Hittite and Anatolian Languages

Professor Jay Kumar is a scholar and instructor of Latin, Vedic Sanskrit, Ancient Greek, as well as other Ancient Indo-European Languages for the past 10 years. In response to the article on Sanskrit provided at Hinduwebsite,  Prof. Jay Kumar made the following observations. 

...As an Indian myself I am very proud of our rich Sanskrit and Hindu tradition which is one reason for my desire to study Sanskrit and other Ancient Languages. I always assumed Sanskrit was the originator of the other languages- Latin, Greek, Germanic,Slavic,etc...

However over the years of my academic career and doctoral dissertation in Indo-European Languages, Cultures, and Linguistics I know now am convinced that there was an earlier language which you already document in your webpage as Proto-Indo-European.

There are literally thousands of words as well as commonalties in grammar, phonology, morphology, syntax, archeology, mythology, and culture that Sanskrit shares w/ her sister languages.

I commend you on your website's explanation of this often unknown and undervalued theory of Sanskrit and her origins to Indo-European. Your info. is very accurate and is fair to offer alternative theories which as an academic myself is very important to have.  

Just two quick comments. Just want you to know that:

ARMENIAN and ALBANIAN are two separate language groups of PIE. The website has Armenian and Albanian listed together.

Secondly re. Anatolian languages, although the first WRITTEN records of Old Hittite go back to 1700 BCE it doesn't mean that is when the language first began. Many languages of the world have been in use orally for millennia before written down in an alphabet. Writing after all was only invented 3,500 BCE. Thus both Sanskrit and Hittite are VERY old languages indeed. The Vedas for example were transmitted orally for millennia until actually written down 600BC or so.

Thus my point is that despite the first written evidence of Anatolian languages being only 1,700 BCE they too like the VEDAS were spoken millennia before documentation. Another theory which in my opinion adds credence to Hittite being the oldest IE language is what linguists now call Laryngeal Theory. It briefly states that PIE based on linguistic reconstruction had three phonemes that were laryngeals (produced in back of larynx). Anatolian languages are the only languages that still have these 3 sounds WRITTEN in it's alphabet. No other IE alphabet (Sanskrit, Latin, Greek) has them - they all developed into vowels. Sanskrit has merged all three laryngeals of PIE into "i". So a word lie Skt. pitr "father" came from PIE *pHtr. Hittite as I sai is FULL of laryngeals. Saussure proposed this theory in late 1800's. It was confirmed by the discovery of Hittite in early 1900s.

Another VERY important recent theory is that Indo-European and Anatolian may actually be sisters. Indo-Hittite theory believes that the Anatolian languages broke off from this even EARLIER stage of PIE around 7000 BCE to develop on its own. This would explain a lot of the Archaic features of Hittite not found in Sasnskrit, Greek, etc...Although evidence of Hittite comes from Catul Hayuk in Turkey, it doesn't equate to this being the motherland of PIE. As recent evidence now suggests, PIE may be around 5,000 BCE BUT Indo-Hittite (Precursor to PIE) may be 9,000-10,000 BCE!! Thus Sanskrit may be the oldest Indo-European language, BUT Hittite broke away from Proto-Indo-Hittite much before in antiquity.

It also proposes that the original PIE homeland WAS NOT Asia Minor but perhaps closer to the Russian Steppe Region north of Black Sea. There is so much info. on recent trends in Indo-European Homeland, archeology, and linguistics. I will be happy to share more as I learn of them.

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