<i>take note: assumes AIT and assumes IE worldview</i>:
Here is Microsoft Encarta '96 on the matters of the Hittite language:
[Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia 1996. © 1993-2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.]
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Hittite Language</b>, Indo-European language of the extinct Hittite civilization, surviving in cuneiform inscriptions on tablets excavated at sites in Asia Minor in the region occupied by ancient Hatti (see Hittites). Hittite, Luwian, Palaic (all recorded before 1000 BC), Lydian, and Lycian (both recorded c. 500-200 BC) form the Anatolian subfamily of Indo-European languages. Palaic was spoken in the country called Pala, north of Hatti, and Luwian was spoken in the country called Arzawa, west of Hatti, and in Cilicia, south of Hatti; Lydian was spoken in northwestern Anatolia, Lycian (descended from Luwian) in the southwest. The Hittites called their language Nesian, after Nesa, the first town that they settled, near the site of present-day Kayseri, Turkey.
Hittite texts in cuneiform writing date to <b>1600 BC </b>and are the <b>oldest written records</b> of any Indo-European language. Hittite was identified as an Indo-European language only in 1915, by the Czech Orientalist Bedrich Hrozný, and the related languages even more recently. Linguists are not yet certain whether the Anatolian group broke away from the parent language, Proto-Indo-European, before any other known Indo-European tongue, or whether it was merely one of the earliest to break away. Scholarly research recognizes a much larger number of Indo-European words in the Hittite language than was previously suspected; the source of many other words remains to be identified.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->So <b>because of the AIT and IE</b> the Hittites win the competition for oldest IE literature by about a 100 years (compared to the arbitrary 1500 bce date for the AIT)
A number of Christian websites now state that the Hittites mentioned in their Bible are not the same as the IE-speaking Hittites and have renamed the biblical people as Hethites instead. This is also confirmed in Wackypedia:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hittites<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The term "Hittites" is taken from the KJV translation of the Hebrew bible, translating [] "Children of Heth". The archaeologists who discovered the Anatolian Hittites in the 19th century initially identified them with these Biblical Hittites. Today, their identification with either the Hittite Empire proper[citation needed] or the Neo-Hittite kingdoms is a matter of dispute.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_Hittites<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The Hittites (also Hethites) and Children of Heth, translating Hebrew [] are the second of the eleven Canaanite nations in the Hebrew Bible. They are purportedly descended from one Heth [], a son of Canaan, son of Ham, and they are mentioned in Genesis as having sold land to Abraham.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Here is Microsoft Encarta '96 on the matters of the Hittite language:
[Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia 1996. © 1993-2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.]
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Hittite Language</b>, Indo-European language of the extinct Hittite civilization, surviving in cuneiform inscriptions on tablets excavated at sites in Asia Minor in the region occupied by ancient Hatti (see Hittites). Hittite, Luwian, Palaic (all recorded before 1000 BC), Lydian, and Lycian (both recorded c. 500-200 BC) form the Anatolian subfamily of Indo-European languages. Palaic was spoken in the country called Pala, north of Hatti, and Luwian was spoken in the country called Arzawa, west of Hatti, and in Cilicia, south of Hatti; Lydian was spoken in northwestern Anatolia, Lycian (descended from Luwian) in the southwest. The Hittites called their language Nesian, after Nesa, the first town that they settled, near the site of present-day Kayseri, Turkey.
Hittite texts in cuneiform writing date to <b>1600 BC </b>and are the <b>oldest written records</b> of any Indo-European language. Hittite was identified as an Indo-European language only in 1915, by the Czech Orientalist Bedrich Hrozný, and the related languages even more recently. Linguists are not yet certain whether the Anatolian group broke away from the parent language, Proto-Indo-European, before any other known Indo-European tongue, or whether it was merely one of the earliest to break away. Scholarly research recognizes a much larger number of Indo-European words in the Hittite language than was previously suspected; the source of many other words remains to be identified.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->So <b>because of the AIT and IE</b> the Hittites win the competition for oldest IE literature by about a 100 years (compared to the arbitrary 1500 bce date for the AIT)
A number of Christian websites now state that the Hittites mentioned in their Bible are not the same as the IE-speaking Hittites and have renamed the biblical people as Hethites instead. This is also confirmed in Wackypedia:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hittites<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The term "Hittites" is taken from the KJV translation of the Hebrew bible, translating [] "Children of Heth". The archaeologists who discovered the Anatolian Hittites in the 19th century initially identified them with these Biblical Hittites. Today, their identification with either the Hittite Empire proper[citation needed] or the Neo-Hittite kingdoms is a matter of dispute.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_Hittites<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The Hittites (also Hethites) and Children of Heth, translating Hebrew [] are the second of the eleven Canaanite nations in the Hebrew Bible. They are purportedly descended from one Heth [], a son of Canaan, son of Ham, and they are mentioned in Genesis as having sold land to Abraham.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->