Today, I will talk about why I think the Hittite 'ḫ' is one of the most 'famous' signs in all of linguistics. It's not necessarily my favourite, that goes to 'ǂ' but very interesting all the same. I will go over the basics of ablaut and laryngeal theory in Proto-Indo-European linguistics and how the Hittite 'ḫ' kinda proved that comparative linguistics as a field works.

This was an ambitious video for me so your patience is much appreciated! What about a deeper dive into some of these concepts later down the line?

For fun and curiosity, I included some Luwian hieroglyph and cuneiform examples of the ''ḫ'' in action. Very cool.

Here are the main resources I used to produce this video, in no particular order:
Rasmussen BA. F.O. Lindeman: Introduction to the 'Laryngeal Theory', Oslo 1987. Bibliotheca Orientalis. 1990;52-55.

Bednarczuk, L. (1988). Języki indoeuropejskie . (T. I-II). Państwowe Wydaw. Naukowe.

Ringe, D., Warnow, T. and Taylor, A. (2002), Indo-European and Computational Cladistics. Transactions of the Philological Society, 100: 59-129.

E. G. Pulleyblank (1965) The Indo-European Vowel System and the
Qualitative Ablaut, Word, 21:1, 86-101

Brugmann K. Elements Comparative Grammar Indo-Germanic Languages
Translated from German by J. Wright.1888. 5 vols.

Figulla H. H. Weidner E. F. Weber O. & Hrozný Bedřich. (1916). Keilschrifttexte aus boghazköi ... autographien. J.C. Hinrichs

Payne A. Hieroglyphic Luwian: An Introduction with Original Texts
Volume 2 of Subsidia et instrumenta linguarum orientis,
Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, 2010

Hawkins, J. (2000). Vol 1 Inscriptions of the Iron Age, Berlin, Boston