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Written Hittite
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Hittite
cuneiform has a distinctive style imported from Alalakh in north-western
Syria where Akkadian was spoken. Like Akkadian, Hittite uses cuneiform signs
as syllables, determinatives, and Sumerograms (words in Sumerian), but it
also uses Akkadograms, meaning words in Akkadian. This is not as complex as
it sounds, but the extensive use of such logograms (word signs) means that
for some words the Hittite pronunciation is unknown. The word 'son' for
instance is always written in Sumerian or Akkadian. Note that Hittite is only
written in cuneiform—the famous Anatolian hieroglyphs are not used for Hittite but for Luwian, a related
language that is also written in cuneiform. |
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