Anatolian languages

The Anatolian languages constitute a family of Indo-European languages spoken in Anatolia in IIe and Ier millenia before our era.

Their filiation is the following one:

  • nesic (or hittite-nesic), generally called hittite

    • Louvite
    • Milyen or lycian B
    • Lycien or lycian has
  • Palaïte
  • Carien
  • Pisidien
  • Sidétique
  • Lydien, which seems to have known a more important clean evolution.

Deciphered at the XXe century, the Anatolian languages made it possible to validate certain assumptions concerning the evolution of the Indo-European put forth by the linguists of the end of the XIXe century, in particular the structural analysis suggested by Ferdinand de Saussure:

  • all the Indo-European languages then known had three kinds: male , female and the neutral . The specialists estimated that it was about a derivation of an older system functioning on a distinction between animated the and inanimate the . The discovery of hittite-nesic confirmed this assumption, the old system there having been preserved. There exists indeed in the Anatolian languages the genus common (animated) and genus neutrum (inanimate);
  • roots Indo-European being mainly founded on Consonant S around one is articulated (or several) alternating vowel (with the manner of the Semitic roots), assumption estimated that each root was to start with a consonant, which is not the case, except if one supposes the existence of an initial consonant which would be amuïe in all the languages. To suppose its existence made it possible to pose the bases of a more coherent system. During the deciphering of the hittite, one realized that, precisely, this language had preserved this consonant. The supposed system was then confirmed. For example, we can compare the hittite haui- (with laryngeal initial) with the Latin oui-s , both indicating the ewe;
  • in a similar way, the Indo-European languages know vocalic alternations very frequent which, as Saussure had guessed it, come in fact from the disappearance from laryngeal, which can color a vowel in contact and make him undergo a compensatory Allongement. This phenomenon, called the Théorie of laryngeal the, thanks to the discovery of the Anatolian languages, is attested with many recoveries. It should be noted that Saussure had had the intuition of these laryngeal (without concluding that it acted of consonants) and had named them coefficient sonantic . Later, while being strongly inspired by the operation of the Semitic languages, one indicated them under the name of Schwa (term suitable for the grammar of the Hebrew ). Currently, the term of laryngeal is most frequent.

Thus, while having preserved certain antiquated characters, the Anatolian languages even play a big role in our comprehension of the evolution of the Indo-European languages force to suppose that, genetically, the Indo-European languages do not train the families that one supposed to him. Their study is paramount in compared Linguistique of the Indo-European languages and, therefore, in Phonétique history.

Beside these antiquated characters, the Anatolian languages also have a certain number of advanced natures. In particular, the number of Cas of their variation is of five, whereas the Indo-European reconstituted has eight of them. Although that can be explained by an evolution independent of the language, certain linguists see there the trace of a divergence former at the stage of the Indo-European . The Indo-European and the Anatolian languages, instead of being in relation parent-child, would result from a common language, sometimes baptized Indo-hittite. This opinion, plausible, is however supported of no argument not-linguistics and thus remains minority.

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