In Kanisite Hittite Alwin Kloekhorst discusses the ethno-linguistic make-up of Kanis (Central Anatolia, modern-day K ltepe), the most important Anatolian mercantile centre during the kārum-period (ca. 1970-1710 BCE), when Assyrian merchants dominated the trade in Anatolia. Especially by analysing the personal names of local individuals attested in Old Assyrian documents from Kanis, Alwin Kloekhorst demonstrates that the main language spoken there was a dialect of Hittite that was closely related to but nevertheless distinct from the Hittite language as spoken in the later Hittite Kingdom. This book offers a full account of all onomastic material and other linguistic data of Kanisite Hittite, which constitute the oldest attested record of any Indo-European language.