Palaic language

Palaic
Palaic
Region	Anatolia
Ethnicity	Palaic peoples
Extinct	around 1300 BCE
Language family	Indo-European Anatolian Luwo-Lydian? Luwo-Palaic? Palaic; ; ; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	plq
Linguist List	plq
Glottolog	pala1331

Palaic is an extinct Indo-European language, attested in cuneiform tablets in Bronze Age Hattusa, the capital of the Hittites. Palaic, which was apparently spoken mainly in northern Anatolia, is generally considered to be one of four primary sub-divisions of the Anatolian languages, alongside Hittite (central Anatolia), Luwic (southern Anatolia) and Lydian (western Anatolia).

Its name in Hittite is palaumnili, or "of the people of Pala"; Pala was probably to the northwest of the Hittite core area, so in the northwest of present mainland Turkey. The region was overrun by the Kaskians in the 15th century BC, and the language likely went out of daily use at that time.

Sources

The entire corpus of Palaic spans only CTH 751-754 in Emmanuel Laroche's catalog of Hittite texts; in addition Hittite texts elsewhere cite passages in Palaic in reference to the weather god Zaparwa (Hittite Ziparwa), the leading god of the land of Pala.^[1]^[2] In particular, CTH 750, a festival in Hittite for Ziparwa and associated deities, includes passages stating, "The Old Woman speaks the words of the bread in Palaic," or alternately "the words of the meal," though no Palaic passages are quoted. The Palaic-language texts are all from a religious context, with ritual and mythological content.^[3] In addition to Zaparwa, the Palaumnili-speakers worshipped a sun deity Tiyaz (Luwian Tiwaz), the Hattian goddess Kataḫzip/wuri, and several others.

Phonology

Melchert reconstructs the following phonemic inventory for Palaic:^[4]^[5] However, Melchert claims that, instead of pharyngeals, "a pair of velar fricatives is equally possible".

Consonants

	Labial	Labiodental	Dental	Palatal	Velar	Pharyngeal
Plosive	p b		t d		k g
Affricate			t͡s
Fricative		f	s	ʒ		ħ ʕ
Nasal	m		n
Liquid			l	r
Glide	w			j

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i iː		u uː
Mid
Open		a aː

The phonemic status of /e/ and /eː/ is uncertain.

Morphology

In terms of its morphology, Palaic is a fairly typical specimen of Indo-European. Palaic shared common innovations with Luwian not present in Old Hittite, suggesting a prior Luwian-Palaic linguistic complex.^[6] It has been characterized as "more conservative than Hittite" and heavily influenced by the Hattic language, though caution is prescribed for the latter assertion given the paucity of available materials.^[7]

Noun

Palaic shows the same gender distinction as seen in Hittite, i.e. animate vs. inanimate. It distinguishes two numbers, singular and plural, and at least six cases: nominative, vocative, accusative, genitive, dative, and locative.^[4]

Old Hittite has the genitive singular suffix -aš circa 1600 BC (compare Proto-Indo-European *-os); where Cuneiform Luwian instead uses the -ašša/i- adjectival suffix. Palaic, on the northern border of both, like later Hieroglyphic Luwian has both an -aš genitive and an -aša- adjectival suffix.

Palaic also has similar pronoun forms to Old Hittite.^{[citation needed]}

Verb

The verb in Palaic is inflected for number (singular and plural), person, tense (present and preterite), and mood (indicative and imperative). It also has two voices, active and medio-passive.^[4]

Palaic is considered to have had a "high number of attestations of the suffix -ina," all of which were transitive.^[8]

References

^ Burney, Charles (2004). Historical Dictionary of the Hittites. Scarecrow Press. p. 223. ISBN 0810865645.
^ Kloekhorst, Alwin (2022). "Anatolian". The Indo-European Language Family. pp. 63–82. doi:10.1017/9781108758666.005. ISBN 978-1-108-75866-6.
^ Carruba, O. Das Palaische. Texte, Grammatik, Lexikon. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1970. StBoT 10.
^ ^a ^b ^c Melchert, H. Craig (2008). "Palaic". The Ancient Languages of Asia Minor. pp. 40–45. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511486845.007. ISBN 978-0-521-68496-5.
^ Melchert, H. C. (1994). "Palaic Phonology". Anatolian Historical Phonology. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. pp. 190–208. doi:10.1163/9789004657335_008. ISBN 978-90-04-65733-5.
^ The Indo-European Language Family: A Phylogenetic Perspective, p. 7. N.p., Cambridge University Press, 2022.
^ Melchert, Harold Craig. Anatolian historical phonology, p.10. Netherlands, Rodopi, 1994.
^ Sasseville, David. Anatolian Verbal Stem Formation: Luwian, Lycian and Lydian. Netherlands, Brill, 2020, p. 528.

External links

[1] Burney, Charles (2004). Historical Dictionary of the Hittites. Scarecrow Press. p. 223. ISBN 0810865645.

[2] Kloekhorst, Alwin (2022). "Anatolian". The Indo-European Language Family. pp. 63–82. doi:10.1017/9781108758666.005. ISBN 978-1-108-75866-6.

[3] Carruba, O. Das Palaische. Texte, Grammatik, Lexikon. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1970. StBoT 10.

[:0-4] Melchert, H. Craig (2008). "Palaic". The Ancient Languages of Asia Minor. pp. 40–45. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511486845.007. ISBN 978-0-521-68496-5.

[5] Melchert, H. C. (1994). "Palaic Phonology". Anatolian Historical Phonology. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. pp. 190–208. doi:10.1163/9789004657335_008. ISBN 978-90-04-65733-5.

[6] The Indo-European Language Family: A Phylogenetic Perspective, p. 7. N.p., Cambridge University Press, 2022.

[7] Melchert, Harold Craig. Anatolian historical phonology, p.10. Netherlands, Rodopi, 1994.

[8] Sasseville, David. Anatolian Verbal Stem Formation: Luwian, Lycian and Lydian. Netherlands, Brill, 2020, p. 528.

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