Hittite (natively "[in the language] of Neša"), also known as Nesite and Neshite, is the extinct language once spoken by the Hittites, an Indo-European people who created an empire centred on  Hattusa  in north-central Anatolia (modern-day Turkey). The language is attested in cuneiform, in records from the 16th (Anitta text) down to the 13th century BC, with isolated Hittite loanwords and numerous personal names appearing in an Old Assyrian context from as early as the 20th century BC.