Re: OT: What language is "Hattusas"?

On Tue, 6 Sep 2005 04:53:40 -0500, Thomas Wier <trwier@...> wrote:

>It is indeed an isolate, although a good friend of mine who is a
>Hittitologist told me that some speculate that the language is most
>closely related to the Northwest Caucasian languages.  I know of
>no works that attempt to substantiate this claim.
E. Forrer was the first to suggest a connection to Abkhaz on the basis of
structural similarities (particularly the extensive use of prefixation),
in "Die acht Sprachen der Boghazkoy-Inschriften" (Sitzunberichte der
preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaft, Phil.-hist. Klasse, Nr. LIII,
1919, pp. 1029-41).  A few years later, Robert Bleichsteiner proposed the
same thing in his article "Zum Protohattischen" (Berichte des Forschungs-
Institutes fuer Osten und Orient, Bd.III, 1923, pp. 102-6).  I'm not sure
what the last word on the subject has been.

More recently, Simon Janashia, a young scholar from Tblisi,
proposed "Hetto-Iberian," a linguistic superfamily uniting Hattic and the
South Caucasian languages.  I'm a bit wary of it.