Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics
Extinct Indo-European language belonging to the Anatolian branch, the language of the Hittite Empire in Asia Minor, dating to the second millennium BC. The language is recorded on cuneiform tablets, mostly from the region around what is today 
excavated in 1905, and fairly quickly deciphered. Hrozný (1917) recognized that it was an Indo-European language. Hittite preserved several archaisms (
e.g. laryngeal theory), but on the other hand is much more simply structured than other Indo-European languages of that time (only two genders, animate/non-animate; simple tense system). Hittite is the earliest-attested Indo-European language; Sturtevant (1933) saw Anatolian and Indo-European as independent branches of an Indo-Hittite language group.
References
Bayun, L. 1991. Hittito-Luvian historical phonology. Journal of Ancient Civilization 6. 97–122.
Benveniste, E. 1962. Hittite et indo-européenne. Paris.
Friedrich, J. 1960. Hethitisches Elementarbuch. Heidelberg.
Held, W.H., W.R.Schmalstieg and J.E.Gertz. 1987. Beginning Hittite. Columbus, OH.
Hrozný, B. 1917. Die Sprache der Hethiter. Leipzig.
Kammenhuber, A. 1969. Hethitisch, Palaisch, Luwisch und Hieroglyphen-Luwisch. In J.Friedrich et al. (eds), Altkleinasiatische Sprachen (Handbuch der Orientalistik, vol. 2/12). Leiden.
119–57.
Kimball, S. 1995. Historical phonology of Hittite. Innsbruck.
Kronasser, H. 1956. Vergleichende Laut- und Formenlehre des Hethitischen. Heidelberg.
Oettinger, N. 1979. Die Stammbildung des hethitischen Verbums. Nürnberg.
Sturtevant, E.H. 1933. A comparative grammar of the Hittite language. New Haven, CT. (2nd edn 1951).
Dictionaries
Friedrich, J. and A.Kammenhuber. 1975–. Hethitisches Wörterbuch (vol. 3/12, 1994). Heidelberg.
Güterbock, H.G. and G.A.Hoffner. 1980–. The Hittite dictionary. Chicago, IL.
Hoffner, H.A. 1967. An English-Hittite glossary. Revue Hittite Asianique (Special issue).
Puhvel, J. 1984–. Hittite etymological dictionary, 3 vols. so far. Berlin and New York.
Journal
Hethitica.
Indo-European
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