Anatolian languages , subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see The Indo-European Family of Languages , table); the term "Anatolian languages" is also used to refer to all languages, Indo-European and non-Indo-European, that were spoken in Anatolia in ancient times. The progress made in the identification, decipherment, and analysis of the Indo-European Anatolian languages from extant texts owes much to 20th-century scholarship. These Anatolian languages were spoken in Anatolia, or Asia Minor, from about the 2d millennium BC and gradually became extinct during the first few centuries AD They include Cuneiform Hittite, Hieroglyphic Hittite, Luwian (also called Luvian or Luish), Palaic, Lycian, and Lydian. The Anatolian languages are the tongues of Indo-European-speaking invaders of Anatolia and became mixed to some extent with indigenous languages of the region. Much of the vocabulary of the Anatolian languages was apparently borrowed from these native tongues, but their grammar continued to be essentially Indo-European. The principal known member of the Anatolian division of the Indo-European family is Hittite, the tongue of the Hittites , who entered and conquered much of Anatolia early in the 2d millennium BC The oldest surviving written records of Hittite, dated at about the 15th or 14th cent. BC, are among the earliest extant remains of any Indo-European language. From c.1500 to 1200 BC, Hittite was written both in cuneiform (a system of writing...
Anatolian languages , subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see The Indo-European Family of Languages , table); the term "Anatolian languages" is also used to refer to all languages, Indo-European and non-Indo-European, that were spoken in Anatolia in ancient times. The progress made in the identification, decipherment, and analysis of the Indo-European Anatolian languages from extant texts owes much to 20th-century scholarship. These Anatolian languages were spoken in Anatolia, or Asia Minor, from about the 2d millennium BC and gradually became extinct during the first few centuries AD They include Cuneiform Hittite, Hieroglyphic Hittite, Luwian (also called Luvian or Luish), Palaic, Lycian, and Lydian. The Anatolian languages are the tongues of Indo-European-speaking invaders of Anatolia and became mixed to some extent with indigenous languages of the region. Much of the vocabulary of the Anatolian languages was apparently borrowed from these native tongues, but their grammar continued to be essentially Indo-European. The principal known member of the Anatolian division of the Indo-European family is Hittite, the tongue of the Hittites , who entered and conquered much of Anatolia early in the 2d millennium BC The oldest surviving written records of Hittite, dated at about the 15th or 14th cent. BC, are among the earliest extant remains of any Indo-European language. From c.1500 to 1200 BC, Hittite was written both in cuneiform (a system of writing...
