Hattic language Totally Explained

Everything about Hattic Language totally explained

Hattic was a language spoken by the Hattians in Asia Minor between the 3rd and the 2nd millennia BC. Scholars call this language 'Hattic' to distinguish it from the Hittite language--the Indo-European language of the Hittite Empire.
   The heartland of this oldest attested language of Anatolia, before the arrival of Nesian (for example, "Hittite") speakers, ranged from Hattusa (which they called "Hattus") northward to Nerik. Other cities mentioned in Hattic include Tuhumiyara and Tissaruliya.
   The Hittites conquered Hattus from Kanesh to its south, and thence eventually absorbed or replaced the Hattic speakers (Hattians); but they retained the name Hatti for the region.
   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.

Corpus

No documents have been found in which the native Hattic speakers wrote their own language. Scholars today rely on indirect sources or mentions by their neighbours and successors, the Nesian-speaking Hittites. Some Hattic words can be found in religious tablets of Hittite priests, dating from the 14th and 13th centuries BC. Those passages contained between the lines of the text signs with the explanation "the priest is now speaking in Hattian".
   Roots of Hattic words can also be found in the names of mountains, rivers, cities and gods. Other Hattic words can be found in some mythological texts. The most important of these is the myth "The Moon God who fell from the Sky", written in both Hattic language and Hittite.
   The catalogued Hattic documents from Hattusa span CTH 725-745. Of these CTH 728, 729, 731, 733, and 736 are Hattic / Hittite bilinguals. CTH 737 is a Hattic incantion for the festival at Nerik. One key (if fragmentary) bilingual is the story of "The Moon God Who Fell from the Sky".
   There are additional Hattic texts in Sapinuwa, which hadn't been published as of 2004.

Orthography

The Hittites used Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform for their own language, and they applied this system to the Hattic language as well.
In the Hittite form of cuneiform, all sibilants are written with "sh" phonograms. Hittite scribes applied this to Hattic as well.

Language characteristics

The Hattic language is a language peculiar to itself and completely different from any Indo-European or Semitic language.
Known words include:

child = pinu;
god = shapu;
moon god = Kasku;
sun goddess = Wurusemu;
temple = hilamar.

Hattic formed a "collective" plural by adding a wa- prefix: for example, "The Gods" = washapu. It formed conventional plurals with a le- prefix: "children" = lepinu.
According to some specialists Hattic is related to the Northwest Caucasian (Circassian) family. Some striking parallels also point toward a possible genetic link to the Abkhaz-Adyghean languages However, this characterization is under serious doubt by scholars of Hittitology. This point of view, isn't 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.

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