<P> Hittite is the modern name for the language, chosen after the identification of the Hatti (Khatti) kingdom with the Hittites mentioned in the Bible (Hebrew Kheti), although this identification was subsequently challenged . The terms Hattian or Hattic, by contrast, are used to refer to the indigenous people who preceded them, and their non Indo - European Hattic language . </P> <P> In multi-lingual texts found in Hittite locations, passages written in the Hittite language are preceded by the adverb nesili (or nasili, nisili), "in the (speech) of Neša (Kaneš)", an important city before the rise of the Empire . In one case, the label is Kanisumnili, "in the (speech) of the people of Kaneš". </P> <P> Although the Hittite empire was composed of people from many diverse ethnic and linguistic backgrounds, the Hittite language was used in most of their secular written texts . In spite of various arguments over the appropriateness of the term, Hittite remains the most current term by convention, although some authors make a point of using Nesite or Neshite . </P> <P> The first substantive claim as to the affiliation of the Hittite language was made by Jørgen Alexander Knudtzon in 1902 in a book devoted to two letters between the king of Egypt and a Hittite ruler, found at El - Amarna in Egypt . Knudtzon argued that Hittite was Indo - European, largely on the basis of the morphology . Although he had no bilingual texts, he was able to give a partial interpretation to the two letters because of the formulaic nature of the diplomatic correspondence of the period . His argument was not generally accepted, partly because the morphological similarities he observed between Hittite and Indo - European can be found outside of Indo - European, and partly because the interpretation of the letters was justifiably regarded as uncertain . </P>

Diffusion is a special form of communication in which