The first Hittite texts were deciphered by the Czech scholar Bedřich Hrozný in 1915, and his findings were published as Die Sprache der Hethiter in 1917. To mark the centenary of this achievement, the Institute of Comparative Linguistics at Charles University – of which Hrozný served as head in the early twentieth century – organized an international conference in 2015, attended by scholars from across the fields of Hittite linguistics and archaeology. On that occasion, the Goottite project was introduced: a searchable digital tool for the study of transliterated Hittite texts.

The search engine draws on digitized transliterations and provides users with multiple query options designed to support research across a range of Hittitological projects.

Hittite is an ancient language attested primarily on clay tablets written in the cuneiform script. The textual corpus is fragmentary, and our understanding of individual tablets continues to develop as new discoveries are made and existing editions are revised. Transliterations must therefore be treated as working tools rather than fixed outcomes: some readings remain contested, others may require future correction. Users are encouraged to consult photographs, autographs, and other available primary materials alongside the search results in order to obtain a complete picture of the original sources.

What Is in Our Corpus

The searchable corpus encompasses texts from all three main periods of the Hittite textual tradition: Old Hittite (OH), Middle Hittite (MH), and New Hittite (NH). The full list of tablets currently included is available here. The corpus continues to grow as additional texts are processed and verified.

Data Sources

The searchable corpus is based on data from the following sources. Users are requested to cite them when making use of this tool:

Thesaurus Linguarum Hethaeorum digitalis, hethiter.net/: TLHdig – Beta Version 0.3 (2025-11-01)

S. Košak, hethiter.net/: hetkonk (2.plus)

Contacts

Project author:
Dita Frantíková, Institute of Comparative Linguistics, Charles University, Prague
dita.frantikova@gmail.com

Software architect:
Daniel Frantík
daniel.frantik@gmail.com

Credits

The credits in A Grammar of the Hittite Language (Hoffner & Melchert, 2008) open with the dedication: “To the three giants of Hittitology, in whose shadow we stand: Hans Gustav Güterbock, Emmanuel Laroche, Heinrich Otten.” This sentiment resonates equally in the context of the present project. The Goottite corpus rests on the work of generations of scholars: those who excavated the tablets, prepared their first editions, produced transliterations, and refined the understanding of their predecessors. The full list of individuals to whom this tool is indebted cannot be reproduced here.

The periodization of texts into Old, Middle, and New Hittite follows the chronological framework established by Craig H. Melchert, whose work forms the basis for the dating of tablets within the corpus.

The resources of the Hethitologie Portal Mainz – directed by Prof. Dr. Daniel Schwemer and colleagues, and incorporating the Konkordanz, join skizze, and links to autographs and photographs assembled by Silvin Košak – remain indispensable tools for every Hittitologist, and the project is grateful for the accessibility they provide.

On a more personal note, I am grateful to my husband Daniel – a software analyst and database specialist by profession – who embraced this project as his own and contributed an immense amount of work to its technical development.

“For of Him, and through Him, and for Him, are all things. To Him be the glory forever more.”

Dita Frantíková

Jenštejn, 2026