ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Anatolian languages

Anatolian languages are a group of languages that people used to speak a long, long, long time ago in an area called Anatolia, which is now part of modern-day Turkey. These people lived around 4,000 years ago, which is a really long time ago!

Now, when we say "languages", we mean that they spoke different ways than we do today. You know how we speak in English, with words like "hello" and "goodbye" and "please"? Well, the people who spoke Anatolian languages didn't use those same words. In fact, we don't really know exactly what words they used, because we don't have any written records of their language from that long ago.

But, we do know that these people had a really important impact on the world, even though we don't know exactly what they said or how they said it. One of the most important things they did was create writing for the first time! They made marks on tablets that told stories and recorded information.

One of the most famous kinds of writing from this time period is called "hieroglyphics". This means that they drew pictures to represent words, kind of like how you might draw a picture of your house and your family to show someone what your life is like.

Overall, the Anatolian languages are a really fascinating part of history, even though we don't know as much about them as we would like to. But, they are important because they help us learn more about how humans have evolved and changed over time, and how written language has developed.
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