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The Hittites
who lived in central Anatolia during the second millennium BC
spoke a language which is accepted as the first Indo-European
language. However, the greater part of the Hittite vocabulary
is of non-Indo-European origin
(1). In Hittite the laryngeal
(guttural) sounds originated from the Asiatic Proto-language.
For example, the “kh” sound is found in many words and should
be pronounced as “Okh”. The name
Hittite was given to
this language by modern scholars as being the official
language of the
Land of Hatti;
but it should be pronounced as
Okh-At-ili. Since the
Hittite language was a monosyllabic language connected to the
Proto-language and to all Altaic languages, one should split
the words into its constituent phonemes. Okh means
“arrow”, At means “horse”
(2)
and “il” means
“The Land”, while “illi” means “from the land” or “belonging
to the land”, therefore Okh-At-illi or
Okh-At-ly
became Khattili => Hattili and finally Hittite. The suffix
“-ly” is still existing in Turkish meaning “mixed together”,
giving a further meaning to Okhatly “a mixture of Okh and At
people”. It is most probable that “At” and “As” were names
given to the same people originating from western Asia. We
find “At” and the suffix “-illi” in the name of the Hun leader
Atilla or Atilli.
The Hittites
used two different scripts simultaneously. These were the
hieroglyphic and the cuneiform scripts. The cuneiform script
was adopted by the Hittites from the Accadians. This means
that there was a close relationship in both language and
culture between the Hittites and the Accadians. The name
Accad
becomes meaningful when split into its constituents Acc (Okh)
and Ad meaning “name”. We get from Och-At = Okh-Ad => Akhad =>
Accad the meaningful word “Okh name” a clear indication to the
Och people. The laryngeal “kh” changed in time and softened to
a double-c.
The
hieroglyphic script was mostly used to write in the Luwi
language and was the preferred script on monuments and seals.
The Luwi language is closely related to Hittite and is
mentioned as Luwili in Hittite texts. Luwili later on
transformed into Lycian, which became the language used by the
south-Anatolian Lycians of the classical epoch. Below left we
see a stele inscribed with the Hittite cuneiform script and on
the right a portion of a wall inscribed with hieroglyphic
script from Hattusas, Central Turkey
(3).
In order to
show the connection between Hittite and the Altaic languages
we need concrete examples obtained from written original
texts. There is a book published in 1980 by Ahmet Unal
discussing some Hittite phrases (4). We find many Sumerian
words in these sentences, which could either be borrowed from
the ancient Sumerian language of Mesopotamia or could also be
independently related to the Asiatic Proto-language. Here is
one example:
Dingir-lim
: My God. “Dingir” meaning “God” in Sumerian, already
discussed in chapter 22, Egyptian Deities. “-lim” is a
suffix still used in Turkish as a possessive pronoun.
Kililu = Gilim
: Wreath or Headdress. “Kyl” means “hair” or rather a single
thread of hair in Turkish. But “kylly” means “mixed with
threads of hair” (-ly is already mentioned above) and
therefore the Hittite word Kililu or Gilim is an appropriate
definition for a wreath worn on the head.
Lu-Sang-a:
To the holy priest. The first syllable stands for “holy” and
is found in Turkish as “ulu”, already mentioned in
Chapter 29, The bird symbolism. Sang means “respectful,
important person” and is found in Japanese as “san” and
in Turkish as “sayýn”. The same meaning is found in “saint”.
The suffix “-a” meaning “to the” is still used in Turkish.
Therefore, Lusanga means “to the saint”.
We see that
Hittite is an agglutinant language similar to Altaic languages
containing several suffixes still existing in modern Turkish.
Such a sentence formation is not found in most Indo-European
languages. These three words above are enough to explain an
original sentence obtained from a Hittite text:
DINGIR-LIM
GILIM-an-zi LU-SANGA-ya GILIM-an-zi,
which can be translated as: “They adorn the god with a wreath
and also the priest (saint) with a wreath”. The “-zi” suffix
makes the word definite, similar to the English “is” or the
German “ist”. In Turkish “iz” stands for the definite plural
similar to “we are”.
Without going
into further detail we can conclude that the Hittite language
forms a bridge between Altaic and western Indo-European
languages. The original connection between Hittite and
Sumerian can be traced back to the Proto-language of Asia from
which Turkish is the closest descendent. In order to be
convinced of such an ancient connection between Turkish and
Sumerian here is a short list of Sumerian words. The Turkish
equivalent is given in red and in brackets.
Father:
Adda (ata,
baba), Mother:
Ama (anne, ana),
Lord: Aga (agha),
Horizon: An (tan),
Male: Ar(er),
First: As (as),
God: Dingir (Tengri),
House: E (ev),
Shore: Kýya (kýyý),
Blow: Es (es),
Fat: Gisko (shishko),
Upright: Dim (dik),
Arm: Kol (kol),
Sleep: Uiku (Uyku),
Bird: Kus (kush),
Right side: Sag (sað),
Oak: Mesu (meshe),
Sheepfold: Ag (agýl),
Large: En (en,
engin), Come:
Ge (gel),
Blood: Ka (kan),
Canal/Blood vessel: Kanal (kan
damar), Say:
De (de,
demek), Stop:
Duru (dur),
Settle: Kur (kur,
kurgan),
Run: Kusu (kosh),
Smile: Güles (gülech),
Bore: Bur (burgu),
Ax: Bal (balta),
Shine: Bar (barla/parla),
String/Rope: Ýb (ip),
Pretty: Alým (alýmlý),
Holy: Ulu (ulu),
Separate: Kup (kop),
Who: Gim (kim),
Soldier: Ir (er),
Wood: Odun (odun/ot-un)
These 37 words
form a small but important sample showing that even after
almost 5,000 years we can still find common words between
Turkish and Sumerian, containing the same sound and the same
meaning (5).
Turning our
attention to the Sumerian architecture, we see that people
living on the flat prairies of Mesopotamia built stepped
pyramids called ziggurats. They built these high structures as
symbols replacing the mountains which lacked in their region.
We saw that this wish for high-rise architecture existed also
among the Maya and the Egyptians. The common architectural
designs are another sign of their common origin. Not only the
Sumerians, but also the Elamites who lived in south-western
Iran built ziggurats (see Chapter 18, Towards Sumer and Elam).
Below-left we
see the Sumerian ziggurat near Ur and the Elamite ziggurat
presently in Khuzestan, Choghazanbil - Western Iran. Khuzestan
is the region of Iran bordering Mesopotamia. This name is
clearly Ghuz-istan originally being Oghuz-istan or
Oghuz-land, clearly indicating that the ziggurat
structures were built by the Och people. Oguz means “we are
the Och” (see Chapter 2,
Diversification of languages).
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References
(1)
The Hittites, O. R. Gurney, Pinguin Books, page 119,
1976, England.
(2)
See Chapter 12, The Anatolian expansion.
(3)
Atlas Magazine (in Turkish), Jurgen Seeher, May 1999,
page 88.
(4)
Hitit Sarayindaki Entrikalar Hakkinda Bir Fal Metni, A.
Unal, Ankara University Publication, No: 343, page 82, 1983,
Ankara,
Turkey.
(5)
Sumer ve Turk Dillerinin Tarihi Ilgisi, Osman Nedim
Tuna, TDK Yayinlari, No: 561, 1990, Ankara, Turkey.
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