. One Babylonian chronicle reports that the Hatti people attacked Akkad-Babylonia around 1800, which probably led to the fall of the Hammurabi dynasty.

The science of learning the Hittite language

First of all, it was assumed that the Hittites were only one people. Only in the twentieth century was it possible to open a large archive of the Hittite kings in Boghazkeoy in Asia Minor. Archive containing on clay tablets in highest degree valuable records in the Hittite language, written in cuneiform. Then it was possible to decipher these inscriptions and understand the contents of these documents. But when they were read and translated, it turned out that they brought a lot of unexpected things. From these inscriptions we are introduced not to just one Hittite people, but to a whole series of peoples, at least five. These peoples were until now completely or almost completely unknown to us.

The Berlin Assyriologist Hugo Winkler managed, during his epoch-making excavations at the ruins of Boğazkeoya (east of Ankara), to find a large number of clay tablets inscribed with Hittite cuneiform. About 13 thousand fragments and entire tablets were found. They left no doubt that they belonged to the archives of the Hatti kings, and that Boghazkeoy was the capital of the Hittite state. At the site of the city, the German Eastern Society carried out excavations in last years, and another 3,300 fragments and entire tablets were found. Only a relatively small part of the tablets found were written in Babylonian cuneiform in the Babylonian language. Most of them were also covered with Babylonian cuneiform, but in the Hittite language.

Deciphering Hittite language inscriptions

The publication of the Hittite tablets from Boghazkeoy was entrusted to several Assyriologists, including me. In April 1914, I went to Constantinople to copy and decipher these tablets in the museum there. When in September of the same year I was forced to return to Vienna due to the outbreak of war, I had already copied so many tablets that I could start deciphering them there too. The result of these studies was my work “The Language of the Hittites”, which was published in 1916-1917. published in Leipzig.In this work I succeeded, as is now recognized by all experts, in resolving the riddle of the Hittite language.

On my trip to Constantinople, I took with me a number of books on linguistics, but the Indo-European languages ​​were the least represented among them. I only had a small book by Mehringer on Indo-European languages, published by Geschen. Almost simultaneously with me, the Assyriologist Weidner published a work in which he says that Hittite belongs to the Caucasian languages.

In my decipherment I had to start from the monolingual Hittite cuneiform texts from Boğazkeoya, which had to be explained independently, in themselves. In this case, it was necessary to compare individual Hittite phrases with each other and look for the meaning of individual Hittite forms and words, or, in other words, to apply the so-called combination method.

Hittite words

Some Hittite words indicate a certain close connection between Hittite and the Italo-Celtic languages ​​and with the Tocharian language. The most ancient Hittite inscriptions date back to the first half of the 2nd millennium BC. e. Hittite, therefore, has every right to claim the honorary title of the oldest Indo-European language. Therefore, one would expect to find very old, archaic features in it. And they really meet in it. But at the same time, it is surprising that far-reaching simplification is also found in this language. It creates a strange contrast with his advanced age.

Hittite words often give the impression of being foreign. All these oddities are best explained by the assumption that the Hittite language separated very early from other Indo-European languages ​​and very early came under the influence of foreign languages.

Hittite language video

The so-called Hittite hieroglyphic writing was apparently used only for several centuries; While still using it, the Hittites had already adapted the Early Babylonian cuneiform script to their language. This so-called Hittite cuneiform continued to be used until the end of the Hittite kingdom, both in official correspondence and in everyday life.

We do not have direct evidence that the Hittite hieroglyphic writing was used before 1500 BC. The inscription published by R. D. Barnett can be tentatively dated to this period, but the vast majority of Hittite hieroglyphic inscriptions date back to the time of the Hittite states in Syria, in particular to the 10th-8th centuries. BC. The latest inscription can be dated to the mid-7th century. BC. It seems strange that very few such inscriptions were found in the Hittite homeland, but the vast majority of them were found in northern Syria, in particular in Karchemish, Hamath and Aleppo 1 This is explained by the fact that the so-called “Hittite” hieroglyphs were not actually written in Hittite, but in another language related to Hittite, possibly Luwian. - Approx. ed..

Relief Hittite hieroglyphic inscription from Karchemish (8th century BC).

The predominant part of the inscriptions is made in relief or carved on stone monuments or rocks: a small amount is engraved on lead; there are also inscriptions on seals or seal impressions on clay; The famous "seal of Tarkondem" is made of silver. The nature of some inscriptions, in particular those found in Ashur, is more cursive.

Comparative table of Hittite hieroglyphs in cursive (II, IV, VI, VII) and long form (I, III, V, VIII).

The first Hittite hieroglyphic inscription was discovered back in 1812 in Hamath (northern Syria), and the first serious studies belonged to Says and Wright, who established that inscriptions of this kind are Hittite. Says and Wright tried to use the methods of deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs to decipher Hittite hieroglyphs, but their attempt was not successful. Nevertheless, thanks to the research of these and many other scientists, Hittite hieroglyphic writing found its place in modern science. The results achieved have not yet received universal recognition, however, researchers are gradually coming to unity in their views on the main points of decipherment.

Hittite ideographic signs.

The beginning of the inscription is at the top right; the direction of writing is usually boustrophedon, that is, each line is continued by a line written in the opposite direction, like the direction of movement of an ox plowing a field. Some texts are written in one direction - either from right to left or from left to right. The characters always face the beginning of the line. Individual words are separated by special icons.

The total number of Hittite hieroglyphic characters is about 220; however, Merigi believes that there were 419 of them. Signs are divided into ideographic and phonetic; most of the signs are ideograms, such as the signs for the words “god”, “king”, “prince”, “great”, “city”, “sacrifice”, “country” “bull”; there are signs indicating animals, plants, body parts, etc.; they are used as verbal signs or as determiners. Fifty-seven signs, according to Gelb, have a syllabic meaning.

Origin of Hittite hieroglyphic writing

The problem of the origin of the Hittite hieroglyphic writing has not yet been resolved. Some scientists trace Hittite hieroglyphics to Egyptian, others to Cretan pictographic writing. Hittite hieroglyphic writing, like Egyptian hieroglyphics and Cretan pictograms, has a pronounced pictorial character, but it should not necessarily follow from this that Hittite hieroglyphics originated from one of the listed scripts.

Indeed, a comparison of Hittite hieroglyphics with Egyptian shows that there is no direct connection between them. There is a certain external similarity between the Cretan pictographs and the Hittite hieroglyphics, but their mutual connection cannot be proven until the Cretan pictographic script is deciphered; It is also impossible not to take into account the chronological difficulties that arise in connection with such a comparison.

The author currently holds the following view; In connection with the expansion of the Hittite kingdom, the need arose for a monumental script suitable for inscriptions on stone. Perhaps the ceremonial appearance of the Egyptian writing, well known to the Hittite rulers, prompted the Hittites to choose pictographic writing for these purposes. Kroeber's theory of "stimulus diffusion" or "idea diffusion" is quite applicable here. Later, a simpler cursive form of Hittite hieroglyphic writing developed.

It is difficult to speak with confidence about the time of creation of the Hittite hieroglyphic writing, but there is reason to assume that around the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. it already existed. Other, sometimes absurd, assumptions are also known. For example, the Italian Ribezzo believes that the Hittite hieroglyphic writing was invented before 3000 BC, but was not used in official correspondence for more than 1000 years; in addition, recordings were made mainly on short-lived material. We have already discussed above the theory of the Czech Hittologist Grozny, according to which the Hittite hieroglyphic writing supposedly arose at the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. and was associated with the Indus Valley script.

Hittite(Nesian language) - a dead language, considered the oldest language of the Indo-European family (Hittite-Luwian group). Known from cuneiform monuments of the 18th -12th centuries. BC e. Cuneiform is of Akkadian origin. It was widespread in Asia Minor. The main language of the Hittite kingdom.). Isolated Hittite loanwords and numerous personal names appear in Old Syriac texts as early as the 20th century BC. e. At the end of the Bronze Age, the Hittite language began to give way to the related Luwian. In the 13th century BC. e. Luwian became the most widely spoken language in the Hittite capital of Hattusa. After the collapse of the Hittite Empire as part of the broader collapse of the Bronze Age, Luwian at the beginning of the Iron Age became the main language of the New Hittite state in southwestern Anatolia and northern Syria.

Name

"Hittite" is a modern name chosen after relating the kingdom of Hatti to the Hittites mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. In multilingual texts found in Hittite sites, passages of text written in Hittite are preceded by the adverb nesili (or nasili, nisili), "in [the language of] Nesa (Kanes)", an important city before the rise of the Empire. In one case, the label is Kanisumnili, "in [the language of] the Kanes people." Although the Hittite empire was made up of people from many different ethnic and linguistic groups, the Hittite language was used in most secular written texts. Despite various debates over the appropriateness of the term, at present "Hittite" remains the most accepted designation for the language, although some authors prefer to use the term "Nesian".

History of decryption

Hittite cuneiform

The first reasonable suggestion of a Hittite language was made by Jörgen Alexander Knudtzon in 1902 in a book dealing with two letters between a pharaoh of Egypt and a Hittite ruler found at El Amarna in Egypt. Knudtzon argued that the Hittite language was Indo-European, mainly on the basis of morphology. Although he did not have bilingual texts, he was able to give partial interpretations to two letters due to the formulaic nature of diplomatic correspondence of the time. His argument was not generally accepted, partly because the morphological similarities he noted between Hittite and Indo-European languages ​​could be found outside the Indo-European linguistic community, and partly because the interpretation of the letters was rightly seen as uncertain. Knudtzon's correctness was finally confirmed when a large number of tablets written in the familiar Akkadian cuneiform script, but in an unknown language, were discovered by Hugo Winkler in the modern village of Boghazköy on the site of the former Hattusa, the capital of the Hittite Empire. Deciphered in 1915-1916. Bedrich the Terrible. Grozny discovered in a text written in Akkadian cuneiform using one ideogram in an unknown language, a fragment that, when transcribed in Latin, looked like “nu NINDA-an e-i-iz-za-te-ni wa-a-tar-ma e-ku -ut-te-ni." The ideogram NINDA means "bread" in Sumerian, and Ivan theorized that the fragment contained the word "to eat." He further suggested that the fragment "e-i-iz-za-te-ni" means " you eat", and "wa-a-tar- ma e-ku-ut-te-ni" - " A do you drink water" Similarities to other languages ​​indicated that the unknown language was Indo-European. A fragment of the text was translated as “Now you eat bread and drink water.” Grozny, based on this assumption, soon deciphered the rest of the text.

Classification

Hittite lacks some features of other Indo-European languages, such as the distinction between masculine and feminine grammatical gender, the subjunctive and opulative mood, and aspect. There are several hypotheses to explain this phenomenon. A number of linguists, such as Edgar Sturtevant and Warren Cowgill, have supported the Indo-Hittite hypothesis and argued that Hittite should be classified as a sister language rather than a daughter language to Proto-Indo-European. According to adherents of the Indo-Hittite hypothesis, features of Proto-Indo-European not present in Hittite are interpreted as innovations. Other linguists, however, have taken the opposite view. According to the loss hypothesis (Schwund hypothesis), the Hittite (or Anatolian) languages ​​separated from the Proto-Indo-European community with a full set of functions, which were later simplified. The third hypothesis, supported by Calvert Watkins, sees the core all families as coming directly from Proto-Indo-European. They all represent sister languages ​​or language groups. The differences can be explained as dialectical. According to Craig Melchert, most modern scholars believe that the Anatolian languages ​​became isolated from the rest of the Proto-Indo-European languages ​​at an early stage and did not participate in some common innovations. As a result, the Anatolian languages ​​retained archaisms that were later lost in other Indo-European languages. Hittite is one of the Anatolian languages. As is known from cuneiform tablets and inscriptions erected by the Hittite kings. Subsequently, the language, called “hieroglyphic Hittite,” gave way to hieroglyphic Luwian. The Anatolian language family also includes cuneiform Luwian, Palaic, Lycian, Milian, Lydian, Carian, Pisidian, and Sidetic. Hittite has many borrowings, particularly of religious vocabulary, from the non-Indo-European Hurrian and Hattic languages. Hattic was the language of the Hatti, the native inhabitants of the land of Hatti, later absorbed and assimilated by the Hittite invasion. Sacred and magical texts from Hattusa are often written in Hattic, Hurrian, and Luwian, a tradition that continued even after the Hittites left the historical arena. The history of the Hittite language is traditionally divided into the Old Hittite, Middle Hittite, and New Hittite periods, corresponding to the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms of the Hittite Empire ( ca 1750-1500 BC , 1500-1430 BC and 1430-1180 BC, respectively). You can also point to the post-Hittite period. These stages differ partly on linguistic and partly on paleographic grounds.

Spelling

Hittite language uses adapted form peripheral Akkadian cuneiform of Northern Syria. Due to the predominantly syllabic nature of writing, it is difficult to establish the exact phonetic properties of some of the Hittite sounds.

Phonology

Apology of Hattusilis III.

Vowels

• If there is a diacritic mark above a vowel, it is read long.

Consonants

Peace treaty concluded by Ramses II and Hattusilis III after the Battle of Kadesh. Archaeological Museum. Istanbul

• Voiced consonants are allophones of voiceless consonants.
• Geminated consonants cannot be in an intervocalic position. Plosive geminated ones are a continuation of the Indo-European purely voiceless series.
• All voiceless stops, as well as sonorant consonants (except /r/), appear at the beginning of words. This property is common to all Anatolian languages.
• At the ends of words:
  • Among plosive consonants, only voiceless ones appear: /-t/, /-k/, rarely /-p/.
  • /-s/ often appears, less often /-h/, /-r/, /-l/, /-n/, never /-m/.
  • the consonants /w/, /j/ appear in intervocalic position.

see also

• Hittite hieroglyphic script

Grammar

Morphology

Noun

In the Hittite language, a noun has two genders - common and neuter, two numbers - singular and plural, six cases - nominative (nominative), vocative (vocative), accusative (accusative), dative-local, deponent (ablative), instrumental (instrumental). ). There are remnants of the vocative case. The dative-local case has a form that is sometimes called the directive case (allative). There are remnants of the dual number in words with natural pairing (Chet. šakuwa eyes, genuwa knees).

Declension

-a-paradigm. pisna- “man”, pēda- “place”

-i-paradigm. halki- “cereals”, DUG ispantuzzi- “libation”

-u-paradigm. heu- “rain”, genu- “knee”.

Adjective

Declension

Degrees of comparison

• Positive degree
• comparative
• Superlative

Pronoun

• Personal pronouns
  • Declension of personal pronouns

There are enclitics for the dative and accusative cases.

Examples with -nu “and”: nu-mu “and me, and to me”, nu-tta “and you, and to you”, nu-ssi “and to him”, nu-nnas “and us, and to us”.

• Possessive pronouns

Possessive pronouns are always enclitic.

Singular.

Plural.

• Demonstrative pronouns

Numeral

As in other cuneiform languages, the reading of many numerals remains unclear. The number "one" was read as šana-, two - duya-, three - teri, seven - šiptam-. The formation of ordinal numbers is heterogeneous.

• Quantitative
• Ordinal

Verb

The verb in the Hittite language has two types of conjugation - mi and -hi, two voices - active and media-passive, two moods - indicative and imperative, two simple tenses - present (can be used to express the future tense) and preterite, two numbers - singular and plural. In addition, there are verbal names: 1st and 2nd infinitives, supines, gerunds; a participle with a passive meaning from transitive verbs and an active meaning from intransitive ones.

Time

Pledge

• Valid
• Mediopassive

Syntax

see also

• List of Russian-speaking researchers of ancient Asia Minor

Literature

• Friedrich I. A brief grammar of the Hittite language. 1959.
• Friedrich, Johannes. 1960. Hethitisches Elementarbuch. Heidelberg: C. Winter.
• Hoffner, Harry A., and Harold Craig Melchert. 2008. A grammar of the Hittite language. A Grammar of the Hittite Language. Winona Lake, Ind: Eisenbrauns.

• Puhvel, Jaan. 1984-2011. Hittite etymological dictionary Vol. 1-8. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
• Güterbock, Hans Gustav, and Harry A. Hoffner. 1980-2005. The Hittite dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. : Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. online: http://ochre.lib.uchicago.edu/eCHD/ some volumes are posted in pdf in the public domain: http://oi.uchicago.edu/research/pubs/catalog/chd/
• Friedrich, Johannes, and Annelies Kammenhuber. 1975-2004. Hethitisches Wörterbuch. (2., völlig neubearb. Aufl. auf d. Grundlage d. ed. hethit. Texte.) Heidelberg: Winter.

• Vyach. Sun. Ivanov. Hittite. 2001.
• Gamkrelidze T.V., Ivanov Vyach. Sun. Indo-European language and Indo-Europeans: Reconstruction and historical-typological analysis of proto-language and protoculture: In 2 books. - Tbilisi: Tbilisi University Publishing House, 1984.
• Friedrich, Johannes. Hethitisches Keilschrift-Lesebuch. 1960. Heidelberg: C. Winter.
• Zeilfelder, Susanne. Hittite exercise book. 2005. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz im Kommission.

Material from Uncyclopedia

IN ancient times on the territory of Turkey and Syria there was a powerful power that was a rival of Egypt and Mesopotamia - the third great power of the Ancient East.

Digging up the cities of the Hittites - this was the name the inhabitants of this ancient country, - scientists have found tens of thousands of clay tablets covered with cuneiform characters. Scientists could read them, but they did not understand everything. Most of the texts were written in the Akkadian (Babylonian) language, well known to orientalists. This language was Ancient East a kind of “Latin”, the international language of science and diplomacy. But many texts hid some other language. Which? The conclusion suggested itself: of course, Hittite! But how to unravel its secret? Which one of known to science languages ​​must be used to find the key to the riddle of the Hittites?

Perhaps this is one of the numerous and unique languages ​​of the Caucasus? After all, it is in the Caucasus that the most ancient linguistic traditions have been preserved, and it is there that a deep connection with the ancient cultures of Asia Minor can be traced. But the attempts of researchers to open the secret of the Hittite language with the “Caucasian key” were in vain. The search for other “key languages” was equally unsuccessful: Egyptian, Sumerian, Hebrew, even Japanese and the Inca language of Peru!

And yet the key was found. Moreover, the discovery was so surprising that at first few could believe it: this key turned out to be too unexpected. Compare for yourself: the Hittite word “duluga” means “long, long.” The Hittite "vadar" and the Russian "water" have the same meaning, as well as the Hittite "hasta" and the Russian "bone", the Hittite "nebis" and the Russian "heaven". In both Russian and Hittite the numeral 3 sounds like “three”. The Hittite language turned out to be related to Russian! And not only Russian, but also English, Greek, Lithuanian and other languages ​​of the great Indo-European family.

Previously, it was believed that the most ancient texts in Indo-European languages ​​came to us in the ancient Indian epic “Rigveda”, which was formed in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. The discovery of the secrets of the Hittite language allowed scientists to penetrate deeper into the darkness of times, right up to the 18th century. BC. The oldest Hittite, and therefore Indo-European, written monument, the so-called inscription of King Anittas, dates back to this time.

The secret of the Hittite language was revealed to the brilliant Czech scientist Bedřich the Terrible. B. the Terrible used the principles of the comparative historical method. After all, it was necessary to find not a simple similarity in sound and meaning of Hittite words with words of other Indo-European languages, but a natural correspondence between Hittite sounds and the sounds of Latin, ancient Greek, Gothic, Sanskrit, etc.! Find in words, in morphemes, if their meaning is similar (see Comparative-historical method).

This is exactly how B. Grozny worked. And it was discovered that Hittite data allows us to study the past of Indo-European languages ​​more deeply and accurately, helping to develop and improve the comparative historical method.

But in addition to cuneiform, the Hittites also used pictorial and hieroglyphic writing. For six decades, attempts to penetrate the meaning of the hieroglyphs of Asia Minor were in vain, although they were undertaken by such luminaries as Bedřich the Terrible. Finally, in 1930, scientists from Italy, Germany, and the USA managed to find a hieroglyph that conveys the concept of “son”, and in this regard, unravel the genealogy of the Hittite kings. Following this, a “formula of curse”, typical of many ancient inscriptions, was revealed addressed to those who would dare to damage the inscription - this helped to clarify the structure of the sentence.

Still, there was too little data to determine with sufficient confidence what language the hieroglyphic texts were written in.

In the fall of 1947, on the Karatepe hill - “Black Mountain” - archaeologist Bossert found several long inscriptions, some of which were made in hieroglyphics, and some in Phoenician writing. It was “bilingual”, a text written in two languages, the content of both parts of the text was the same! Moreover, to the joy and satisfaction of scientists, the reading of signs and grammatical forms, previously established on the basis of an analysis of the structure of texts, were basically confirmed. The bilingual text from Karatepe was thus not the beginning of decipherment, but its confirmation and completion.

These “bilinguals” confirmed the previously disputed assumption that the language of the hieroglyphs of Asia Minor is Indo-European. True, it was somewhat different from the Hittite, but was closely related to it. After this discovery by Bossert, the decipherment of the hieroglyphs of Asia Minor moved forward by leaps and bounds.

And yet, there is still much that is unclear in the study of the hieroglyphic writing of Asia Minor, and the most ancient inscriptions have not been read even today. On the territory of Armenia, where the state of Urartu once existed, hieroglyphic inscriptions were found made both in the Hittite pictorial script and in a completely special script, “Proto-Urartian,” which remains a mystery to researchers.

In 1919, E. Forrer reported his discovery: in the cuneiform texts from Boğazköy, eight different languages. Since then, much has been said about the multilingual nature of the Hittite empire. This is true to some extent, but Forrer's statement should not be taken to mean that all eight languages ​​were spoken within the empire or that they were all used equally in inscriptions. In official documents, the Hittite kings used only two languages ​​- Hittite and Akkadian; in the third language, which we call Hurrian, the entire text was written only from time to time. Of the remaining languages, three appear only in short passages scattered among Hittite religious texts, and one can only be identified by a few technical terms in a single document. The eighth language is Sumerian; it is included here only because the Hittite scribes compiled dictionaries based on Sumerian characters for their own needs.

Here are the main features of these languages.

Hittite

The relationship of the Hittite language with the Indo-European languages ​​was established by the Czech scientist B. Grozny, who published his work in 1915. The statement that the population of Asia Minor in the 2nd millennium BC. e. spoke an Indo-European language, they were met with very skepticism - it was so striking. However, the relationship of Hittite with Indo-European languages ​​has been exhaustively proven and has been accepted by all who have studied this issue for more than twenty years.

This relationship is most clearly manifested in the declension of nouns. There are six cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, depositional and instrumental) ( The ancient Hittite nominal paradigm included 8 cases (including locative and directional); The genitive case ending in -an is also known. - Note. ed.); personal names also appear in the vocative case, which is a pure stem. The following table illustrates the close relationship between the case endings of Hittite and the case endings of Greek and Latin languages:

* This ending goes back to m (vocalic m); hence the Latin -em and Greek -a.)

** Written -z.

Unlike Greek and Latin, the Hittite noun has only two genders - animate and inanimate; Inanimate adjectives have a pure stem in the nominative and accusative cases of the singular, but in other cases are declined as above. Declension plural less similar to Indo-European. There is no double number.

The enclitic personal pronouns -mu - "me", -ta - "you" and -si - "him" contain the same consonants as the corresponding Latin pronouns me - "me", te - "you" and se - "yourself" .

The verb has two voices - active and media-passive. In the active voice with the conjugation of Greek verbs ending in -μι, one immediately notices:

There is also another conjugation in the active voice, which seems to correspond more closely to the perfect in other languages, but here the similarity is less obvious. It is impossible to trace how this conjugation differs in meaning.

On the other hand, there are relatively few Indo-European elements in the vocabulary. Here are a few words with Indo-European etymology:

However, most of the vocabulary is of non-Indo-European origin. Obvious examples: tanduki - “humanity”, titita - “nose”, kunna - “right (hand)”, tartapra - “nest”, amiua - “channel”.

Advances in the knowledge of the language have given rise to extensive discussion about the exact place of Hittite in the Indo-European language family. It was very quickly noticed that the Hittite language does not have the main features of the so-called “satem” languages, and in particular Indo-Iranian (change of the original k to s, qi to k, e or o to a). It was concluded that Hittite belongs to the "central" group (including Latin, Greek, Celtic and various Germanic languages). It is generally accepted, however, that this classification should not be given much credence, and in fact the Hittite language represents a separate branch of the Indo-European family from the ten other branches already recognized. Many scholars are inclined to go further and argue that traces of archaic forms in Hittite allow us to draw the following conclusion: all other languages ​​​​have undergone a common renewal of archaic forms, and Hittite was the first of eleven branches that separated from the ancestral trunk. Other scientists, however, dispute this, and the whole issue remains hotly debated.

In one respect, the Hittite language performed an unexpected service for Indo-European philology. For a long time it was argued that various Shapes, taken by some words in a number of languages, can be satisfactorily explained only by assuming that all languages ​​have lost some guttural sounds (the so-called laryngals) that originally existed in the ancestral speech. Now, in Hittite the sound h is often found in a position which exactly corresponds to where in other languages ​​the laryngal is believed to have been lost; this fact, however interpreted in detail (the pronunciation of this A, like other related questions, is the subject of heated debate), gave striking confirmation of the laryngeal theory in its broadest sense. Here are some examples of words containing this h:

The true nature of the Hittite language was not recognized by early codebreakers, misled by the methods of Hittite writing. Cuneiform, as used by the Hittites, is a syllabary in which each sign is read as a syllable consisting of either a vowel + consonant, or a consonant + vowel, or, finally, a consonant + vowel + consonant. This writing is well adapted to the Semitic language, which avoids groups consisting of more than two consonants or more than one consonant at the end or at the beginning of a word; However, in Hittite (as in other Indo-European languages) such groups were common, and in order to convey them, the Hittites were forced to use syllables as if they were simple consonants, ignoring the vowel contained in the pronunciation. Another complication arises from the fact that voiced and voiceless consonants (for example, d and t, b and p, g and k) were distinguished in writing not by means of special signs, as in Akkadian - these the Hittites used haphazardly - but by doubling letters when writing voiceless consonants. As a result, many words contain so many extra vowels and consonants that they appear deformed beyond recognition.

Let us mention one more feature of the Hittite writing method, namely “allography,” i.e., the custom of writing not the word that is actually pronounced, but another. The Hittite texts are generously filled with purely Akkadian or Sumerian words, the latter usually written in one sign, the use of which as an “ideogram” (or, better, “Sumerogram”) can often be guessed only through the context, for it may be the same sign that usually serves to designate just a syllable. However, these “foreign” words were probably (and Sumerian words most certainly) not spoken during the reading; they merely hid the corresponding Hittite word; it was assumed that the reader himself would make the necessary replacement. For the scribes it was undoubtedly a kind of cursive writing. For us, this has both positive and unpleasant aspects. On the one hand, texts in which Akkadian words appear frequently may have been understood to some extent before even a single Hittite word became known; but, on the other hand, the rules of "allography" seem to have been so rigid that many of the everyday Hittite words (for example, "woman", "sheep", "copper", etc.) were never written phonetically at all and therefore unknown to us to this day.

Other “foreign” words that were supposed to be read are preceded in the texts by a sign corresponding to our quotation marks. All such words were found to belong to a language close to Luwian (see below).

The name "Hittite" was given to the language by modern scholars who believed that it was the official language of the country of Hatti; Everyone agreed with this. However, strictly speaking, this is not true. The point is that the word hattili - which actually means "in Hittite" - is used in the texts to introduce passages written in a completely different language, which will be described in the next section. When this was discovered, scientists began to revise all the texts to find the true name official language; but if B. Grozny accepted the name “Nesitsky” (i.e., the language of the city of Nesy), then E. Forrer preferred the name “Kanishsky” (from the city of Kanisha). Nowadays everyone has agreed that “Nesitic” or “Nesian” (derived from the Hittite dialect nasili or nesumnili) is indeed the true name of the language; nevertheless, the name “Hittite” took root firmly and, apparently, forever. The meaning of the term "Kanesian" or "Kanish" (Hittite kanesumnili) is somewhat controversial. If, however, Kanish and Nesa are merely alternative forms of the same name (see above), then the derived terms must be synonymous.

Proto-Hittite, or Huttian

The priests of numerous cults pronounced their spells in this language; most of these cults were dedicated to the leading deities of the Hittite pantheon. However, all these texts are very short and do not provide enough material to form a clear idea of ​​the structure or vocabulary of the language. The latter is apparently characterized by an abundance of prefixes; for example, the word binu - “child” is pluralized using the prefix le, i.e. lebinu. Scientists have still not been able to find a single one language group, with which this language was at least remotely connected.

As we noted above, texts in this language were preceded by the word hattili. The name "Proto-Hittite" is widely used so as not to confuse the language with official Hittite, but this can give rise to some misunderstanding, since it may seem that Proto-Hittite is early stage Hittite, when in fact these languages ​​have nothing to do with each other. The name "Hattian" is preferred because it is derived from the adverb hattili, just as Luwian is derived from luwili (see next section).

Luwian

This language is closely related to Hittite, differing in particular by the pluralization of nouns, pronouns and adjectives by ending -nzi (possibly pronounced -nts instead of Hittite -es, and by some preference for the vowel a. But main feature Luvian is that the control of one noun by another was accomplished not with the help of the genitive case, but with an adjective ending in -assis or -assas. This word formation is illustrated by geographical names; Thus, we find (omitting the case ending -s of the names Dattassa and Tarhuntassa, meaning “belonging to (the gods) Datta and Tarhunt”; it sheds light on many geographical names in -assas, known from the Greek era. We encounter Luwian mostly in short passages preceded by the word luwili; nevertheless, the amount of material at our disposal in Luvian is greater than in Huttian. Luwian was subdivided into several dialects, one of which is attested in hieroglyphic texts (see below), and the other developed into the Lycian language of the classical era.

Palayskiy

Even less is known about this language. It is attested only in the cult of one deity - Tsiparva. The name of the language was given by the adverb palaumnili, from which we derive either “Palaian” or “Palaitian”. Recent research has proven at least that, like Hittite and Luwian, this language belongs to the Indo-European family.

Hurrian

We have much more material for studying Hurrian than for Hattic, Luwian and Palayan. Hurrian passages in the ritual texts found at Boğazköy are quite numerous; Even several completely Hurrian texts have been discovered, and among them are fragments of a translation of the Epic of Gilgamesh, the greatest literary achievement of Babylonian civilization. However, the main source for the study of Hurrian is still a letter written by Tushratta, king of Mitanni, to Amenhotep III, king of Egypt, around 1400 BC. e.; it was found among the ruins of the Egyptian capital at Tell el-Amarna more than fifty years ago and is quite well preserved. It's about 500 lines long, so it's clear how important it is. Other Hurrian texts have recently been discovered at Tell Hariri, ancient Mari in the middle Euphrates region - they date from around 1750 BC. e., - as well as in Ras Shamra (Ugarit) on the Syrian coast; These texts are written in consonantal writing, that is, they contain only consonants. A direct descendant of Hurrian is the language of the kingdom of Urartu, sometimes called Van or Chaldic; it is known to us from royal inscriptions in Assyrian cuneiform dating back to the 7th century. BC e. Further connections between Hurrian and other languages ​​remain murky. The Hurrian language is characterized by extensive use of suffixes; this fundamentally distinguishes it from another language of unknown origin - Hutt. It is possible that it will be possible to establish a connection between these languages ​​and the little-studied Caucasian languages.

The name of the language is taken from Hittite texts, in which Hurrian passages usually begin with the following formula: “a singer from the country of Hurri sings the following” or, in other places, with the formula: “a singer sings the following hurlili (why the l is added to the adverb is not clear).

Aryan language of the rulers of Migania

In the treatise on horse breeding compiled by Kikkuli of Mitanni, there are some professional terms, the analysis of which shows that they contain elements closely related to Sanskrit numerals.

There are no texts written in this language, but the words given indicate that it was spoken in Hittite times. That this was the language of the Mitanni rulers will be shown below. We could therefore call it "Mitannian", but this would create confusion, because that is what Hurrian was often called in the past. E. Forrer, who identified the Mitanni rulers with Umman Manda in some Babylonian and Assyrian texts, proposed the name "Mandaic", but it did not gain general acceptance. In fact, a name for this language has never been found.

Akkadian

This is the now generally accepted name of the well-known Semitic language of Babylon and Assyria; to the Hittites, however, this language was known as "Babylonian". It was widely used in the Middle East in diplomatic correspondence and in documents of an international nature, and the Hittite kings adhered to this language when dealing with their southern and eastern neighbors. Many Hittite treaties and letters were therefore written entirely in Akkadian and became available in translation long before how the main body of texts from the Boghazköy archive was deciphered. In addition, as noted above, Akkadian words were often found in texts written in Hittite, but it is generally accepted that this is a type of allography.

Sumerian

This ancient language of lower Mesopotamia, now dead, was intensively studied in Hattusa, as well as in Babylon, and Sumerian-Hittite dictionaries were found there. Most Sumerian words are monosyllabic, and many of the cuneiform syllables of the Hittite period are actually Sumerian words whose meaning was forgotten when the language was no longer spoken. Therefore, someone who studied Sumerian could use individual signs as ideograms, i.e., designate with them the corresponding object or concept and, thus, save extra time that would have been occupied by writing much longer Hittite or Akkadian words. In this sense, Sumerian served as a kind of cursive script, and this form of allography was widely used by Hittite scribes.

These are the eight languages ​​written in cuneiform on clay tablets from Boğazköy - Hattusa. To conclude our survey of the written Hittite languages, we must add one more to them.

Hieroglyphic Hittite, or Tabal*

* In modern literature, a more precise name is usually used - “hieroglyphic Luwian” - Note. ed.

The history of the discovery of hieroglyphic inscriptions was outlined in the Introduction. Almost all of them accompany rock sculptures or stone monuments; the favorite material for the latter was basalt. The only exceptions are the inscriptions on seals and seven letters in the form of rolled strips of lead found during excavations at Ashur and published in 1924. The signs of earlier inscriptions on monuments were in relief; later a fluent form arose - with embedded (recessed inside the contours) signs. The signs were pictograms, and the objects depicted by them were in many cases easily recognizable. An extensive class of signs depicts parts of the body, such as the arm in various positions, the face (always in profile), legs and feet; there are heads of animals, such as bull, horse, dog, pig, lion, deer, hare, birds and fish, as well as furniture - tables and chairs, parts of buildings, including the carefully depicted facade of a two-story house. The order of the signs is “boustrophedon” ( A Greek word meaning “like the furrows produced by plowing.”), i.e. the lines are read in turn from right to left and left to right; this manner is characteristic of early Greek inscriptions on the Ionian coast. The signs face the beginning of the line, like the Egyptians. Hittite hieroglyphics are undoubtedly the invention of the Hittites themselves. Acquaintance with Egyptian hieroglyphs had only a general stimulating effect on her. This is one of a number of new writing systems, including the one that gave rise to our own alphabet) of the hieroglyphic or cuneiform type, which were invented in the 2nd millennium under the influence of increased international contacts in the countries of the Levant, where the cultures of the Nile and Euphrates came into contact (see photo 3 in the gallery ).

Until recently, progress in deciphering these inscriptions remained very modest; however, it has now become clear that the language of the inscriptions of these monuments is essentially one of the dialects of Luvian, although it differs, among other things, in the formation of the plural of nouns using the ending -ai. Like Luwian, it is closely related to the Lycian language, known from inscriptions of the Greek era. The fact that it gives s instead of k when combined with u does not prove that the language is "satem", although this has been claimed.

The inscriptions on most of the monuments discussed were made after the fall of the Hittite Empire. But even before this time, hieroglyphic Hittite was already in use. Few of the more extensive inscriptions appear to belong to the classical Hittite period, and it is not entirely certain that their language is the same as that of later monuments; however, recent research seems to make this probable, and it follows that hieroglyphic Hittite must be included among the languages ​​used by the scribes of the Hittite empire. In addition to being quite extensive, inscriptions in this language are constantly found on stone monuments and on seals; in both cases, the names of the Hittite kings were transmitted in the form of a kind of monogram. However, it is quite likely that this writing was actually used much more widely than is clear from the surviving evidence, namely for all administrative records kept in the Hittite kingdom. The ancient name of this language has not been established. E. Forrer called it Tabal, since the area where most of the inscriptions were found was called Tabal in Assyrian times (this is the Old Testament Tubal). However, most scholars have adopted the more cumbersome names: "hieroglyphic Hittite" or "hieroglyphic Luwian".