Hattic language

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Hattic was a language spoken in Asia Minor between the 3rd and the 2nd millennia BC. Its heartland, before the arrival of Nesian (ie, "Hittite") speakers, ranged from Hattusa (which they called "Hattus") northward to Nerik.

The Nesians eventually absorbed or replaced the Hattic speakers (Hattians); but they retained the name Hatti for the region, and the use of Hattic for their religion.

The Hittite term for Hattic was hattili after the city of Hattus, whereas the Hittite dynasty called their own language nesili after their city of origin Kanesh. The form "Hittite" in English originally comes from biblical Heth, quite possibly connected to common Assyrian and Egyptian designations of "Land of the Hatti" (Khatti) west of the Euphrates. It is unknown what native speakers of "hattili" called their own language.

The catalogued Hattic documents from Hattusa span CTH 725-745. Of these CTH 728, 729, 731, 733, and 736 are Hattian / Hittite bilinguals. CTH 737 is a Hattian incantion for the festival at Nerik.

Other cities mentioned in Hattic include Tuhumiyara and Tissaruliya. There are additional Hattic texts in Sapinuwa, which had not been published as of 2004.

A number of specialists, Including Ardzinba and Chirikba, have proposed that Hattic is related to the Northwest Caucasian (Circassian) family. This point of view, while commonly-held, is not universally accepted and other scholars, such as Soysal, say that any relationship has at present not been satisfactorily proved. Yet other scholars propose a relationship with other languages of the Caucasus, for example Girbal with the Kartvelian languages.

[edit] References

Ardzinba, Vladislav. (1974): Some Notes on the Typological Affinity Between Hattian and North-West Caucasian (Abkhazo-Adygian) Languages. In: "International Tagung der Keilschriftforscher der sozialistischen Länder", Budapest, 23.-25. April 1974. Zusammenfassung der Vorträge (Assyriologica 1), p. 10-15.
Chirikba, Viacheslav (1996): Common West Caucasian. The Reconstruction of its Phonological System and Parts of its Lexicon and Morphology. Leiden: CNWS Publications, 452 pp. [Chapter XI. The relation of West Caucasian to Hattic, p. 406-432].
Dunaevskaja, Irina. (1973): Bemerkungen zu einer neuen Darstellung altkleinasiatischer Sprachen. 2. Zum Hattischen. In: Orientalische Literaturzeitung 68, Leipzig, 1/2.
Дунаевская И. М. О структурном сходстве хаттского языка с языками северо-западного Кавказа. — Сборник в честь академика Н. А. Орбели. — М.-Л., 1960.
Girbal, Christian. (1986): Beiträge zur Grammatik des Hattischen (Europäische Hochschulschriften Reihe XXI, Bd. 50). Frankfurt am Main, Bern, New York: Verlag Peter Lang, V+201 pages.
Kammenhuber, Annelis (1969): Das Hattische. In: Handbuch der Orientalistik, Abteilung I, Bd II, Abschn. 1/2.
Klinger, Jörg. (1996): (StBoT 37) Untersuchungen zur Rekonstruktion der hattischen Kultschicht. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, xx+916 p.
Schuster, H.-S. (1974): Die Hattisch-Hethitischen Bilinguen. I. Einleitung, Texte und Kommentar. Teil 1. Leiden: E.J. Brill.
Soysal, Oğuz (2004): Hattischer Wortschatz in hethitischer Textüberlieferung, Leiden/Boston: Brill.
Taracha, P. (1995): Zum Stand der hattischen Studien: Möglisches und Unmöglisches in der Erforschung des Hattischen. In: Atti del II Congresso Internaziomale di Hittitologia a curo di Onofrio Carruba - Mauro Giorgieri - Clelia Mora. Studia mediterranea. 9. Gianni Iuculano Editore. Pavia, p. 351-358.