What language family, if any, does Hattic belong to?
Six answers, none aheadNone is ahead yet. See what would settle it.
Where it stands
Six answers have been proposed. None is ahead on the evidence yet. Six are still possible. Of the one narrower question under it, none is answered yet.
Why it matters
Hattic is a prefixing language with the verb first and no demonstrated relative; proposed links to Northwest Caucasian, to a Sino-Caucasian macrofamily, to Minoan and Sumerian, and to Uralic have each been put without regular sound correspondences, and Hittitologists treat the language as an isolate in practice[1][2][3][4]. The difficulty is the lexicon: only a little over a hundred word meanings are secure, so any comparison that draws on the rest cannot be checked[3].
Answers 6
History
- Vyacheslav V. Ivanov: hattic and the Northwest Caucasian languages share a prefixing verb with long person-marking chains and an early verb…For: Hattic is related to the Northwest Caucasian languages (Abkhaz-Adyghe).
- Viacheslav A. Chirikba: hattic and the Northwest Caucasian languages share a prefixing verb with long person-marking chains and an early verb…For: Hattic is related to the Northwest Caucasian languages (Abkhaz-Adyghe).
- Oğuz Soysal: no regular sound correspondences have been established, and many matched Hattic words lie outside the small class…Against: Hattic is related to the Northwest Caucasian languages (Abkhaz-Adyghe).
- Alexei Kassian: kassian lists lexical matches between Hattic and Yeniseian, Burushaski and North Caucasian, such as the word for…For: Hattic belongs to a Sino-Caucasian macrofamily with North Caucasian, Yeniseian, Burushaski and Sino-Tibetan.
- Petra M. Goedegebuure: a century of comparison since Forrer isolated Hattic in 1919 has produced no accepted correspondence set with any…For: Hattic is an isolate for the present corpus: no relationship can be demonstrated from about a hundred secure words…
- Revesz: revesz offers sign comparisons and word matches linking Linear A, Hattic and Hungarian.For: Hattic is a Uralic language in a "West-Ugric" family with Minoan and Hungarian.
- Oğuz Soysal: a century of comparison since Forrer isolated Hattic in 1919 has produced no accepted correspondence set with any…For: Hattic is an isolate for the present corpus: no relationship can be demonstrated from about a hundred secure words…
- Charles W. Steitler: new Hattic word meanings keep coming from bilinguals and quasi-bilinguals, not from external comparison.For: Hattic is an isolate for the present corpus: no relationship can be demonstrated from about a hundred secure words…
- Peter Schrijver: schrijver proposes shared vocabulary and morphology between Hattic and Linear A words read with Linear B values, and…For: Hattic is related to Minoan (the language of Linear A) and both to Sumerian, as survivals of Neolithic Anatolian speech.
- Salgarella: minoan is itself unread, so the comparison rests on two uncertain lexicons at once.Against: Hattic is related to Minoan (the language of Linear A) and both to Sumerian, as survivals of Neolithic Anatolian speech.
- Andreas M. Bischoff: new Hattic word meanings keep coming from bilinguals and quasi-bilinguals, not from external comparison.For: Hattic is an isolate for the present corpus: no relationship can be demonstrated from about a hundred secure words…
- Nepal & Perono Cacciafoco: the West-Ugric proposal has no following among Anatolianists or Aegean epigraphers and uses Hattic words whose…Against: Hattic is a Uralic language in a "West-Ugric" family with Minoan and Hungarian.
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