Anatolisch

Anatolisch is an adjective used in German and Dutch to describe things related to Anatolia, the western peninsula of Asia Minor that forms most of present-day Turkey. The term covers geographic, historical, cultural, and linguistic contexts. Geographically, Anatolia is bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Aegean and Mediterranean seas to the west and south, and the Turkish Straits to the northwest. It has been a crossroads of civilizations, from the ancient Hittites through Greek, Persian, Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman periods.

In linguistics, Anatolian languages form a branch of the Indo-European language family. They are among the earliest groups to diverge from Proto-Indo-European and are known from inscriptions dating roughly from the second millennium BCE onward. The best-attested Anatolian language is Hittite, written in a cuneiform script. Other Anatolian languages include Luwian (with both cuneiform and hieroglyphic forms), Lycian, Lydian, Pisidian, Sidetic, and Carian. Phrygian is sometimes discussed in the same broad grouping. Anatolian languages are important for historical linguistics because they preserve conservative features and provide crucial data for reconstructing Proto-Indo-European, including evidence related to the laryngeal theory from Hittite texts.

Most Anatolian languages faded from use by late antiquity as Greek and later Turkish became dominant in the region. Today, the term Anatolisch continues to be used in linguistic and archaeological literature to denote this linguistic and cultural heritage, as well as to describe things connected with Anatolia.