Talk:Hittite cuneiform

Need rewrite
I stuck the toospecialized and cleanup-jargon tags to the article, as well as a technical here, as it is really illegible for anyone not deeply into this. Also, the unicode tag isn't used, rendering the page on most computers illegible because of all the squares. Jalwikip 10:17, 29 August 2007 (UTC)
 * cuneiform is linked right from the first sencence, and I cannot imagine why anyone would try to read this who has not previously read all of cuneiform and Hittite language, carefully. You don't go and try reading Banach–Tarski paradox without first being familiar with axiom of choice, either. That said, I don't doubt it can be improved. This is little more than a quick writeup: sofixit. Concerning Unicode, no amount of tagging will help if you don't have a cuneiform font installed on your system. See here. --dab (𒁳) 11:30, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Since I know a little about this topic (I am by no measure an expert), I made the effort to rewrite the article in less technical language. I hope this lowers the barrier to the subject, while not obscuring too many technical details. (As with every article on Wikipedia, those who want to know all of the gory details of the subject would do best to consult the sources used to write this article.) -- llywrch (talk) 18:34, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Kai ( hand), not Ki(x) wrong, Mai (mountain), Nan(I), Nam ( we), Wai ( mouth), Kall / bath ( lag/ foot), kal ( Stone), Nir( Water), Aru—( River), ( Sum+ Tam) Ananthasegaram (talk) 21:05, 16 February 2019 (UTC)

Ananthasegaram, what is your source? These are incorrect. Are you sure that you are talking about Hittite and not some other language? Johundhar (talk) 12:21, 26 May 2021 (UTC)

Font problems
The font used here is Akkadian, not Hittite. Does Wikipedia really want to present this type of misinformation about an important ancient language?Johundhar (talk) 19:26, 28 December 2021 (UTC)

I'm using Firefox and installed FreeldgSerif font set however I only see boxes. Also, the link LlywelynII provided to the Hittite test page below is not working. --F. Pacifica 13:15, 26 September 2015 (UTC)  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Fpacifica (talk • contribs)

This test page displays correctly using the font provided on this page - however, this page still shows only a series of boxes. Did something get muffed in an edit? or is this the result of some new form of encoding which needs a new font link? -LlywelynII (talk) 12:52, 8 December 2010 (UTC)

Errr, no,that page says you have to install the font FreeIdg linked there and only then will these characters show up properly in UTF-8. I just tried and indeed they showed up on that page. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Szlevi (talk • contribs) 07:20, 28 March 2011 (UTC)

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Abbreviations HZL, CV, VC, CVC, V
Are the abbreviations C and V (V, CV, VC, CVC) always consonant and vowel? What is HZL? Hethitisches Zeichenlexikon? Does that mean Hittite-writing/Hittite-table(s) character lexicon? Misty MH (talk) 02:20, 25 June 2020 (UTC)

Yes, Yes, and 'Hittite Sign Dictionary' more or less Johundhar (talk) 15:54, 6 October 2021 (UTC)

Wrong Font
I don't exactly have a conflict of interest, but I feel uncomfortable just deleting lots of information that people worked hard on, even though it is inaccurate. What do I do?Johundhar (talk) 03:51, 30 May 2021 (UTC)


 * If the issue is the font, then there is no reason to delete the text itself, because it is a presentation issue, not an issue with the data. If it is possible to use wiki markup to deliver a web font for Hittite, that would be ideal, and should be done. But if not, the choice of font is unfortunately up to the user’s machine, not up to the article. Serentty (talk) 21:44, 1 August 2023 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the info. Shows how very little I know about web font issues.Johundhar (talk) 12:37, 12 February 2024 (UTC)

Most of these don't look like the Hittite cuneiform shapes in the standard textbooks on the subject. Johundhar (talk) 23:01, 28 December 2021 (UTC)

I would again like to emphasize that in this article, Wikipedia is spreading misinformation, falsely presenting Old Assyrian signs as Hittite cuneiform. I would recommend deleting it, or at least the signs, until you can get access to an accurate actual Hittite cuneiform font. Note also, from page 10 of A Grammar of the Hittite Language (Melchert and Hoffner): "...even a cursory comparison of Old Assyrian and Old Hittite cuneiform writing reveals that (1) the shapes of the signs (palaeography), (2) the selection of logograms (Sumerograms), and (3) the choice of signs for the expression of a given syllable (orthography) are all quite diﬀerent. For example, Old Assyrian uses the  sign for the syllable ti, while Hittite scribes used the  or  signs. It is therefore generally assumed that Ḫattušili I (ca. 1650–1600),during his military campaigns in North Syria, captured scribes who were using a form of the late Old Babylonian syllabary, and these captives formed the nucleus of the ﬁrst scribal academy at Ḫattuša" Johundhar (talk) 23:01, 28 December 2021 (UTC)