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Anatolian languages
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<p>The Anatolian languages are an <a href="/facts/Extinct_language/ayaLa4DU">extinct</a> branch of <a href="/facts/Indo-European_languages/L34TfgSr">Indo-European languages</a> that were spoken in <a href="/facts/Anatolia/vMkrLrPr">Anatolia</a>. The best known Anatolian language is <a href="/facts/Hittite_language/Pc8YGhRU">Hittite</a>, which is considered the earliest-attested Indo-European language. </p><p>Undiscovered until the late 19th and early 20th centuries, they are often believed to be the earliest branch to have split from the <a href="/facts/Proto_Indo-European/cVLNoM3p">Proto Indo-European</a> family. Once discovered, the presence of <a href="/facts/Laryngeal_consonant/X0KtebL5">laryngeal consonants</a> <i>ḫ</i> and <i>ḫḫ</i> in Hittite and <a href="/facts/Luwian/yaA6leEB">Luwian</a> provided support for the <a href="/facts/Laryngeal_theory/WzwJPK3U">laryngeal theory</a> of <a href="/facts/Proto-Indo-European_language/cVLNoM3p">Proto-Indo-European</a> linguistics. While Hittite attestation ends after the <a href="/facts/Bronze_Age/c09qWcTt">Bronze Age</a>, <a href="/facts/Hieroglyphic_Luwian/eKLTtTkt">hieroglyphic Luwian</a> survived until the conquest of the <a href="/facts/Syro-Hittite_states/9tJP2gKq">Neo-Hittite kingdoms</a> by the Semitic <a href="/facts/Assyrian_Empire/n9pMP48S">Assyrian Empire</a>, and <a href="/facts/Alphabets_of_Anatolia/GLJcPChb">alphabetic inscriptions in Anatolian languages</a> are fragmentarily attested until the early <a href="/facts/1st_millennium/6ksVgwDM">first millennium</a> AD, eventually succumbing to the <a href="/facts/Hellenization/w07GMufL">Hellenization</a> of Anatolia as a result of <a href="/facts/Greek_colonisation/otWspz7X">Greek colonisation</a>. </p>