Hittite

Grammar

Olivier Lauffenburger

09/14/2006
v0.4.5

ANA amml DAM

Contents

Chapter

Introduction
A. Foreword

B. Presentation

Chapter

Writing and Phonetics

A. Writing

9
12

B. Phonetics
1. Vowels

12

2. Consonants

13

3. Liaisons

17

Chapter

The noun
20

A. Derivation
B. Declension

23

1. Outline
2. Vocalic stems

23
24

a. a/-stems

24

b. i-stems

26
29

c. u-stems
3. Consonant stems

30

a. tt-stems

30

b. nt-stems

31
31

c. n-stems
d. l-stems
e. r-stems

32
32

f. r/n-stems

33

g. Miscellaneous stems

35
35

h. Irregular stems
C. Adjective comparison

37
3

Chapter

Pronouns and numbers

A. Personal pronouns

38

B. Possessive adjectives

40

C. Demonstrative pronouns

41

D. Interrogative and relative pronouns

42

E. Indefinite pronouns

43

F. Numbers

44

Chapter

The verb
A. Derivation

46

B. Inflection

47

1. Inflection of the active voice

50

a. mi-conjugation

50

1. Consonant stems

50

2. Vocalic stems

57

3. i-stems

59

4. iya-stems

61

5. Stems with infix -nin-

63

6. Iteratives in -sk-

64

7. Causatives in -nu-

66

b. hi-conjugation

67

1. Consonant stems

67

2. Vocalic stems

69

3. Irregular stems

73

c. Blend of mi- and hi-conjugations

2. Inflection of the medio-passive voice

74
76

1. Consonant stems

76

2. Vocalic stems

77

3. Compound forms

79

4. The verbal substantive

79

5. The infinitive

80

Chapter

Syntax
A. Agreement

81
4

B. Case usage

83

1. Vocative

83

2. Accusative

83

3. Dative-Locative and Allative

84

4. Genitive

85

5. Ablative and Instrumental

86

6. Ergative

87

7. Supplement

87

C. Comparison of adjective

88

D. Adverbs

88

E. Postpositions

89

F. Pronouns

90

1. Personal pronouns

90

2. Reflexive pronouns

91

3. Possessive pronouns

92

4. Demonstrative pronouns

93

5. Indefinite pronouns

93

G. The verb

93

1. Voices

93

2. Tense and mode usage

94

3. Iterative usage

96

4. Verbal substantives usage

97

H. Negation

99

I. Interrogation

100

J. Particles

100

1. Generalities

100

2. The quotation particle

101

3. The particle -pat even, also

102

4. The particles of position -kan and -san

103

5. The particles -(a)sta and -(a)pa

104

K. Conjunctions

104

1. -a, -ya and, also

104

2. nu and

105

3. ta and su and

108

4. Other coordinating conjunctions

109

L. Clauses
1. Final clause and purpose clause

110
110

2. Causal clause and dependant positive sentence

110

3. Temporal clause

110

4. Conditional clause

111

5. Concessive clause

112

6. Indirect interrogative clause

113

7. Relative clause

113

Chapter 1

Introduction
A. Foreword
The outline of grammar presented here is inspired from the Hethitisches Elementarbuch by
Johannes Friedrich. However, it is not an exact translation of this book. I have nevertheless used his
examples, his tables of the different paradigms and his numbering of the classes of verbs
(referenced in the lexicon).
I have deviated from the usual rules of transcription of Hittite by replacing the sign by the letter 's',
according to the correspondence Hittite cuneiform = phonetic /s/. This replacement only takes
place for the the transcription of whole Hittite words, not when transcribing cuneiform signs ; one
will find for instance 'wa-a-ta = wasta'. Moreover, in order to simplify the typing and since there is
no ambiguity, the letter has been replaced by the simple h.
I have also replaced the symbols u and i used in the grammar of Friedrich by the common letters w
and y (excepted for the cuneiform sign noted ia by Friedrich that I have transcribed ia, according to
the most frequent transcription today). Furthermore, I have modified the transcriptions of Friedrich
when the vowels of two consecutive signs do not match. I have used instead the phonetic values
recognized nowadays that match. For example, p-e-ta is replaced by p-e-ta.
For the numbering of paragraphs, I have used the same one as the grammar of Friedrich, which
allows me to cross-reference data more easily inside the grammar, and among the grammar, the
lexicon and the texts. Moreover, the owners of the grammar of Friedrich will be able to find directly
the paragraphs.
Finally, this grammar is based on the second edition of the grammar of Friedrich that goes back to
1960. Hence, the grammar presented here does not take into account discoveries that have been
made since.

B. Presentation
Hittite is an Indo-European (I.E.) language, member of the Anatolian language family. It has been
deciphered from cuneiform tablets discovered in the 20th century in Anatolia, more precisely at
Bogazky, where once stood Hattusa, the capital of the Hittite empire. The discovered tablets range
from 1600 to 1200 BC.
The Anatolian family includes several well-attested languages : Hittite, Luwian, Palaic, and several
languages more poorly attested, or whose membership with the Anatolian family is not quite
certain : Lydian, Lycian, Sidetian, Pisidic, Carian.
Hittite texts sometimes include Luwian words (preceded by a special sign :
or
), since
Hittites employed Luwian priests and a lot of Luwian-speaking people were living in the Hittite
realm.
After the fall of the Hittite empire, the peoples around used a writing of "hieroglyphic" type which
was already in use in parallel with the cuneiform writing, and which for a long time was believed to
be Hittite, but whose partial deciphering showed that it was Luwian.
The Anatolian family exhibits a lot of peculiar features compared with the other I.E. families, so
much so that some thought of it as a sister family of I.E., with both descending from a hypothetical
"Indo-Hittite". It is more probable that the Anatolian languages are part of I.E., but of an earlier
stage than the "classical" I.E. (Brugmannian). This former stage is then called Proto-Indo-European
(P.I.E.) or I.E. II, in opposition to the later I.E. (I.E. III). In particular, the Anatolian languages still
used P.I.E. phonemes (laryngeals) that vanished in the other I.E. languages.
The name "Hittite" comes from Hatti, name of the country and the language (non I.E.) of the people
present before the Hittites. The Hittite kings called themselves "kings of the land of Hatti". The
name that Hittites gave to themselves was "Nesumna" (inhabitants of the town of Nesa), and their
tongue "Nesili".

Chapter 2

Writing and Phonetics

A. Writing
1) a) The Hittite scribes borrowed the cuneiform writing in use in Mesopotamia.
b) The cuneiform writing was invented by the Sumerians and was originally an ideographic writing.
A sign was drawn as a little picture and represented a notion in relation with the pictogram. For
example, the sign representing a foot was used to mean "to stand", "to walk", "to run", "to bring",
etc... When the drawing of the signs got simplified over the years, the original meaning of the signs
became less and less clear, and the writing became logographic : a sign was used to represent a
precise word of the language rather than an idea. However, the signs remained polysemous since
they kept the several meanings that they had already acquired.
c) Furthermore, a peculiar feature of the Sumerian language is its apparent high level of
homophony1. A lot of different Sumerian words have the same pronunciation but a different
meaning, and are thus written with a different sign. Hence, it is necessary for the modern scholar to
distinguish between the shape of the sign and its pronunciations (and meanings). As a result, the
signs are numbered according to their shape in various sign lists, independently of their
pronunciation. For example, the sign
"sky" or DINGIR "god".

( has the number 13 in the list of Labat. It can be read AN

d) The signs are represented by their Sumerian reading. In order to distinguish between the readings
of homophonic signs, these readings are numbered according to the frequency of the signs.
Traditionally, the first index is not written, the second and third indices are replaced respectively by
an acute and a grave accent on the vowel of monosyllabic words2. For example, the signs

, S,

, ) are transcribed u, , , u4.

e) The third stage of evolution of the cuneiform writing was the invention of the phonetic use of
signs. Another peculiar feature of the Sumerian language is the fact that a great proportion of its
words are monosyllabic. As a result, the Sumerian scribes had the idea to use a sign for its phonetic
value instead of its logographic value. This phonetic use was somehow restricted to complement the
logographic signs, either to select among the various readings of one sign, or to specify grammatical
features such as declension or conjugation which could not be written down with a pure ideographic
writing. However, non-native speakers of Sumerian such as Akkadians or Hittites were naturally
inclined to make a widespread use of the phonetic writing since there was no more relation between
the logographic meaning of a sign and its phonetic reading in their respective languages.
2) The Hittite cuneiform writing uses all three modes of cuneiform writing : phonetic, logographic
1 This apparent homophony may be an illusion caused by our incomplete knowledge of the phonetic system of
Sumerian. Actually, the Sumerian reading of the signs is known to us thanks to the Akkadian scribes spelling them
out ; as a result, the reading of a sign is filtered through the different phonetic system of Akkadian. Some scholars
have posited that Sumerian was a tonal language, or that it had more vowels than supposed, but these theories are
fundamentally unprovable.
2 Sumerologists tend to use only indices and avoid more and more the use of accents. Assyriologists and Hittitologists
still abide by the use of accents.

and determinative.
a) The phonetic signs are syllabic. They can represent a group consonant + vowel (e.g. ba, mi, ru),
vowel + consonant (e.g. ab, ir, uk) or consonant + vowel + consonant (e.g. bar, kid, lum). Signs of
the third kind can also be expressed by the use of two signs of the first and second kinds : bar can
be written ba + ar, kid ki + id and lum lu + um.
b) There exist signs for the lone vowels. There are no sign for lone consonants.
3) Logograms are non-phonetic signs representing a whole word. They can be read in any language,
be it English, French, Russian, etc... For example, the sign for "god" ( is read dingir in Sumerian,
ilum in Akkadian, siuna- in Hittite, eni- in Hurrian, etc... As another example, the sign for "land" A
is read kur in Sumerian, mtum in Akkadian, utn- in Hittite, umini- in Hurrian, ebani- in Urartean,
etc... It sometimes happens that the Hittite reading is unknown. In this case, the sign is transcribed
by its Sumerian reading in capital : DINGIR, KUR, etc... Composite logograms are composed of
several signs ; they are transcribed separated by a dot : ANE.KUR.RA "horse".
4) a) A word can be written either phonetically or logographically : the Hittite word for "god" can be
written i--na or DINGIR. The Hittite scribes, like the Akkadian ones, kept on using logograms as
short cuts in order to save their energy and space on tablet ; for example, it is faster to write
DINGIR ( instead of i--ni-i S. It also happens that a logogram is followed by a
phonetic complement, especially in order to exhibit its declension. For example, the verb walh- ("to
strike") (logogram GUL) has a form walhun ("I struck") that can be written phonetically wa-al-huun, or half-logographically GUL-hu-un or GUL-un. The substantive isha- ("lord") (logogram EN)
has a Nom. Sg. ishs that can be written phonetically i-ha-a-a or half-logographically EN-a, an
Acc. Sg ishn written i-ha-a-an or EN-an, a Dat.-Loc. Sg. ishi written i-hi-i or EN-i, a Nom. Pl.
ishs written i-he-e-e or ENME-e (or simply ENME, cf 6d).
b) Some words were written only as logograms by Hittites, so that we do not know their
pronunciation, for example DUMU-a "son", MUNUS-za "woman", R-i "slave", GUD-u "ox",
1-a "one".
5) a) Hittites also used to insert Akkadian words amid Hittite texts. These words are often called
akkadograms as they seem to be used logographically. In transcriptions, those words will be written
in italic capital, with the signs separated by a dash. Thus, one can find for Hittite isha- "lord" the
Akkadian blu(m) "lord" written : Nom. Sg. BE-LU (older: BE-LUM), Acc. Sg. BE-LAM, Nom. Pl.
BE-LUME, etc... For the Hittite Dat.-Loc. Sg. atti-mi "to my father", one can find an Akkadian
word preceded by the Akkadian preposition ana "to" : A-NA A-BI-IA "to my father".
b) Hittite phonetic complements are seldom found after akkadograms : for example,
IK-AN-NU-UM-it "by means of a jar-stand", EL-LAM-a Gen. Sg. "of a free". The case of the
Akkadian monosyllabic word in construct state UM "name", used as a logogram with a Hittite
phonetic complement, is different : Nom.-Acc. Sg. UM-an for Hittite lman "name".
c) A logogram can be followed by a Hittite phonetic complement, but also by an Akkadian one : for
example DUMURU "son" (Akkad. mru), 1EN "one" (Akkad. itn), DINGIRLUM or DINGIRLIM
"god" (Akkad. Nom. Sg. ilum, Gen. Sg. ilim), dUTUI "my Sun" (title of the Hittite kings ; Akkad.
am).
d) Sumerian conjugated forms such as BA.UG7 "he is dead" (root UG7 + prefix BA), KI.LAL.BI
"its weight" are rare in the Hittite context.
10

e) Akkadian declensions are not always respected : L.ULU3.LU-an ELLUM next to correct
L.ULU3.LU-an ELLAM.
6) a) Determinatives are ideograms used to define the category of a word to which they are attached.
They are not pronounced. Most of the determinatives are placed before the word they complement.
The logogram DINGIR "god" is also used as a determinative for all divine names (it is transcribed d
for DINGIR): dTelepinu, dU or dIKUR "storm-god", dITAR, etc... The logogram DI points out a
proper name (it is transcribed m for male or I since DI also represents the number 1) : mMursili,
mSuppiluliuma. L "man" points out a profession or an inhabitant : Lwestara- "shepherd",
Lanniniyami- "cousin (m.)", LKR "enemy", LU.GI "elder". MUNUS "woman" points out a
woman's profession or a woman's name (it is transcribed f for female) : fanniniyami- "cousin (f.)",
fU.GI "the Elder" (a priestess), fPutuhepa. URU "town" points the name of a town : URUHattusa,
URUHalpa "Alep", I "wood" points out the name of a tree or objects made originally of wood and
by extension of other materials : IHAHUR "apple tree", Ihattalu- "lock".
b) KUR "land" for country names is not considered as a determinative, but rather as a substantive.
Thus, for example KUR URUHatti "the land Hatti", KUR URUArzawa "the land Arzawa" should be
understood as an Akkadian genitive "the land of Hatti".
c) Determinatives following their noun are fewer : MUEN "bird" for names of birds : hara- MUEN
"eagle", or KI "place" (as well as URU.KI "place of the town") for names of place : URUHalpaKI
"Alep", KUR A.GA.DKI "land of Akkad".
d) An important subclass of determinatives following their noun is composed of the plural markers
ME and HI.A, more rarely DIDLI (i.e. A.A) or ME.HI.A or DIDLI.HI.A : ENME or
BE-LUME "lords", ERIN2ME ANU.KUR.RAHI.A "foot-soldiers and charioteers", URUDIDLI.HI.A
"towns", ERIN2ME.HI.A "foot-soldiers".
7) a) When writing out Hittite texts, phonetic signs are transcribed by their Akkadian values.
b) However, the Hittite reading is in fact different and it should be remembered that the cuneiform
signs a, e, i, u are used for the Hittite syllables sa, se, si, su. While za, ze, zi, zu are used to
denote the voiced spirant z in Akkadian, they are used to denote the affricate ts in Hittite. The
Akkadian sign i (with emphatic ) is also read z, whereas the only reading in Hittite - which has
no emphatics - is z. The Akkadian sign sul, ul is read zul in Hittite (also written zu-ul).
8) a) A few signs have values specific to Hittite. The Akkadian sign can be read t in Hittite
texts. The Akkadian me is also read e in Hittite (transcribed e17). ETIN is used in Akkadian
only as a logogram for "wine" (Akk. karnu, Hit. wiyana-), whereas it is read wi in Hittite
(transcribed wi5). This is a nice example of derivation of a phonetic value from the first syllable of
the reading of a logographic sign.
b) Some readings come from a logographic game, especially for proper nouns. The ending -ili of
royal names such as mMursili, mHattusili, etc... can be written with the sign DINGIR (Akk. ilu(m)
"god", Gen. Sing. ili(m)) ; thus, one can find inscriptions such that mMu-ur-i-DINGIRLIM = mMuur-i-ILI(M), mHa-at-tu-i-DINGIRLIM = mHa-at-tu-i-ILI(M). The name of the country Hatti
sounds like the Akkad. hau "sceptre" (logogram IGIDRU), thus, the royal name mHattusili is
sometimes written m.IGIDRU-i-DINGIRLIM.
11

B. Phonetics
1. Vowels
9) a) It is not always possible to read with certainty the vowel e (as in Akkadian). The signs of the
syllables me, ne, el, e differ from those of the syllables mi, ni, il, i, but the signs for re, le, ez, etc...,
are also used for ri, li, iz, etc...
b) The existence of a vowel o differentiated from u in writing is unclear.
10) Even when Hittite can differentiate in writing between e and i, both vowels are often found.
Next to e-e-har "blood", one also find written i-har ; next to p-e-ta "he gave", p-i-ta ; next to
p-e-i-ia-mi "I threw", p-e-i-ia-zi "he threw", one also finds p-e-e-ia-mi, p-i-ia-az-zi ; next
to -i "to him", also -e ; next to i-hi-i "to the lord", also e-h ; next to u-un-nu-me-en "we pushed
her", also u-un-nu-um-mi-in, etc... It is probable that the pronunciation of the Hittite e was very
closed, close to that of i.
11) There exists an alternation between e (i) and a in the Hittite paradigms : from sak- "to know" are
derived the forms saggai "I know", sakti and sekti "you know (Sg.)", sakki "he knows", sekteni "you
know (Pl.)", sekkanzi "they know", sakta and sekta "he knew" ; from ak- "to die", aki "he dies",
akkanzi "they die", but akir and ekir "they died" ; and from asas- "to sit", assi "he sits", but
asesanzi "they sit", asasta and asesta "he sat", asesir "they sat".
watar "water" has a Gen. Sg. wetenas and a Nom.-Acc. Pl. widr, tekan "earth" a Gen. Sg. taknas.
Next to esmi "I am" and eszi "he is", one finds asanzi "they are" ; next to ekuzi "he drinks",
akuwanzi "they drink" and the iterative akkusk- "to drink copiously" ; next to mekki- "much", a verb
makkeszi "he does much". Instead of paiweni "we go", paitteni "you go (Pl.)", one can find paiwani
and paittani ; instead of daskitteni "you regularly take (Pl.)", daskatteni ; instead of piskir "they
regularly gave", piskar. The reason for this alternation is not well understood.
12) There are sometimes variations between u and : a-pu-u-un and a-pu--un "this" (Acc. Sg. of
ap- "this"), u-i-ia-at-tin and -e-ia-at-tin "send! (Pl.)", da-a- and da-a-u "he should take".
13) a) The diphtongue -ai- can be contracted to -e- (-i-) : paista and pesta "he gave", naisut and
nesut "turn! (Sg.)", kappuwit and kappuet "he checked", kappuwizzi and kappuizzi "he checks".
b) A reverse diphtongation sometimes occurs by analogical correction where e is written ai : instead
of epta "he grabs", one finds a-ip-ta ; instead of meggaus "much", ma-iq-qa-us.
c) An alternation between -i- and -a- sometimes occurs : pisi and occasionally psi "you go (Sg)".
14) a) 1. -(i)ya- can be reduced to -e- (-i-)1 : memiyani and memini "for the word", tiezzi and tizzi "he
enters", wemiyat and wemit "he found", tiyantes "those who are sitting" (from di- "to sit") and
tintes.
2. From sankuwai- "nail", one finds the Gen. Sg. sankuis next to the neighboring form sankuwayas
(and sankuwas).
b) Next to iskiyazi and iskizzi "he anoints", one finds the poorly understood form iskiyizzi.
15) a) -aya- can be contracted to -a- : Gen. Sg. of salli- "tall" sallayas and sallas, Abl. Sg. of suppi1 This reduction depends on the period where the text has been written.

12

"pure" suppayaz(a) and suppaz(a).

16) The diphtongs ue- (ui-) and -ue- (-ui-) can be contracted to u- and -u- : ueter and uter "they
brought ", uinut and sometimes unut "let leave! (Sg.)", kuera- and kura- "entrance", karuili- and
karuli- "old", atraweni and atrauni "we write", parkueszi and sometimes parkuszi "he becomes
pure".
17) a) In the same way, (u)wa- and -(u)wa- can be reduced to u- and -u- : antuwas and antuas
"man", awari- and auri- "border post", lauwatin and lautin "pour! (Pl.)" (also lauwai and laui "he
pours"), uwartas and urtas "he cursed", waranu and uranu "he should burn down", sanuwanzi and
sanunzi "they roast" (Part. sanuwant- and sanunt- "roasted").
b) More rarely, -uwa- (uwa-) is contracted to -ue- (ue-) : kappuwanzi and kappuenzi "they check",
uwanzi and uenzi "they come".
c) At the opposite of a), the initial u- can be lengthened to uw- : uwarkant- for warkant- "fat",
uwasta- for wasta- "to sin", uwitar for widr (N.-A. of watar "water").
18) The variations of the previous forms should not be confused with the regular I.E. ablaut that
connects kunzi "he strikes" to kunnzi "they strike" and kuerzi "he cuts" to kuranzi "they cut". The
ablaut also connects di "he sits" to tiyanzi "they sit", the Nom. Sg. zahhis "battle" to Gen. Sg.
zahhiyas (69), ais "mouth" to Dat.-Loc. Sg. issi (87), as well as tekan "earth" to Gen. Sg. taknas
(78), hannessar "business" to Gen. Sg. hannesnas (84), asawar "enclosure" to Dat.-Loc. asauni
(85).

2. Consonants
a) Consonants groups
19) a) There is no rule to discriminate in the writing between simple and doubled consonants. Next
to the forms pessiyazi "he throws", iyattari "he goes", istamasti "you hear (Sg.)", memiyani "word
(Dat.-Loc. Sg.)", innarawanni "vigor (?) (Dat.-Loc. Sg.)", tarnatti "you let (Sg.)", one also finds
pisiyazzi, iyatari, isdammasti, memiyanni, innarawani, tarnati. It is probable that the scribes were
inclined to omit complex cuneiform signs when they felt that they were not necessary.
b) The difference between simple consonant and doubled consonnant corresponds to an opposition
between fortis consonant and lenis consonant. This opposition probably results for stops in an
opposition unvoiced / voiced. For example, attas "father" is pronounced /atas/, whereas apz
"consequently" is pronounced /abz/.
Stops are supposed to be always fortis in initial position and lenis in final position : genu "knee" =
/kenu/ and sipant "libation" = /spand/. The "law of Sturtevant" explains that in median position, the
sequence of cuneiform signs V-CV points out a lenis consonant, whereas a sequence VC-CV points
out a fortis consonant. E.g. ap-pa-tar = /apadar/.
20) a) The choice between a voiced or unvoiced cuneiform sign seems completely arbitrary : da, di,
du can be found instead of ta, ti, tu ; ga (qa), gi, gu instead of ka, ki, ku ; ba instead of pa. Some
examples : damai- and tamai- "other", atta- and adda- "father", -ti- and -di- "your (Sg.)", esdu and
estu "he must be", kanes- and ganes- "to discover", kinu- and ginu- "to leave", taggasta and takkista
"he gathers", KUkursa- and KUgursa- "skin", daskatten, dasqaten and daskiten "take! (Pl.)", Gen.
Sg. of kuiski "someone" kuelka, kuelga and kuelqa, Lpatili- and Lbatili- (a priest).
13

Some words are however always written in the same manner. For example, one finds written gi(-e)nu "knee" (and not *ki-e-nu-), di "he sits", but tiyanzi "they sit". In the lexicon, the voiced b, d, g
will not be separated from the unvoiced p, t, k.
b) The Hittites apparently borrowed the cuneiform writing from the Hurrians who themselves had
borrowed it from the Old-Akkadians. This could explain why the Hittite writing system did not
differentiate between the voiced and the unvoiced consonants, along with the usage of for the
phoneme /s/, matching the Old-Akkadian writing of the sibilants. The Hittite writing system was
thus different from the one in usage at the same time in Mesopotamia. As an example of the
difference in the writing of the stops between Hittite and Akkadian, the Akkadian-Hittite lexical list
KBo I,45 contains at line 11 : a-pa-du (for the Akkadian verb abtu) = ap-pa-tar.
21) A limitation of the cuneiform writing comes from the fact that cuneiform signs can only
represent syllables of the kind consonant + vowel (CV), vowel + consonant (VC) and consonant +
vowel + consonant (CVC). Hence, it is neither possible to write a group of two initial or final
consonants, nor to write a group of three consonants, for example *tri- "three" (initial), *link "swear!
(Sg.)" (final), *karp-zi "he lifts" (median). The Hittite scribes overcame this limitation by inserting
an extra vowel, especially at positions normally forbidden by the rules of cuneiform writing : te-ri-,
li-in-ik and kar-ap-zi. Indeed, in classical Akkadian cuneiform writing, the last phoneme of a
phonetic sign must be in harmony with the first phoneme of the following phonetic sign in such a
way that a (non-initial) sign starting with a vowel must be preceded by a sign ending with a vowel
(CV-VC but not CV-CV)1. One should always keep in memory that the writing always exhibits
more vowels than the spoken language. However, it is not always easy to know whether a vowel is
real or not.
22) a) The interpretation in median position is generally easy : forms such as a-an-ah-zi "he
searches" have an incorrect spelling in "usual" cuneiform writing (with a final consonant and an
initial vowel following), which indicates that the pronunciation is not *sanahzi which would be
written *a-na-ah-zi. Furthermore, a form such as a-an-hu-un "I searched" points out a root sanh-,
which brings to a spoken form *sanhzi "he searches". Many verbs are similar to sanh-, for example
parh- "to hunt" (pr-ah-zi "he hunts"), karp- "to lift" (kar-ap-zi "he lifts"), tarh- "to hold in check"
(tar-ah-zi), walh- "to strike" (wa-al-ah-zi), warp- "to bathe" (wa-ar-ap-zi), etc...
However, unclear forms such as a-an-ha-zi "he searches", wa-ar-pa-zi "he bathes", etc... can be
found. Moreover, for hinkzi "he presents" (root hink-), one finds hi-in-ik-zi, hi-in-ga-zi and hi-ik-zi
(with a reduced n ; 31a), for linkt(a) "he swore" (root link-) li-in-ik-ta, li-in-kat-ta and li-ik-ta
(157), iterative forms such as a-ar-a-ki-it for *ar-sk-it "he came several times" (root ar-).
b) Initial forms are less clear like az-zi-ik-kn-zi "they adore" for *at-sk-anzi (iterative of ed- "to
eat" ; 141b), i-pa-an-za-ki-iz-zi "he makes several sacrifices" for *spant-sk-izzi. One finds even
less clear forms : from *(i)spart- "to escape", i-pr-za-zi "he escapes", (i.e. *(i)spart-s-zi with
z = /ts/, 27a), i-pr-za-a-ta "he escaped" (i.e. *(i)spart-s-t) next to i-pr-te-er "they escaped"
(i.e. *(i)spart-er). From hat- "to dry" (hti "it dries", hter "they dried"), one finds ha-az-ta and
ha-(az)-za-a-ta "it dried" (i.e. *hat-s-t(a)). One also finds unclear iterative forms of tar- "to say" :
tar-a-i-ki-iz-zi "he repeated" (i.e. *tar-sk-izzi) and tar-a-a-a-ki-id-du "he must repeat"
(i.e. *tar-sk-iddu!)
23) a) These extra vowels sometimes occur even though they are not necessary in the writing : e.g.
1 Broken written forms can occur in Akkadian, but they either represent a morphemic writing such as a-pur-am for
the ventive apuram, or a glottal stop such as i-al for i'al.

14

a-an-hu-un and a-an-ah-hu-un "I searched" (root sanh-), wa-al-hi-ir and wa-al-ah-hi-ir "they
stroke" (root walh-), kar-pa-an-zi and kar-ap-pa-an-zi "they lift" (root karp- ; 157). The reason for
this phenomenon is unclear ; it can be analogical to forms such that a-an-ah-ta "he searched",
wa-al-ah-zi "he stroke", etc.., or really express a phonetically double consonant *sanhhun,
*walhher, or indicate a mute vowel *san()hun, *wal()her, or in the case of the alternation h/hh
two different consonants (28). For arhun "I arrived" (root ar-), the transcription a-ar-ah-hu-un
next to a-ar-hu-un can be found.
b) An incorrect spelling of syllables is not always caused by an extra vowel ; the vowel can be real
with a simplified spelling of the word. The form ki-an "as follows" is often found next to
ki-i-a-an, more rarely ma-a-ah-an next to ma-ah-ha-an "as", Lhi-ip-pr-a ("prisoner"),
i-i-at-ti for *i-i-a-at-ti "you destroy (Sg.)", u-up-ia-ah "clean! (Sg.)" next to u-up-p-ia-ah,
dIa-ar-i next to dI-ia-ar-ri-i, mar-mar-a "bush (??)" next to Dat.-Loc. Sg. mar-mar-ri, etc...
c) Finally, one can find correct transcriptions according to syllable splitting, even though the vowel
does not actually exist : a-na-ah-ti "you searches (Sg.)" (for *sanh-ti) and wa-la-ah-i "you strikes
(Sg.)" (for *walh-si).
24) The interpretation of the writing at the initial position is mainly based on assumptions. For
zi-ik-kn-zi "they put", the analogy with az-zi-ik-kn-zi "they adore" (= *at-sk-anzi ; 22b) allows to
posit the form *t-sk-anzi (with a reduction t- of the root di- "to put, to place"). For pa-ra-a "ahead,
forward", the etymological link with I.E. *pro allows to assume a pronunciation *pra, whereas the
form te-ri-ia-al-la (a liquid) has a variant 3-ia-al-la which lets assume a pronunciation *triyalla
(129b3).
It is probable that the very frequent (written) initials isp- and ist- (e.g. ispi- "to be content ", ispant
"night", ispart- "to escape", istap- "to lock", istamas- "to hear", istandi- "to hesitate", istark- "to
become ill", etc...) are in fact pronounced sp- and st-, even if it is also possible that it could be a
prothetic vowel (cf. lat. scalas > fr. chelle).
25) a) 1. The interpretation of the finals is not always as clear as the imperatives li-in-ik "swear!
(Sg.)" (next to li-in-ki, root link-), wa-al-ah "strike! (Sg.)" (root walh-), a-an-ha "search! (Sg)"
(next to a-a-ha, root sanh- ; 157). For example, the analogy brings to postulate from the ending of
Pret. 3 Sg. in -t of verbs with vocalic ending such as iya- "to do ", hatri- "to write" (iyat "he did",
hatrit "he wrote") that the written ending -ta of Pret. 3 Sg. of verbs with consonant ending such as
es- "to be", istamas- "to hear", walh- "to strike" (e-e-ta "he was", i-ta-ma-a-ta "he heard",
wa-al-ah-ta "he stroke") represents in fact a (spoken) ending -t (i.e. *est, *(i)stamast, *walht).
2. The same phenomenon occurs for the substantive : from aniyat(t)- "vigor" (Acc. Sg. aniyattan),
the Nom. Sg. a-ni-ia-az (76a) is interpreted as a form *aniyat-s (with z = /ts/ ; 27a). This allows to
interpret the Nom. Sg. ka-a-za "hunger" (root kast- ; Acc. Sg. kastan) as a form *kast-s, likewise
for a--i-ti-i-za "baby" interpreted as *sawitist-s. The written forms Nom. Sg. hu-u-ma-an-za
"whole" and participles a-da-an-za "eaten" (roots humant-, adant-) are interpreted as spoken forms
*hmant-s, *adant-s.
b) However, when the particle -a "and, also" is added to the Nom. Sg. of a participle in -an-za =
*-ant-s, the ending, spoken as *-ants-a, is not written simply -an-za, but rather -an-za-a, e.g.
ir-ma-la-an-za "ill", ir-ma-la-an-za-a "ill too". In fact, to -an-za = *-ants is added the smallest
phonetic unit ending the group *-antsa, that is the sign a = *sa (27b). The ending -an-za-a-a is
also used : Lap-pa-an-za "the prisoner", Lap-pa-an-za-a-a "and the prisoner".
15

26) It seems that the groups of consonants could be split by inserting vowels really pronounced.
Thus, one finds close written forms like gimra- and gimmara- "field", kussani and kusni "as a
reward" (also kussansit, kussanissit and kussasset "his reward" 31a), assanu- and asnu- "to
prepare", kar-a-nu-, kar-a-nu- and kar-a-a-nu- "to miss", tuhs- and tuhhus- "to carve", nasma
and nassuma "or". The distinction with the case of unspoken vowels (22ff.) is not always clear :
from taks- "to link" is derived the Part. tk-a-an-za "linked", but tk-ke-e-e-a-an-zi "they link" ;
e-e-har-um-mi-it "their blood".
b) Isolated consonants
27) From the four sibilants z, s, , of the Akkadian cuneiform writing, Hittite only uses and z.
The letter is used, as in Assyrian, to denote the sound /s/, while the letter z denotes the sound /ts/.
a) z = /ts/ can be demonstrated by comparing forms like da-k-izzi "he takes several times" (iterative
of d- "to take") and azzikkizzi = *at-sk-izzi "he adores" (iterative of ed- "to eat"), as well as the
Nom. Sg. aniyaz = *aniyat(t)-s "vigor" compared with the Acc. Sg. aniyattan (root aniyat(t)-).
b) = /s/ can be demonstrated by Egyptian incriptions like Mrsr for mMurili, Htsr for mHattuili,
etc... (the Egyptian writing differenciates s and ), as well as the comparison of the forms da-k-izzi
and azzikkizzi = *at-sk-izzi.
c) On the other hand, the extent of the difference between and z is not well known for Proto-Hatti
(e.g. the name of the town URULihina next to URULihzina) and Palaic, even for Hittite. Indeed, one
finds close forms such as akkar and zakkar "excrements", zamangur "beard" and amankurwant"bearded", zahi- and zazhi- "dream".
28) It is possible that the Hittite h had two different pronunciations :
a) a (less attested) stronger pronunciation, close to k, e.g. the isolated forms tetkissar, hameskanza
instead of the neighboring forms tethessar "storm", hameshanza "spring", and conversely
UZUishisa- instead of UZUiskisa- "back". The woman's Hurrian name fGiluhepa is written Krgp in
Egyptian.
b) a (well attested) weaker pronunciation (maybe only a breath), as indicated by the variants eshar
"blood" (Gen. Sg. eshanas) next to the rarer essar (Gen. Sg. esnas), as well as the isolated forms
idalawatti and tannattauwanzi for the neighboring form idalawahti "you act badly (Sg.)",
danattahhuwanzi "to devastate".
c) The Hittite h comes from Proto-Indo-European phonemes called "laryngeals" that vanished in all
I.E. language families, except the Anatolian family. Many variants of the theory of laryngeals exist
that vary on the quality and the number of P.I.E. laryngeals. These laryngealist theories have been
built to explain some particular phenomena in I.E., but the later discovery of Hittite has proved their
validity.
In the most common theory, P.I.E. had three laryngeals, noted H1, H2 and H3 that could "color" a
neighboring vowel 'e'. The laryngeal H1 had no coloration effect, the laryngeal H2 colored in 'a' and
the laryngeal H3 colored in 'o'. In Hittite, the laryngeal H1 vanished and the laryngeal H3 was
retained only in initial position. In median position, the fricative resulting from a laryngeal can be
lenis (written between two vowels by 'h') or fortis (written between two vowels by 'hh'). For
example, eshar "blood" < *esH2er, tar-ah-ha-an (root tarh- "to defeat") < *terH2-, hant "face" <
*H ent, happ-in-ant "rich" < *H ep-. It should be noted that the theory described here is
2
3
16

incomplete : it does not explain cases where Hittite displays a 'h' where there is no laryngeal, and
conversely cases where Hittite does not display a 'h' where a laryngeal occured.
According to Kortlandt, for example, initial H2 and H3 remain in front of an 'e' but vanish in front of
an 'o' : *H3erbh- > harp- "to separate" but *H3orgh-ey- > ark- "to mount".
29) a) The -w- of the group -uw- often becomes m, especially with verbs in -nu- (169) and verbs in
-u(m)- (174). From hatri- "to write" hatraweni "we write" are constructed the Inf. I hatrawanzi
and the verbal substantive hatrawar, but from arnu- "to bring" arnummeni, arnummanzi and
arnummar, from tarna- "to let" tarnummeni, tarnummanzi and tarnummar.
b) -mu- is sometimes found instead of -wu- : from idlu- "nasty", one finds the Nom. Pl. Com.
idlawes but the Acc. Pl. Com. idlamus. Likewise, one finds from zashi- "dream" the Acc. Pl.
zashimus.
30) a) Hittite has no initial r.
b) In median and final position, r is weakly pronounced, to such a point that it is sometimes omitted
in writing. Examples in final position : paprta instead of paprtar "impurity", miyata instead of
miyatar "prosperity", hatressa instead of hatressar "sending" ; in median position : waggantes
instead of wargantes (Nom. Pl.) "fat", artati- instead of artarti- "mushroom (?)", pian instead of
piran "in front of", TGkuessar instead of TGkuressar "scarf".
31) In the same way, n in median position is weakly pronounced and is often omitted :
hu-u-ma-da-az next to hmandaz (Abl. Sg. of hmant- "each"), -e-e-a-ta for wessanta "they
dress", i-ta-ta-a-it next to istandit "he stayed", kar-pa-zi next to karpanzi "they lift", ne-e-a-za
next to neyanza "driven", me-mi-ia-u-a-zi next to memiyawanzi "to speak", li-ik-ta next to li-in-katta (both = *linkt) "he swore" (root link-). It is possible that the vowel was nasalized.
b) Conversely, an extra n letter is sometimes written though it does not exist : nepisanza instead of
nepisaz "from the sky" (Abl. Sg.), hassannanza for hassannaz "out of the family", an isolated form
li-in-kn-ta for *linkt "he swore" can be found.
32) a) 1. The group -tn- is regularly transformed to -nn-, especially in the declension of abstracts in
-tar (83 ; Gen. Sg. -annas < -atnas) : haddultar "health", Gen. Sg. haddulannas, idlawtar
"nastiness", Gen. Sg. idlawannas.
2. The group -tn- remains without change in the following form : huitar "animal life", Gen. Sg.
huitnas, very rarely with abstracts in -tar : hartar "impact", Dat.-Loc. Sg. haratni.
b) 1. The group -mn- can be assimilated to -m- : next to the ethnic names URUHattusumna"inhabitant of Hattusa", URULuiumna "Luwian", URUPalumna- "Palaian", one also finds forms
such as L URUZalpma- "inhabitant of Zalpa", L URUHalpma- "inhabitant of Alep", Acc. Sg.
mSuppiuman next to Dat.-Loc. mSuppiumni.
2. The transformation of -mn- into -nn- is less clear, and it is not sure whether the form hilannas is
the Gen. Sg. of hilamnar "gate".
33) The group -nunu- can apparently be shortened to -nu- : from kistanu- "to delete", one finds
1. Sg. Pret. kistanun (for *kistanunun), from *mernu- "to make disappear", 1. Sg. Pret. mernun, from
*menunu- "to fail (?)", Imp. 3. Sg. menuddu.

17

34) The group -nza sometimes changes for unknown reason to -nzan : hanza ep- and more rarely
hanzan ep- "to give a friendly welcome (?)", nanza (i.e. nu "and" + -an "him" + -za "self") and
nanzan.

3. Liaisons
35) Hittite words are normally written separately, and liaisons are not visible in writing. A variant
with liaison such as hal-ki-im p-an-zi for halkin pianzi "give (Pl.) grain" is a rare exception.
36) a) 1. A final -n- is generally assimilated with the initial consonant of a following enclitic particle
(with or without redoubling of this consonant) : *istamanan-san "his ear" (Acc. Sg.) >
istamanassan, *halugatallan-tin "your (Sg.) envoy" > halugatallat-tin, *tuzzin-man "my army"
(Acc.) > tuzziman, appizziyan-ma-at "but him after" > appizziyamat, hman "all" + particle -san
(300) > hmassan, UM-an-smit "their name" (i.e. lman-smit) > UM-asmit, mn "if" + particle
-wa of quotation (289) > mwa.
2. For example, kussan-set "his salary" can be assimilated to kussasset and stay like that, or instead
use an extra vowel (26) kussanissit.
b) Phenomena of false cut sometimes occur : nassan (nu "and" + -as "he" + particle -san) can be
written nansan, as if the Nom. -as "he" was replaced by the Acc. -an "him".
c) A similar assimilation occurs more rarely with t : ta "and" + -at "it" + -si "to him" usually
becomes tatsi, but sometimes also tasse, nu "and" + -at "it" + particle -san usually becomes natsan,
but also sometimes nassan.
37) Phenomena of liaison especially occur at the beginning of enclitic pronouns such as -mu "to
me", -ta "to you (Sg.)", -si "to him", -as "he", -an "him (Acc.)", -at "it (Neut.)" and enclitic particles
such as -a (-ya) "and", -ma "but", -asta "then", -wa(r) (quotation), -za (reflexive), -kan and -san
(location) after an accentuated word or a particle nu, ta, etc...
38) a) When the particle nu "and" is followed by the pronoun -as "is (ea)", -an "eum (eam)", -at
"id", -e "ei, eae, ea", -us (-as) "eos, eas" or the particle -asta or -apa (both = "then (?)"), the u of nu
is replaced by the following vowel : *nu-as > nas, *nu-an > nan, *nu-at > nat, *nu-e > ne, *nu-us >
nus (*nu-as > nas), *nu-asta > nasta, *nu-apa > napa.
b) The same phenomenon occurs for the older particle ta "and" : *ta-as > tas, *ta-an > tan, *ta-at >
tat, *ta-us > tus, *ta-asta > tasta, and for the rarer and older particle su "and" : *su-as > sas, *su-an
> san, *su-us > sus.
c) In the same conditions, the particle of quotation -wa(r)- takes the whole form -war- : -war-as,
-war-an, -war-at, -wari (i.e. *-war-e), -war-us, -war-asta.
39) When a simple consonant stands between two vowels between a word and an enclitic (the
consonant being either the final of the word or the initial of the enclitic), it is often (but not always)
doubled : nu + -san > nu(s)-san, sums "to him" + -an "him" > sumssan, nu "and" + -wa
(quotation) + -nas "us" > nuwa(n)nas, mn "if" + -a "also" > mnna, aps "this" + -a "and" >
ap(s)sa (also the Acc. Sg. apn + -a > ap(n)na), wastul "sin" + -ma "but" + -za (reflexive) + -kan
> wastulma(z)zakan, UL (negation) + -wa (quotation) + -ta "to you (Sg.)" + -kan > ULwa(t)ta(k)kan.

18

40) The enclitic pronoun -ta "to you (Sg.)" takes, when placed before the reflexive particle -za, the
form -tu (-du) : nu "and" + -wa (quotation) + -ta + -za + -kan > nuwaduzakan.
41) a) 1. The particle -a/-ya "and" that connects two isolated words takes the form -a after a
consonant and -ya after a vowel : dTelipinusa (< dTelipinus-a) "and Telipinu", apssa (< aps-a ;
39) "and this", but k-ya "and here", ap-ya "and these".
2. It is generally written -ya after logograms, Akkadian words and foreign names : ENME-ya "and
the lords", UL-ya "and not", URUKargamis-ya "and Kargamis".
b) After words ending in -z and after all words in the ablative, the form -ya is preceded by a liaison
vowel i : tamedazziya (< tamedaz-ya) "and from another", kz kzziya "from here and there".
42) Phenomena of simplification of doubled syllables can be observed :
a) -ma "but" + -smas "to you (Pl.), to them" > -masmas which can be shortened to -mas.
b) 1. When the particle -za follows the particle -san, they become simplified in -zan (pronounced
*-ts-san).
2. Following 34, nanza (< nu "and" + -an "him" + -za reflexive) can also be written nanzan.
c) 1. When the particle -(a)sta "then (?)" follows the syllables -as, -is, -us, the initial -(a)s can
vanish and the particle is reduced to -ta : nu "and" + -wa (quotation) + -smas "to them" + -(a)sta >
nuwasmasta, ITUKULHI.A-us-sus "your (Pl.) weapons" (Acc. Pl.) + -(a)sta > ITUKULHI.Aussusta.
2. Also after -z : nu "and" + -za (reflexive) + -(a)sta > nuzata (pronounced *nu-ts-sta), kz "here" +
-(a)sta > kez-sta (written ke-e-ez-ta, ke-e-ez-za-at-ta, ke-e-ez-za-a-ta).

19

Chapter 3

The noun
A. Derivation
44) The formation of abstract nouns uses the following suffixes :
a) -an (declension according to 78) : henkan- "destiny, epidemic, death" (hink- "to assign"),
nahhan "fear" (nah- "to fear") ; maybe also kussan "salary" and sahhan "fief".
b) -tar (declension according to 83) : idlawtar "nastiness" (idlu- "evil"), palhtar "width"
(palhi- "wide"), sulltar "argument" (sulli- "to argue"), lahhiytar "expedition" (lahhiya- "to
campaign").
c) -essar (declension according to 84) : asessar "hearing" (es- "to sit"), hannessar "lawsuit"
(hanna- "to judge"), palhessar "width" (palhi- "wide").
d) -asti (rarely) : palhasti "width" (palhi- "wide"), dalugasti "length" (daluki- "long").
e) -att- (declension according to 76) : kartimmiyatt- "anger" (kartimmiya- "to be angry"), aniyatt"achievement" (aniya- "to achieve"), nahsaratt- "fear" (nahsariya- "to be afraid"), karuiliyatt- "old
age" (karuili- "old").
f) -ima- : tethima- "thunder" (tethi- "to thunder"), ekunima- "cold" (ekuna- "cold"), weritema"fear" (werites- "to be afraid").
g) -ul (declension according to 79) : assul "happiness" (assu- "good").
h) -ur (declension according to 80) : aniur "(religious) task" (aniya- "to achieve") ; maybe also
kurur "hostile; hostility".
i) -(u)war (non verbal ; declension according to 85) : asawar "enclosure, fence", partawar "wing".
45) The action nouns end in :
a) -i- (declension according to 69) : lengi- "oath" (lenk- "to swear"), hurti- "curse" (hurta- "to
curse"), wasti- "sin" (wasta- "to sin"), zahhi- "fight" (zah- "to strike").
b) -ul (declension according to 79) : ishiul "link, contract" (ishiya- "to link"), wastul "sin" (wasta"to sin").
c) -sha- (of Hurrian origin ?) : dammesha- "damage", unuwasha- "ornament" (unuwi- "to
decorate"), maybe also tesha- "sleep, dream".
d) -l (declension according to 79) : hurkl "disgust" (next to the concrete noun sul "thread").
e) -zl : sarnikzl "indemnity, replacement" (sarnink- "to replace, to pay").
46) The actor nouns are built with :
a) -tara- : wastara- "shepherd" (wesiya- "to graze").
b) -talla- : arsanatalla- "envious" (arsaniya- "to envy"), uskiskatalla- "observer" (uskisk- "to
observe"), f, Iirhuitalla- "basket bearer".
20

c) -ala- : auriyala- (next to auriyatalla-) "border guard" (auri- "border post"), ispantuzziyala- "wine
dealer" (ispantuzzi- "wine barrel"), karimnla- "temple employee" (karimmi- "temple").
d) The element -sepa can be broadly interpreted as a way to personify abstract notions : daganzipa"(genie of the) earth", Ispanzasepa- "genie of the night", dKamrusepa "health goddess",
dMiyatanzipa- "genie of the growth of plants".
47) The instrument nouns end in :
a) -ul (declension according to 79) : sesarul "sieve" (sesariya- "to sieve").
b) -uzzi : ishuzzi "belt" (ishiya- "to buckle"), lahhurnuzzi (kind of altar), ispantuzzi- "wine barrel".
c) The suffix -alli- can be added in order to build concrete nouns relative to a part of the body :
kuttanalli- "necklace" (kuttar "neck"), harsanalli- "crown" (harsan- "head"), issalli- "saliva"
(ais/iss- "mouth"), puriyalli- "gag" (from puri- "lip").
48) The suffix -ant- has several uses not yet clarified :
a) It builds substantives such as :
1. Supposedly collectives : utn- "land" and utnyant- "land (as a whole)", tuzzi- "army" and
tuzziyant- "mass of troops", antuhsatar "humanity" and antuhsannant- (< *antuhsatnant-; 32a1)
"population".
2. A particular group about time, especially season names : hamesh(a)- and hameshant- "spring",
gim- and gimmant- "winter".
3. In many cases, there is no difference between the base noun and the one modified by -ant- :
sankunni- and sankunniyant- "priest", huhha- and huhhant- "grand-father", hilammar and
hilamnant- "gate", eshar and eshanant- "blood", uttar and uddanant- "word, speech", kast- and
kistant- "hunger".
Inside this group, one can find several words about parts of body : kalulupa- and kalulupant"finger", tapuwas- and tapuwassant- "rib, side", hasti- and hastiyant- "bone", sankuwai- and
sankuwayant- "finger nail".
b) 1. One can also find adjectives extended by the suffix -ant- and synonymous with the root word :
assu- and assuwant- "good", irmala- and irmalant- "ill", suppi- and suppiyant- "pure", dapiya- and
dapiyant "all".
2. Some adjectives are maybe built from substantives : perunant- "rocky" from peruna- "rock",
kaninant- "thirsty" from kanint- "thirst".
49) Some derived adjectives are built with the following suffixes :
a) -ala- : genzuwala- "friendly" (genzu- "fondness"), tuwala- "faraway" (tuwa adv. "far") ; cf. also
46c.
b) -ili- : karili- "old" (kar adv. "previously").
c) isolated with -ya- in order to designate the belonging : ispantiya- "nightly" (ispant- "night"),
istarniya- "average" (istarn- "center").
d) with -want- with the meaning "that owns, provided with" : samankurwant- "bearded" (zamankur
"beard"), kartimmiyawant- "angry" (kartimmiya- "to be angry"), kistuwant- "hungry" (kast"hunger") ; somehow different : esharwant- "scarlet" (eshar "blood"), apnissuwant- "such" from
apnissan "thus".
21

e) -zi- in constructs of comparative type : hantezzi- "ahead, first" (hant- "before"), appezzi- "back"
(appa "back, behind"), sarazzi- "superior" (sar "up").
50) Miscellaneous constructs :
a) The feminine is not differenciated from the masculine in the grammar, but the language has a
suffix -sara- (probably inherited, and not borrowed from Proto-Hatti) : isha- "lord" and ishassara"lady", R "slave" and *GEME2-assara- "slave".
b) Ethnic nouns use the suffix -umna- (-uma- ; 32b1) : URUHattusumna- "man from Hattusa",
URUPalumna "man from Palu", URULuiumna- "Luwian", L URUHalpma- "man from Alep",
Plur. LME URUNsumens "people of Nesa".
c) -(a)nni- seems to be the diminutive suffix : dLUGAL-manni- (i.e. dSarrumanni-) "young
Sarruma", dNinattani- "small (statuette of the goddess) Ninatta", armanni- "small crescent moon"
(arma- "moon").
51) The following suffixes of Luwian origin are used for Luwian but also Hittite adjectives :
a) -alli- and -talli- : hirutalli- "relating to an oath" (Luw. hiru(n)t- "oath"), muwatalli- "strong"
(Luw. (?) muwa- "strength"), pittiyalli- "fast" (piddi- "to run").
b) -assi- (-assa-) in names such as dHilassi- ("relating to the court (hila-)"), dWasdulassi- ("relating
to sin (wastul)"), dIstamanassa- "god of the ears" (istamana- "ear"), dSakuwassa- "god of the eyes"
(sakuwa- "eye").
c) -imi- (in fact the suffix of the Luwian past participle) in names such as dSarlaimi- ("the High
One"), dAlawaimi-, etc...
52) Occasionally, cases of reduplication occur, e.g. : memal- "groats" (mall- "to grind"), titita"pupil", duddumi- "deaf", halhaltumari- "boundary stone", harsiharsi- "storm", akuwakuwa- "frog
(?)".
53) a) Unlike the other ancient I.E. languages, Hittite has very few compound nouns : d-yuga "twoyear-old" (next to yuga- "yearly, one-year-old"), appa-siwatt- "future" ("after-day"), salla-karttar
"pride (?)". Less certain : huhha-hanna- "grand-father (huhha-) and grand-mother (hanna-)", as well
as the bird name pittar-palhi- ("wing-wide").
b) Though not strictly compound nouns, nominal constructs made of a verb and a particle occur :
piran huyatalla- "forerunner" (piran "ahead", huya- "to run"), par handandtar "divine justice",
kattakurant- (a "container cut (kuer- "to cut") at the bottom (katta)" = with a flat bottom ?),
andayant- (antiyant-) "married son-in-law" (anda iyant-) "got in (the house of the father-in-law)".

22

B. Declension
1. Outline
54) a) Hittite has two genders : the common gender (comprising the masculine and the feminine
genders ; this gender will later split up in I.E. into a masculine and a feminine gender) and the
neuter gender (already declining).
b) There are two numbers : the singular and the plural. The dual has disappeared and has been
replaced by the plural.
55) a) Hittite has eight cases derived from the I.E. cases : nominative, vocative, accusative, genitive,
dative-locative, allative, ablative and instrumental. Vocative is poorly attested, while Old-Hittite
allative was replaced by dative-locative in Neo-Hittite.
b) Hittite also uses a special ending for neuter nouns subjects of a transitive verb. This case, called
ergative, transfers the neuter noun to the common gender.
56) Outline of declension :
Nom. comm.
Voc. comm.
Acc. comm.
N.-Acc. N.
Erg. N.
Gen.
Dat.- Loc.
All.
Abl.
Instr.

Singular
-s
- (-e)
-n
-, -n
-anza
-as (never -s!)
-i
-a
-az(a)
-it

Plural
-es, -us, -as
-us
-, -a, -i
-ants
-as, Old-H. also -an
-as
-as
-az(a)
-it

57) a) The ending of the Nom. Sg. is always pronounced -s. It is written -s for vocalic stems : atta-s
"father", zahhi-s "battle", heu-s "rain". Stems in -t produce a group of consonants -t-s written -z
after a vowel : kar-tim-mi-ia-az = *kartimmiyatt-s "anger", and -za after a consonant (while
pronounced -z = -t-s ; 25a2) : hu-u-ma-an-za = *hmant-s "this", ka-a-a-a-za = *kast-s "hunger".
b) 1. The isolated root is used as Voc. Sg. : isha-mi "my lord", dKumarbi, mAppu.
2. For u-stems, vocative forms in -ue also occur : LUGAL-ue " king", dUTU-ue " Sun-god".
3. In all cases, the forms of Nom. can be used as Voc.
58) The Gen. Sg. ends in -as, and never, as was once believed, in -s. There is no form of Gen. Sg.
UD-az (= UD-at-s) "of the day" ; nekur mehur "evening" is not a genitive form "time of the night"
but rather an apposition "night-time". The genitives mNunnus, mTaruhsus in Old-Hittite, as well as
the isolated form sankuwais "of the nail" can be explained by 14a2 as *mNunnuwas,
*mTaruhsuwas, *sankuwayas.

23

59) a) Old-Hittite had an All. Sg. in -a (< -ai < I.E. *-i) and a Loc. Sg. in -i : All. aruna "to the
sea", Loc. aruni "in the sea".
b) 1. In Neo-Hittite, allative was replaced by the dative-locative in -i : aruni "to the sea, at the sea".
2. i-stems use for the Dat.-Loc. the ending -(y)a of the old allative : tuzziya : "to the army, in the
army", hulukanniya (next to hulukanni) "in the chariot".
c) The ancient ending -ai (a stage former to -a, 59a) is sometimes found : mLabarnai "at Labarna",
hassannai "to the family" (from hassatar).
d) 1. In some cases, consonant stems use a Dat.-Loc. without ending : -ir "in the house", UD-at "in
the day", -ir "in the heart", dagan "on the ground", nepis "in heaven", kessar-ta "in your (Sg.)
hand".
2. The isolated form of Dat.-Loc. Sg. sarku "to the hero" can be explained as a Dat.-Loc. without
ending, or according to 17a.
60) The ablative Sg. sometimes ends in -anza rather than -az (cf. 31b) : luttanza "from the
window", nepisanza "from the sky", hassannanza "out of the family (hassatar)".
61) The instrumental Sg. also ends in -ta : kissarit "with the hand", istamanta "with the ear" ; cf.
also wedanda and wetenit "with water".
62) a) In Old-Hittite, the Gen. Pl. in -an (< I.E. *-m) was distinct from the Dat.-Loc. Pl. in -as :
Gen. Pl. siunan "of the gods", Dat.-Loc. Pl. siunas "with the gods", RME-amman "of my slaves"
(according to 36a1 < RME-an-man).
b) In Neo-Hittite, the ending -as of the Dat.-Loc. Pl. has been applied to the Gen. Pl. : Gen. Pl.
siunas "of the gods" and Dat.-Loc. siunas "with the gods". The old genitive in -an is only found in
formal speech.
c) The endings -as of the Gen. Sg. and the Gen. Pl. being the same in Neo-Hittite, the old ending
-an is sometimes used for the Gen. Sg. : LUGAL-an "of the king", mLabarnan "of Labarna".
63) The nominative and the accusative Pl. tend to be used one for the other :
a) The Nom. Pl. is used as accusative : pargaws "the great ones", huprushs "the elders", dalugas
"the long ones".
b) The Acc. Pl. is used as nominative : parhandus "the stressed ones".
63b) Many nouns in Neo-Hittite exhibit an alternation between a-stems and i-stems. Some a-stems
borrow forms from the i-stems (especially the Nom. and Acc. Common Sg. and Pl.), and conversely
some i-stems borrow forms from the a-stems (especially the cases complementary to the previous
alternation : all the Neuter cases and the oblique Common cases ; cf. e.g. 67b). This is caused by
the influence of Luwian.

24

2. Vocalic stems
64) a (and )-stems
a) Substantives

Common : antuhsa "man", anna- "mother", aruna- "sea", kessera- "hand", ish- "lord".

Neuter : peda- "place"

Common
Singular

Nom.
Acc.
Voc.
Gen.
Dat.-Loc.
All.
Abl.
Instr.

antuhsas
antuhsan

annas

arunas
arunan

kesseras
kisseran

ishs
isha

antuhsas
antuhsi

annas
anni

antuhsaz

annaz

arunas
aruni
aruna
arunaz(a)

kissaras
kissiri

ish (eshe)
isha

kissaraz(a)
kisserit

Plural
Nom.
Acc.
Gen.
Dat.-Loc.
Instr.

antuhses (antuhsus)
antuhsus
antuhsas
antuhsas

annis
annus

ishs
arunus

kisserus
ishs
UHI.A-it

Neuter
N.-A.
Gen.
Dat.-Loc.
Abl.

Singular
pedan
pedas
pedi (pidi)
pedaz (petaz)

Plural

pedas

65) a-stems
b) Adjectives
They are inflected exactly like the substantive. No rule has been found for the alternation between
the endings -an and -a in Nom.-Acc. Sg. Neuter.

dannatta- "empty", arahzena- "neighboring", kunna- (ZAG-(n)a-) "right".

25

Singular
Nom. comm.
Acc. comm.
N.-A. n.
Gen.
Dat.-Loc.
All.
Abl.
Instr.

dannattan
dannattan (dannatta)

arahzenas
arahzinan

kunnas
ZAG-an
kunnan (ZAG-an, ZAG-na)
ZAG-nas
kunni (ZAG-ni)

arahzenas
arahzeni
arahzena
arahzenaza

dannatti

kunnaz (ZAG-(n)az(a))
ZAG-(n)it

Plural
Nom. comm.
Acc. comm.
N.-A. n.
Gen.
Dat.-Loc.

arahzenes (arahzenas) ZAG-nis

arahzenus (arahzenas) ZAG-nus
arahzena
kunna
arahzenan

dannatta
tannattas

66) i-stems
a) Substantives

Common : halki- "cereal", tuzzi- "army",

"cornerstone".

Ihulukanni-

"chariot", halhaltumari-

Neuter : NA4huwasi- "grindstone", DUGispantuzzi- "wine barrel".

Common
Singular

Nom.
Acc.
Gen.

halkis
halkin
halkiyas

D.-L.
Abl.

halkiyaza

Instr.

halkit

tuzzis (tuzziyas)
tuzzin
tuzzias

Ihulukannis

tuzziya

Ihuluganni(ya)

Ihulukannin
Ihulugannas

halhaltumari
(halhaldummariya)

Ihuluganniyaz

tuzziyaz

(Ihulugannaza)
Ihulukannit
Plural

Nom.
Acc.
Gen.
D.-L.
Abl.

halkis
halkius (halks; 63a)

halhaltumars
tuzzius (tuzziyas)
halhaltummariyas
halhaltumariyas
halhaltumaraza

26

Neuter
Singular
N.-A.
Gen.
D.-L.
Abl.
Instr.

NA4huwasi

DUGispantuzzi

NA4huwasiyas

DUGispantuzziyas

NA4huwasi(ya)

DUGispantuzzi (DUGispantuzziya)

NA4huwasiyaz

DUGispantuzziaz
DUGispantuzzit

Plural
N.-A.

NA4huwsiHI.A

67) a) The Nom. Sg. tuzziyas is an analogical construct on the ya-stem.

b) The Gen. Sg. Ihulugannas, the Abl. Sg.
analogical constructs on the a-stem.

Ihulugannaza

and the Abl. Pl. halhaltumaraza are

c) For the Dat.-Loc. Sg. tuzziya, NA4huwasiya, etc..., cf 59b2.

68) Substantives in aia) They are inflected with ablaut (18) : lengais "oath", Acc. Sg. lengain, but Gen. Sg. linkiyas,
etc...
b) One sometimes finds analogical constructs such as Gen. Sg. lengayas built from the Nom. and
the Acc. Sg., or conversely the Acc. Sg. zahhin built from the Gen. Sg.
69)

Common : zahhai- "battle", lengai- "oath", zashai- "dream".

Neuter : hastai- "bone".

Common
Singular

Nom.
Acc.
Gen.
D.-L.
Abl.
Instr.

zahhais
zahhain (zahhin)
zahhias
zahhiya
zahhiyaz(a)

lingain
linkiyas (lingayas)
linkiya (lingai)
linkiyaz(a)

zashain
zashiya
zashiyaz
zashit

Plural
Nom.
Acc.

lingais
lingaus

zashimus (29b)

27

Neuter
N.-A.
Gen.
D.-L.
Instr.

hastai
hastiyas
hastai
hastit

70) i-stems adjectives

a) The declension of the adjectival stems in -i and -u differ from the substantive by the apparition of
an a before the thematic vowel in all cases except the Nom., the Acc. and the Instr Sg.
b) The occasional forms without this a are analogical constructs on the substantive, especially for
karili- "old".
71) a) salli- "big", suppi- "pure", mekki- "much", karili- "old".
Singular
Nom. comm.
Acc. comm.
N.-A. n.
Voc.
Gen.

sallis
sallin
salli
GAL-li
sallaiyas (sallas)

D.-L.

sallai

Abl.

sallayaz

Instr.

suppis

mekkis

suppi

mekki

suppayas
suppai (suppaya, suppi,
suppa)
suppayaz(a) (suppaz(a)) meqqayaz

karilis
karilin
karili
karilias
karils
(kariliyas)

suppit
Plural

Nom. comm. sallas

suppas (suppis)

meggas (mekks)

karils
(kariliyas)

Acc. comm.
N.-A. n.
Gen.
D.-L.
Abl.

sallaus (sallius)
salla

suppaus
suppa

meggaus (mekkus)
meggaya
meqqayas

karila

sallayas

suppayas (suppiyas)
suppayaza

kariliyas

b) Forms without an i like the Gen. Sg. sallas, the Abl. Sg. suppaz(a), N.-A. Pl. n. salla, suppa are
explained by 15a.
72) The root utne (KUR-e) n. "land" is close to the i-stems with the following declension :
N.-A.
Gen.
D.-L.
Abl.

Singular
utne (utni)
utneyas (utniyas)
utn (utniya)
utneaz

Plural
utne
KUR-eas

28

73) u-stems
a) Substantives

Common : harnau- "chair", wellu- "meadow", heu- "rain", LUGAL-u "king".

Neuter : genu- "knee"

Common
Singular

Nom.
Acc.
Voc.
Gen.
D.-L.
Abl.
Instr.

harnaus
harnaun
harnawas
harnawi

wellus
wellun

heus
heun

LUGAL-us
LUGAL-un
LUGAL-ue
LUGAL-was (LUGAL-an, 62c)
LUGAL-i
LUGAL-waz

hewas (heyawas)
welli
welluwaz
heawit
Plural

Nom.
Acc.
D.-L.

hews (heyaws)
heus (heamus, 29b)
welluwas
Neuter

N.-A.
Gen.
All.
Abl.

Singular
genu
genuwas
genuwa

Plural
genuwa
genuwas
genuwas
ginuwaz

b) The forms of heu- "rain" with -(y)a- before the thematic vowel (Gen. Sg. heyawas, Instr. Sg.
heawit, Nom. Pl. heyaws, Acc. Pl. heamus) are built by analogy with the adjective.
74) u-stems
b) Adjectives
a) Like adjectival i-stems, one finds a vowel a before the thematic vowel.
b) Occasionally, this a is caused by analogy with the substantive. For assu- "good", this analogy is
clear because the neuter assu has been substantivized with the meaning "good, property".
75) assu- "good", parku- "high", idlu- "nasty".

29

Singular
Nom. comm.
Acc. comm.
N.-A. n.
Gen.
D.-L.
Abl.
Instr.

assus
assun
assu
assawas
assawi
assawaza
assawet

parkus
parkun
parku
parkuwas
pargawe
pargawaz

idlus
idlun
idlu
HUL-uwas
idlawi
idlawaz (idlaz!)
HUL-it

Plural
Nom. comm.
Acc. comm.
N.-A. n.
Gen.
D.-L.
Abl.
Instr.

assaws
assamus (29b)
assawa

pargaws (pargaus; 63b)

pargamus (29b) (pargaus)
pargawa
pargawas

idlaws
idlamus (29b)
idlawa
idlawas
idlawas
idlawaza

assawet

3. Consonant stems
76) tt (t)-stems

Common : kartimmiyatt- "anger", kar(a)itt- "tide", kast- "hunger", wett- "year" (logogr.
MU(.KAM)).

Common and neuter : aniyatt- "performance", siwatt- "day" (logogr. UD(.KAM)).

Singular

Nom. comm. kartimmiyaz (25a2 27a)

Acc. comm. kartimmiyattan
N.-A. n.
Gen.
D.-L.
TUG.TUG-atti
Abl.

aniyaz (25a2 27a)

aniyattan

Nom. comm. kar(a)iz (girez)

Acc. comm.
Gen.
D.-L.
karaitti
Abl.
Instr.

kasza (25a2)
kastan

aniyattas
aniyatti

kasti

UD-az
UD-an (UD.KAM-an)
UD-at
UD-as
siwatti (siwat; 59d)
UD.KAM-az
MU.KAM-za
MU-an
MU.KAM-as
witti
MU.KAM-az

kastita

30

Plural
UD.KAMHI.A-us
UDHI.A-us

Nom. comm.
Acc. comm. kartimmiyaddus
N.-A. n.
D.-L.

aniyatta
aniyattas

UD.(KAM)HI.A-as
MUHI.A-us
MUHI.A-us
wittan (62a) (MUHI.A-as)
MU.KAMHI.A-as

Nom. comm. garitts (karittiyas)

Acc. comm.
N.-A. n.
D.-L.
77) nt-stems

Substantive : ispant- c. "night" (logogr. GE6(.KAM)).

Adjective : humant- "each, all".

Participles : appant- "recovered", huiswant- "alive".

Singular

Nom. comm.
Acc. comm.
N.-A. n.
Gen.
D.-L.
Abl.

GE6(.KAM)-anza humanza (25a2)

ispandan
humandan
human
GE6-andas
humandas
ispanti
humanti
ispandaz
humandaz

appanza
appantan

huiswanza
huiswandan
TI-antas
huiswanti

Plural
Nom. comm.
Acc. comm.
N.-A. n.
Gen.
D.-L.

humantes (humandus; 63b) appantes

humandus (humantes; 63a)
humanda
appanti
humandas
humandas

huiswantes
huiswandus

78) n-stems

Mainly neuters (partly with ablaut; 18) : sahhan "fief", laman "name", tekan (tagn-) "earth"
Common : MUNUS-n- "woman"
Singular

Nom. comm.
Acc. comm.
N.-A. n.
sahhan
Gen.
sahhanas
D.-L.
sahhani

MUNUS-za
MUNUS-nan
laman
lamni

tekan
tagnas
tagni

MUNUS-nas
MUNUS-ni
31

All.
Abl.
Instr.

tagn
tagnaz(a) (tagnz)

sahhanaz(a)
sahhanit

lamnit
Plural

Nom. comm.
D.-L.

MUNUSME-us
MUNUSME-as

lamnas

79) l-stems

Substantives (mainly neuters) : wastul "sin", ishiul "contract", tawal (a drink), suppal
"animal".

Adjective : taksul "accustomed".

Singular

Nom. c.
N.-A. n.
Gen.
D.-L.
Abl.
Instr.

wastul
wasdulas
wasduli

ishiul
ishiul(l)as

taksul
taksul
taksulas
taksuli

tawal
tawalas
tawali

suppal
supli (26)

ishiullaza
wasdulit

tawal(l)it
Plural

N.-A. n.
Gen.

wastul(HI.A)

ishiuliHI.A

taksul

suppala
suppalan (62a)

80) r-stems
a) without ablaut

Substantive : huppar- c./n. "tureen"

Adjectives : sakuwassar "true", kurur- "hostile" (also substantive n. "hostility")

Singular

Nom. comm.
Acc. comm.
N.-A. n.
Gen.
D.-L.
Abl.
Instr.

DUGhupparas

huppar
hupparas
huppari
hupparaza
(I)hupparit

sakuwassaras
sakuwassaran
sakuwassar
sakuwassaras
sakuwassari
sakuwassaraza
sakuwassarit

kurur
kurur
kururas
kururi

Plural
Nom. comm.

sakuwassarus

kurur
32

Acc. comm.
N.-A. n.
Gen.

sakuwassarus
DUGhuppriHI.A

kurur (kururiHI.A)
kururas

b) The neuter kessar- "hand" is inflected in Old-Hittite with ablaut (like Greek , -) :
Singular
kessar
kisri (kessar; 59d)
kisr
ki-i-ar-at

N.-A.
D.-L.
All.
Instr.

Plural
kisras
kisras

In Neo-Hittite, this word is of common gender and is inflected like an a-stem : Sg. Nom. kessaras,
Acc. kisseran, etc... (64).
81) r/n-stems
This group corresponds to the I.E. heteroclitic inflection that left some traces in the other I.E.
languages (Old-Indian dhar, dhnas "udder", Lat. femur, feminis "thigh"). It is however well alive
and productive in Hittite. All stems are neuter. For more clarity, these stems have been grouped into
miscellaneous sub-groups :
82) a) Particular substantives, partly with and partly without ablaut
uttar "word, speech", eshar "blood", lammar "hour", watar "water", pahhuar (pahhur) "fire", mehur
"time".
Singular
N.-A.
Gen.
D.-L.
Abl.
Instr.
N.-A.
Erg.
Gen.
D.-L.
All.
Abl.
Instr.

uttar
uddanas
uddani
uddanaz(a) (uddananza; 60)
uddanit (uddanta; 61)
watar
witenas
weteni
wetena
wetenaz(a)
wetenit (wedanda; 61)

eshar (essar; 28b)

eshanas (esnas; 28b)
eshani
eshanaz(a) (esnaza; 28b)
eshanta (61)
pahhuwar (pahhur; 17a)
pahhuenanza
pahhuenas
pahhueni (pahhuni; 16)

lammar
lamni

mehur
mehunas
mehueni (mehuni; 16)

pahhuenaz (pahhunaz(a))
pahhuenit
Plural

N.-A.
Gen.
D.-L.

uddr
uddanas
uddanas

widr
AHI.A-as
mehunas
33

83) b) Abstracts in -tar and -tar

paprtar "dirtiness", lahhiyatar "countryside", zankilatar "sorrow"; huitar "faun" (partly with
ablaut ; -tn- does not transform into -nn-).
Singular
N.-A.
Gen.
D.-L.
Abl.
Instr.

paprtar
paprannas
papranni
paprannaz(a)

zankilatar
lahhiyanni

huitar
huitnas (32a2)

zankilanni
huitnit
Plural

N.-A.

lahhiyatar

zankilatarHI.A (zankilatarriHI.A)

84) c) Abstracts in -essar

hannessar "business", uppessar "sending" (with ablaut)
N.-A.
Erg.
Gen.
D.-L.
Abl.
Instr.

Singular
hannessar
hannesnas (hannissanas; 10, 26)
hannesni (hannassani; 11, 26)
hannesnaz (hannisnanza; 10, 60)
hannesnit

Plural
uppessar

uppessarHI.A
uppesnants

uppesni

85) d) Words in -war

All with ablaut ; till now, only in the singular : asawar "enclosure, fence", partawar "handle".
Nom.-Acc.
Gen.
D.-L.
Abl.
Instr.

asawar
asauni
asaunaz

partawar
partaunas
partaunaz
partaunit

This group is close to the inflection of the verbal substantive in -war, without being strictly
identical.
86) e) Words in -mar
hilammar "gate". Here too, only in the singular.
Nom.-Acc.
Gen.
D.-L.
All.
Abl.

hilammar

()hilamnas (hilannas? ; 32b2)

()hilamni
hilamna
()hilamnaz
34

This group is close to the inflection of the verbal substantive in -mar, without being strictly
identical.
87) Miscellaneous consonant stems
Always neuter and attested only in the singular.

s-stem : nepis "sky", ais "mouth" (with ablaut)

guttural-stem : isgaruh "container"

N.-A.
Gen.
D.-L.
All.
Abl.
Instr.

nepis
nepisas
nepisi (nepis; 59d1)
nepisa
nepisaz(a) (nepisanza; 60)

ais
issas
issi (aissi)
issaz
issit

isqaruh (iskarih)
isqaruhi

isgaruhit

88) Blend of n-stems and vocalic stems

a) Some substantives are inflected partly as a-stems and partly as n-stems. Thus for example
memiya(n)- "word, speech", arkamma(n)- "tribute", hara(n)- "eagle", alkista(n)- "branch (?)",
muri(yan)- "grape fruit" (all of common gender).
Singular
Nom.
Acc.
Gen.
D.-L.
Abl.
Instr.

memiyas
arkammas
harasMUEN
(I)alkistas
memiyan
arkamman
haran (hranan) alkistanan
memiyanas
arkammanas haranas
memiyani (memini; 14a1)
memiyanaz (meminaza; 14a1)
meminit (14a1)

mures

murinit

Plural
hranisMUEN

Nom.
Acc.

memiyanus (memiyanes;
63a; memiyas)

arkammus
(argamanus)

Ialkistanus

muriyanus
(murius)

b) The very variable inflection of kutru(wan)- comm. "witness" can be interpreted in the same way :
Nom.
D.-L.

Singular
kutruwas
kutrui

Plural
kutrus (kutruwas, kutrus; 17a; kutruwanes, kutruenes; 17b)
kutruas

89) Irregular inflection

a) The two neuter roots kard- "heart" (logogr. ) and parn- "house" (logogr. ) have their N.-A.
Sg built by lengthening the vowel of the roots *kr and *pr :

35

N.-A.
Gen.
D.-L.
All.
Abl.
Instr.

Singular
-ir
kardiyas (stem in -i)
kardi
karta
kartaz
kardit

pir
parnas
parni (-i; 59d1)
parna
parnaza

Plural
kir

-ir
parnas

b) The unusual inflection of the expression hassa hanzassa "grand-son and grand-grand-son (?)" is
not well understood :
Nom.
Acc.
D.-L.
Instr.

Singular
hassa hanzassa
hassa hanzassa
hassi hanzassi
hassit hanzassit

Plural
hasses hanzasses
hassus hanzassus
hassas-sas hanzassas-sas

36

C. Adjective comparison
93) Hittite does not form the adjective comparative by means of a suffix as it is the case in other I.E.
languages. Comparison is expressed by the only adjective, and it can be detected only thanks to the
context.
94) a) However, one can recognize a suffix -zi- in hantezzi- "first", appezzi- "last", sarazzi"superior" and sanezzi- "sweet".
b) kattera- "inferior" is constructed differently, but with a similar function.
95) kattera- is inflected as an a-stem, the others as substantives in -i with some variations like
ya-stems :
Singular
Nom. comm.
Acc. comm.
N.-A. n.
Gen.
D.-L.
Abl.
Instr.

hantezzis
(hantezziyas)
hantezzin
(hantezziyan)
hantezzi
hantezziyas
hantezzi
hantezziyaz

appizzis
(appizziyas)
appizzin
(appizziyan)
appizzi
appizziya
appizziyaz

sarazzis

sanezzis

katterras

sarazziyan

sanezzin

katteran

sarazzi

sanezzi

kattera

sarazzi
sarazziyaz

katteri
sanizziyaz
sanizzit

Plural
hantezzs
Nom. comm. (hantezzius,
hantezziyas)
Acc. comm.
D.-L.
hantezziyas

appizzs

UGU-azzis
(UGU-azzius)

katters
(katterrus)
sanizzius

37

Chapter 4

Pronouns and numbers

A. Personal pronouns
96) Independant forms of the 1st and 2nd persons
Nom.
Acc.
Gen.
D.-L.
Abl.

"I"
uk (ugga, ammuk)
ammuk (ammugga)
amml
ammuk (uga)
ammdaz(a)

"you" (Sg.)
zig (zigga)
tuk (tugga)
tul
tuk (tugga)
tudaz(a)

"we"
ws (anzs)
anzs
anzl
anzs
anzdaz

"you" (Pl.)
sums (sums)
sums (sums)
suml (sumenzan)
sums (sums)
sumdaz

97) a) Old-Hittite uses the forms uk, ws and sums only for nominative ; ammuk, anzs and sums
are used only for dative and accusative. Neo-Hittite borrowed the accusative for the nominative, and
the forms uk and ws have nearly vanished. The use of the nominative sums for the accusative is
explained by a borrowing of the nominative (63a). The identity of the forms for accusative and
dative such as sums shows a glide toward the dative. Also, the nominative form uga moved toward
the dative. On the opposite, zik and tuk have not merged.
b) Old-Hittite has a form sumenzan "your (Pl.)" ; suml and anzl are more recent forms.
98) The pronoun ap- is used as an independant pronoun of the 3rd person ; cf. 111ff.
99) The suffix -il(a) expresses reflexion : ukila (ukel) "myself", zikila "yourself", sumsila
"yourselves", apsila "himself" (Pl. Nom. apsila, Acc. apsilus!).
100) Enclitics for dative and accusative
a)
-mu "me, to me"
-ta (-du before -za; 40) "you, to you (Sg.)"
-si "to him" (Dat. only)

-nas "us, to us"

-smas "you, to you (Pl.)"
-smas "to them" (Dat. only)

b) Examples with nu "and" : nu-mu "and to me", nu-tta "and to you (Sg.)" (39), nu-ssi "and to
him", nu-nnas "and to us", nu-smas "and to you (Pl.), and to them".
nu-mu-asta "and then (?) to me" becomes numasta (38a).
Reflexive pronouns
101) The reflexive pronouns are expressed by the corresponding personal pronouns or by means of
the particle -za (-z).
38

The pronominal enclitic root -a- "he, she, it"

102) a) For the nominative and the accusative of the pronoun of the 3rd person, patricular forms of
the root -a- are used ; with -si "to him" and -smas "to them", they form a whole paradigm :
Nom. comm.
Acc. comm.
N.-A. n.

Singular
-as
-an
-at

Plural
old -e, neo -at
old -us, neo -as
old -e, neo -at

This enclitic -a- comes probably from a weakened form of the accentuated demonstrative a- "this"
(116).
b) For the Nom. Pl. comm., Old-Hittite has kept the I.E. form of the pronoun Nom. Pl. -e < *-oi,
whereas Neo-Hittite has used the form at first Sg., then Pl. of the neuter -at.
103) a) nu "and" and the older words ta "and" and su "and" combine with these forms according to
38a and b to give n-as, t-as, s-as "and he", n-at, t-at "and it", n-an, t-an, s-an "and him" (Acc. Sg.),
n-e, t (< *ta-e), s-e, n-at "and they", n-us (n-as), t-us (t-as), s-us (s-as) "and them" (Acc.Pl.).
b) Attached to nu and the particle -wa(r)- of quotation, it becomes : nu-war-as "and he", nu-war-an
"and him" (Acc. Sg.), nu-war-at "and it", nu-war-i "and they" (Nom. Pl.; -i instead of -e; 9a 102a).
c) It is not sure whether the neuter -it "it" in the expression netta "and it for you (Sg.)" (<
*nu-it-ta ?) comes from a root -i- "he". It could be a form nu-e-ta (N.-A. Pl. n.) with a semantic
change "and he for you" > "and it for you".
104) -as, -at, etc... are sometimes doubled : nassiyas (< *nu-as-si-as) next to nassi (< *nu-as-si)
"and he for him", natsiyat (< *nu-at-si-at) next to natsi (< *nu-at-si) "and it for him".
Isolated pronouns of the 3rd person
105) a) The following Sg. oblique forms are built from a root si- "he, she, it" :
Gen.
D.-L.
Abl.

sl
stani
sz

The dative enclitics -si "to him" and -smas "to them" (100a) maybe come from the same root.
b) On the other hand, there is no nominative or accusative form coming from a root sa-. The forms
Sg. Nom. comm. sas, Acc. comm. san and Pl. Nom. comm. se, Acc. comm. sus of Old-Hittite, that
have been understood for long as irreducible forms, are in fact built from the ancient and rare word
su "and" and the enclitic pronoun -a- "he" (103a) like nas < *nu-as.

B. Possessive adjectives
106) a) Neo-Hittite has borrowed its possessive adjectives from the genitive of the personal
pronouns : amml attas "my father", tul anni "to your (Sg.) mother", etc...
b) For a possible use of the personal pronouns instead of the possessive adjectives, cf 213b2.
39

107) Old-Hittite still has independant possessive adjectives that are sometimes found in Neo-Hittite
in set phrases. They are always enclitic :
-mi- "my"
-ti- "your (Sg.)"
-si- "his"

-smi- "your (Pl.)"

-smi- "their"

The possessive adjective of the 1st Pl. person is not attested.

108) These adjectives are inflected as a blend of a- and i-stems :
Singular
Nom. comm. -mis
Acc. comm. -min (-man)

-tis (-tes)
-tin

-sis
-sin (-san)

N.-A. n.

-mit (-met)

-tit

-sit (-set)

Voc.
Gen.
D.-L.
All.
Instr.

-mi
-mas
-mi
-ma

-tas
-ti (-di)
-ta
-tit

-sas
-si
-sa
-set (-sit)

-smis

-smes
-sman
-smet (-smit, -semet,
-smet (-semet)
-samet, -simit, -summit)

-smi

-smi (-summi)
-sma
-smit

Plural
Nom. comm. -mis
-mus (-mis;
Acc. comm.
63a)
N.-A. n.
-mit (-met)
Gen.
man (62a)
D.-L.

-tis (-tes)

-ses (-sis)

-tus (-dus)

-sus

-smes
-smus

-set
-tas

-smas

109) a) The possessive adjective is inflected like the substantive : Gen. Sg. kardiyas-tas "of your
(Sg.) heart", D.-L. Sg. kissari-mi "in my hand", atti-ssi "to his father", istarni-smi "in their center",
Nom. Pl. aresmes < *ars-sms (19a) "your (Pl.) friends", Acc. Pl. sarhuwandus-sus "her unborn
children".
The final -n of the Acc. Sg. of the substantive is assimilated according to 36a1 with the initial of
the possessive : Acc. Sg. halugatallattin < *halugatallan-tin "your (Sg.) envoy" (next to
halugatallan-min "my envoy", without assimilation), tuzzi-man < *tuzzin-man "my army",
arha-ssan < *arhan-san "his border".
b) In the Neo-Hittite era, the separation between the two elements is less and less felt. Following
constructions like attas-sis "his father" (Nom. Sg.) : attassin < *attan-sin "his father" (Acc. Sg.), one
builds the Nom. Sg. attas-mis "my father", but the Acc. Sg. attasmin and attasman "my father", as
well as attastin "your (Sg.) father", as if the inflection only affected the end of the group.

40

C. Demonstrative pronouns
110) The declension of the following pronouns is clearer than those already seen. The endings are :
Nom. comm.
Acc. comm.
N.-A. n.
Gen.
D.-L.
Abl.
Instr.

Singular
-s
-n
-t, -l (-das)
-dani (-di)
-z (-daz)
-(i)t

Plural
-, -s, -us
-us
-, -nzan (-l)
-das
-z

111) The most important pronouns are k- "this, hic" and ap- "that, is". ap- is also used as a
pronoun for the 3rd person with the meaning "he, she".
For apsila "himself", cf. 99.
112)
Nom. comm.
Acc. comm.
N.-A. n.
Gen.
D.-L.
Abl.
Instr.

ks
kn (kn)
k (k; 10)
kl
kdani (kti)
kz (kzza)
kt (kdanda)

Singular
aps
apn (apn)
apt
apl
apdani (apti)
apz (apizza)
apit (apdanda)

k, ks (kus)
ks (k; 63a)
k (k; 10)
knzan (kdas)
kdas
kizza

Plural
ap, aps
aps (ap; 63a)
ap
apnzan (apdas)
apdas

113) a) In Nom. Pl., the Old-Hittite forms k and ap, coming from the I.E. era, are replaced in NeoHittite by the inflected forms ks and aps coming from an analogical construction with the noun,
or, according to 63b from a borrowing of the Acc. Pl.
b) The occasional form k of the Acc. Pl. comes, according to 63a, from a borrowing of the
nominative form.
c) The unique form kus of the Nom. Pl. comes from the form k to which has been added the
pleonastic nominative ending -us.
114) From k- and ap- are derived several adverbs :
a) k "here", apiya "there ; then" ; kt "to here", apda "over there" ; kz "from here", apz "from
there".
b) apidda "over there", apidda (apiddan, apda ; also apidda(n) ser) "therefore".
c) kissan "thus, consequently", slightly different apnissan "thus".
d) From the root k- is derived the interjections ksa "look!" and ksma "look!".
115) Two pronominal adjectives are built from kissan and apnissan with the meaning "such" (also
"so much") : kissuwant- "" and pnissuwant " ". Their declension is like humant(77).
41

116) A defective demonstrative root a- with the meaning "here" gives the following forms :
Singular
Nom. comm.
D.-L.
Abl.

Plural
*e

edani
ediz (etez, edaza)

in e-ta (= *e-sta "thus them ?")

edas

117) The roots eni-, uni- and anni-, all meaning "that (afore mentioned)" are designated as "halfinflected". They are maybe already deictic particles.
a) One finds from uni- an Acc. Sg. comm. unin, a Nom.-Acc. Sg n. uni (also with a plural meaning)
and a Nom. and Acc. Pl. comm. unius.
b) One finds from eni- the Nom. Sg. comm. enis, the N.-A. Sg. n. eni (also with a plural meaning)
and an Acc. Pl. comm. enius. As for kissan, one finds an adverb enissan "as afore mentioned".
c) One finds from anni- only a Nom. Sg. comm. annis. From this root are derived the adverbs annaz
and annisan "formerly".
118) One finds in texts the word often uninflected asi- "the previous", used in the Nom. and the
Acc. Sg. at all genders. One also finds the Nom. Sg. comm. asis.

D. Interrogative and relative pronouns

119) Nearly only the root kui- produces alive paradigms. It is used to form interrogative and relative
substantives and adjectives.
Nom. comm.
Acc. comm.
N.-A. n.
Gen.
D.-L.
Abl.

Singular
kuis
kuin
kuit
kul
kudani
kuz (kuzza)

Plural
kus (kuus; 63b)
kuus (kus, kuis, ku; 63a)
ku
kudas

120) a) The general relatives are kuis kuis, kuis-as kuis "whoever", kuis imma, kuis imma kuis, kuisas imma, kuis-as imma kuis "whoever else".
Singular
N.-A. n.
Gen.
D.-L.
Abl.

kul imma
kudani (imma) kudani
kuz imma kuz

Plural
ku ku
kudas kudas

b) kuissa "that" (125a) can also be used with the meaning "whatever".
121) A pronoun derived from kui- is built with the ethnic suffix : kuenzumna- "he who comes
from".
42

122) A parallel stem kua- (< I.E. *kwo-) has been used to build an adverb from the original form of
the N.-A. Sg. n. kuwat "why?" (phonetically < kwod) as well as other adverbs like kuwapi "where"
and its derivatives, and kuwatta(n) "where, to where" (kuwattan sr "why").
123) a) From an unattested interrogative-relative stem ma- is built masi- "how much" with the
following forms :
Singular
Nom. comm.
Acc. comm.
N.-A. n.

Plural
mass

masin
mas

b) From masi- are built masiyant- and masiwant-, both meaning "as much as", with an inflection
close to hmant- "whole" (77).

E. Indefinite pronouns
124) kuiski comm., kuitki n. is used for the substantive "someone, something" and the adjective "a,
an". UL kuiski comm., UL kuitki n. is used for the substantive "no one, nothing" and the adjective
"no, not any ".
125) a) kuissa (kuisa), made of kuis and -a "and", means "each one" (and also "whoever" ; 120b).
b) kuis - kuis means "the one - the other".
126) Inflection of kuiski and kuis(s)a :
Singular
Nom. c.
Acc. c.
N.-A. n.
Gen.
D.-L.
Abl.

kuiski
kuinki
kuitki
kulqa (kulga, kulka, kulki)
kudanikki (kudanikka)
kuzqa

Plural
kuissa (kuisa)
kuinna
kuitta
kulla
kudaniya
kuzzi(ya)

kusqa
kuesa
kuiusga
kuiussa
kuqa (kuqqa, kukki)
kuedasqa

127) tamai- "other" is inflected half as a pronoun, half as a noun. dapiya- "each, all" is also used to
build isolated pronominal forms. Inflection :
Singular
Nom. comm. damais
Acc. comm. damain
N.-A. n.
tamai
Gen.
damml (tamdas)
D.-L.
damdani
All.
tamatta (tamda)
Abl.
tamdaz (damdaza)

dapiyan (dapin; 14a1)

dapias
dapi

Plural
damaus (63b)
damaus
tami
damdas

dapidas
dapias

dapiza (dapidaz)
43

128) From damai- "other" are built :

a) an adjective dameli- "different" (Sg. Acc. comm. damelin, D.-L. dammeli),
b) an adverb dameda "elsewhere".

F. Numbers
129) a) The pronunciation of most numbers is unknown since numbers are generally written with
cuneiform logograms.
b) Only a few forms of numbers are known :
1. The reading of the number "one" is still contested : sma.
2. The I.E. root d appears in the ordinal dn (133) and the composition d-yuga- "two-year-old".
3. The I.E. root *tri- "three" appears in the genitive te-ri-ya-as (132a), in
and in the name of liquid teriyalla- (tariyalla-).

Ltarriyanalli-

(133b)

4. The word meu- "four" does not come from I.E. but from the Luwian mauwa "four", and is found
in several inflected forms written phonetically.
5. The I.E. *sipta(m) "seven" appears in the name of liquid siptamiya.
130) "one" is inflected half as a pronoun and half as an adjective :
Nom. comm.
Acc. comm.
N.-A. n.
Gen.
D.-L.
Abl.

1-as (1-is)
1-an
1-an
1-l
1-dani
1-daz (1-daza, 1-az)

131) a) Inflection of "two" :

Nom. comm.
Acc. comm.
D.-L.

2-us (2-el)
2-e (2-ela, 2-el)
2-etas

b) The expression "both" is expressed by 2-pat or more simply by 2-el (with the particle -pat
"accurate, right").
132) a) Inflection of "three" :
Nom. comm.
Acc. comm.
Gen.

3-es (i.e. *trs)

3-us (3-e)
te-ri-ia-as (i.e. *triyas)

44

b) Inflection of meu- "four" :

Nom. comm.
Acc. comm.
Gen.
D.-L.

meyawas (mwas)
meus (4-as?)
mi-i--wa<-as?>
4-tas

133) a) The first ordinals are known by their reading :

hantezzi- "first" (etymologically "ahead" ; 94).

dn "second" (uninflected).

b) Hittite builds its ordinals with the suffix -anna :

2-anna (= *danna ?) "second",

3-anna "third",
4-anna (4-in) "fourth",
5-anna "fifth",
6-anna "sixth",
7-anna "seventh".

134) a) The numeral adverbs usually end with -anki :

1-anki "once",
2-anki "twice",
5-anki "five times", etc...

b) It is possible that a construction with -is also exists :

2-is "twice (?)",

3-is "three times (?)",
4-is "four times (?)", etc...

c) Cf. also the following adverbial constructions :

1. From "one" : 1-eda "at a precise place ; for oneself". 1-etta "in an only (?), to an only (?) ;
together".
2. From "two" : 2-an (i.e. *taksan) "halfway (?)".

45

Chapter 5

The verb
A. Derivation
135) The derivation of verbs thanks to suffixes constitutes the biggest part of the chapter.
136) -ahh- is a denominative with the meaning "to do what the base word means" and "to bring to a
(natural and continuous) state" : sarazziyahh- "to put right on top" (sarazzi- "superior, paramount"),
nakkiyahh- "to make difficult" (nakki- "difficult"), idlawahh- "to act badly" (idlu- "nasty"),
kururiyahh- "to make war" (kurur "hostility"), 3-yahh- (i.e. *triyahh-) "to triple", 4-iyahh- "to
quadruple".
137) -anni- expresses a persistence, somehow like a durative : iya- "to go , to march" iyanni- "to
march continuously", parh- "to chase" parhanni- "to chase continuously", walh- "to strike"
walhanni- "to strike continuously".
The durative is often used with the iterative in -sk- (141) : walh- "to strike" walhannesk- "to strike
unceasingly", hwi- "to rain" hwannesk- "to rain unceasingly the whole day".
138) -es- is a denominative with the meaning "to become what the base word means" : idlawes- "to
become nasty, to quarrel" (idlu- "nasty"), parkues- "to become pure" (parkui- "pure"), salles- "to
grow , to increase" (salli- "tall"), makkes- "to become many, to grow" (mekki- "much").
139) The infix -nin- is used, like the more frequent suffix -nu- (140), in order to build the causative
of some verbs : hark- "to collapse" harnink- "to throw down", istark- "to be ill" istarnink- "to make
ill".
140) a) The suffix -nu- is the usual way to build the causative of verbe : ar- "to stay" arnu- "to
send", war- "to burn" warnu- "to set on fire", link- "to swear" linganu- "to administer the oath",
hark- "to collapse" harganu- "to throw down", weh- "to turn" wahnu- "to turn over".
b) There is sometimes no difference between a verb and the one with -nu- : pahs- and pahsanu- "to
protect".
c) Occasionally, -nu- is used like -ahh- (136) in order to build verbs from nouns with the meaning
"to act according to the base word by modifying a former state" : maliskunu- "to weaken" (malisku"weak"), dassanu- "to strengthen" (dassu- "strong"), sallanu- "to lengthen, to stretch" (salli- "tall"),
tepnu- "to lessen" (tepu- "few"), parkunu- "to cleanse" (parkui- "pure"), esharnu- "to make bloody"
(eshar- "blood").
141) a) One can build for each verbal root a form with the suffix -sk-, with a meaning close to the
iterative, even though its use is a bit more complex : da- "to take" dask- "to take several times", pi"to give" pesk- "to give several times", ep- "to grab" appisk- "to grab several times", hatri- "to
write" hatresk- "to write several times", eku- "to drink" akkusk- "to drink several times", punus- "to
ask" punusk- (< *punus-sk-; 19a) "to ask several times".
b) Some peculiar forms : ar- "to stay" ar(a)sk- "to stay several times" (22), sipand- "to make a
libation" sipanzak- (i.e. *sipand-sk-; 22) "to make libations several times", ed- "to eat" azzikk- "to
46

adore" (22), di- "to put" zikk- "to put several times" (24), kuen- "to strike" kuask- (11. 31a) "to
strike several times" (next to kuennisk-), hanna- "to judge", hannesk- and hassik- "to judge several
times" (22. 31a), aus- "to see" usk- "to see several times".
c) 1. Because of its frequent use, -sk- is often used along with other suffixes : arnusk- "to bring
several times", harninkisk- "to throw down several times", kururiyahhesk- "to keep on making war".
2. In particular, the durative in -anni- (137) is often followed by the iterative suffix -sk- : walh"to strike" walhannesk- "to always strike continuously", pars- "to break" parsiyannesk- "to break
one after the other".
d) One seldom finds the suffix -ss- borrowed from Luwian instead of -sk- : essa- "to do several
times" (iya- "to do"), halzessa- "to call several times" (halzi- "to call").
142) Occasionally, a phenomenon of reduplication of the verbal root occurs : wek- and wewak- "to
wish, to ask", kis- and kikkis- "to become", kikki- instead of ki- "(to lie =) to start" ; cf. also pappars"to spring", katkattenu- "to make snort", asas- "to sit", wariwarant- = warant- "burning".
For an iterative meaning of the forms with reduplication, cf. the replacement of wewakkinun "I
demanded immediatly" in KBo III 4 II 11 by the iterative wekiskinun in the copy 888/c III 9.
143) a) As in the other I.E. languages, Hittite uses particles to modify the meaning of verbal roots.
Hittite exhibits here an archaic side since particles are always written as independant words and
small words can be placed between the particle and the verb.
b) The most important particles are : anda (andan) "to the inside", appa (appan) "back, again",
arha "away", katta (kattan) "downwards ; in addition, with", par "forward ; out", piran "ahead",
sar "upwards, up", sr "above" ; e.g. pi- "to go" anda pi- "to go into", appa pi- "to go back",
appan pi- "to go after", arha pi- "to go away", par pi- "to go on ; to go out", sar pi- "to go
up" ; d- "to take" appa(n) d- "to take back", arha d- "to take away", par d- "to take out",
katta(n) d- "to take down", sar d- "to take up ; to take, to catch".
c) 1. A verb can have several particles at the same time : appa(n) anda pi- "to go into again", sr
arha d- "to take up away", appa sar d- "to take up again".
2. The particle awan is used only with another particle, e.g. awan arha "away", awan katta
"downwards". It is difficult to define its precise meaning.
144) a) Unlike the isolated particles, the prefixes u- "here" and p- "there" are indissociably attached
to the verb : uda- (ueda-) "to bring", pda- "to send" ; uiya- "to bring", peya- "to send" ; unna- "to
pull", penna- "to push". The relation between uizzi "he comes" and pizzi "he goes" as well as
between the pair uwate- "to bring" and pehute- "to send" is less clear.
b) However, it happens that the particle p- "there" occurs as isolated (especially as a complement
of hark- "to hold"), and that particles are inserted between it and the verb : p harzi "he produces",
p-pat harkanzi "they also produce".

B. Inflection
145) The Hittite verb has two conjugations, named from the ending of the 1st pers. Sg. Pres. : the
mi-conjugation and the hi-conjugation.
146) There are two voices : the active voice and the medio-passive voice. The second one is used
47

for the middle, as in Greek or Indo-Iranian, for the passive and for the deponent verbs (i.e. verbs
with an active meaning conjugated at the medio-passive voice).
147) a) The inflection system of the verb is very simple : there are two simple tenses, present (also
used for future) and preterite, and two modes, indicative and imperative. Some compound tenses are
built with auxiliary verbs (184. 259).
b) The verb is conjugated with two numbers, singular and plural. There is no dual.
148) There are some verbal nouns, namely the infinitives I and II, the supine and the verbal
substantive, as well as a participle, of passive meaning for transitive verbs and active meaning for
intansitive verbs.
149) Outline of the endings :
Active
mi-conj.
hi-conj.

Sg. 1.
2.
3.
Pl. 1.
2.
3.

Sg. 1.
2.
3.
Pl. 1.
2.
3.

Sg. 1.
2.
3.
Pl. 1.
2.
3.

Medio-passive
mi-conj.
Indicative Present
-hahari (-hari, -ha)
-tati (-ta)
-tari (-ta)
-wastati (-wasta)
-duma (-dumari)
-antari (-anta)

-mi
-si
-zi
-weni
-teni
-anzi

-hi (-ahhi)
-ti
-i
-weni
-teni
-anzi

-un (-nun)
-s (-t, -ta)
-t (-ta)
-wen
-ten (-tin)
-er (-ir)

Indicative Preterite
-hun
-hahat(i) (-hat(i))
-s (-ta, -sta)
-tat(i) (-ta)
-s (-ta, -sta)
-tat(i) (-ta)
-wen
-wastat
-ten (-tin)
-dumat
-er (-ir)
-antat(i)

-(a)llu
- (-i, -t)
-du
-weni
-ten (-tin)
-andu

-allu
- (-i)
-u
-weni
-ten (-tin)
-andu

Imperative
-haharu (-haru)
-hut(i)
-taru
-dumat(i)
-antaru

hi-conj.

-hahari (-hari)
-tati (-ta)
-ari (-a)
-wastati (-wasta)
-duma
-antari (-anta)

-hahat(i) (-hat(i))
-at(i) (-tat)
-at(i)
-dumat
-antat(i)

-haharu (-haru)
-hut(i)
-aru
-dumat(i)
-antaru

48

Verbal substantive
-war

Infinitive
I. -wanzi
II. -anna

Supine
-wan

Participle
-ant-

150) In Neo-Hittite, the following tendencies develop :

a) 1. The ending -ti of the 2. Pers. Sg. Pres. of the hi-conjugation sneaks into the mi-conjugation :
epsi and epti "you grab (Sg.)", harsi and harti "you hold (Sg.)", Old-H. istamassi Neo-H. istamasti
"you hear (Sg.)", karussiyasi and karussiyatti "you keep silent (Sg.)", harnikti "you ruin (Sg.)",
maniyahti "you handle (Sg.)".
2. More rarely, the ending -si of the same person can be found in the hi-conjugation : normaly
wastatti and rarely wastasi "you sin (Sg.)".
b) 1. The verbs in -ahh- (136), that are conjugated according to the mi-conjugation, can build their
3. Pers. Sg. Pres. and Pret. according to the hi-conjugation : dasuwahzi and dasuwahhi "he dazzles",
isiyahta and isiyahhis "he searched".
2. Consequently, for huittiya- "to drag", 3. Sg. Pres. huittiyazi and huittiyai.
c) Conversely, the inflection of the 3. Pers. Sg. Pret. and Imp. of the mi-conjugation can be used in
the hi-conjugation : akis and akta "he is dead", aku and akdu "he must die".
d) Some verbs are conjugated with both conjugations : dalahhi and daliyami "I let". Several
examples can be found at 178. A lot of verbs exhibit small irregularities that cannot all be listed in
this grammar. The lexicon should be used instead.
151) Particularities of the mi-conjugation :
a) The 2. Pers. Sg. Pres. rarely ends in -zi : istamaszi "you hear (Sg.)".
b) Neo-Hittite often builds the 2. Pers. Sg. Pret. from the 3. Pers. Sg. : Old-H. iyas Neo-H. iyat "you
did (Sg.)" (same as iyat "he did"), Old-H. sallanus "you made larger (Sg.)" sallanut "he made
larger", Neo-H. tittanut "you put (Sg.)" and "he put".
c) At the 1. Pers. Sg. Imp., es- "to be" has, along with the regular form asallu "I want to be", the
irregular forms eslut and eslit "I want to be".
152) Particularities of the hi-conjugation :
a) 1. The 3. Pers. Sg. Pres. of the hi-conjugation has sometimes an ending -ai instead of -i : sipandi
"he sacrifices" and rarely sippandai, arri "he washes" and sometimes arrai.
2. Also at the 3. Pers. Pl. Pret. : sipantir "they sacrificed" and the isolated form sippantair.
b) Conversely, the form of the 3. Pers. Sg. Pres. wastai (root wasta- + ending -i) of the verb wasta"to sin" is also written wasti.
c) At the 3. Pers. Sg. Pres., one finds parsiya "he breaks" (178) with -a instead of -i, probably by
dissimilation of the preceding -i-.
153) At the Pret. and Imp. of the medio-passive, the forms with an ending -i of Old-Hittite
(-(ha)hati, -tati, -ati, -antati, -huti and -dumati) correspond to the forms without -i of Neo-Hittite
(-(ha)hat, -tat, -at, -antat, -hut and -dumat).

49

1. Active voice
a. mi-Conjugation
1. Consonant stems
154) a) Monosyllabic stems with one consonant : es- "to be", ep- "to grab", nah- "to fear", s- "to
stay", ses- "to sleep", wek- "to require", eku- "to drink" (i.e. *ekw-) :
Indicative Present
Singular
1.
2.
3.

esmi
essi
eszi

1.
2.
3.

asanzi

epmi
nahmi
epsi (epti; 150a1)
nahti (150a1)
epzi
Plural
eppueni
epteni (apteni; 11)
nahteni
appanzi

szi

ssanzi

Singular
1.
2.
3.

sesmi
seszi

wekmi
wekti (150a1)
wekzi

ekumi
ekussi
ekuzi (ekuzazzi, ezzazi, 155)
Plural

1.
2.
3.

sesueni
sesanzi (sasanzi)

akueni
ekutteni
akuwanzi (ekuwanzi)

wek(k)anzi

Indicative Preterite
Singular
1.
2.
3.

esun
esta
esta

eppun

nah(h)un
sta

epta (ipta)

nahta
Plural

1.
2.
3.

esuen
esten
esir

eppuen (appuen)
epten
eppir

50

Singular
1.
3.

sesun
sesta

wekun
wekta

ekun
ekutta
Plural

1.
3.

wekuewen (!)
wekir

sessir

ekuen
ekuer
Imperative
Singular

1.
2.
3.

asallu (eslut, eslit)

es
esdu

ep
epdu (eptu)

nhi
sdu
Plural

2.
3.

esten
asandu

epten
appandu
Singular

2.
3.

ses
sesdu

wek

eku
Plural

2.
3.

sesten

Verbal subst.
Inf. I
Inf. II
Participe

ekutten
akuwandu
esuwar

asant-

Gen. nahhuwas
eppuwanzi
ssuwanzi
appanna
appantnahhant- ssant-

sesuwar wekuwar
sesuwanzi
sasant-

wekant-

akuwanna
akuwant-

155) b) Similar, with the insertion of an -s- between the root and the ending : ed- "to eat", mat- "to
support", ispart- "to escape" :
Indicative Present
Singular
1.
2.
3.

edmi
ezzassi
ezzazzi (ezzai; 150b2)

1.
2.
3.

eduwani (atueni)
ezzatteni (azzasteni)
adanzi

mazatti
mazzazzi (mazzi)
Plural

isparzazzi (isparzizi, isparzai, 150b2)

51

Indicative Preterite
Singular
1.
2.
3.

edun

isparzahhun (hi-conj.)
isparzasta
isparzas (isparzasta)

mazzasta
mazzasta

ezta

Plural
3.

eter

isparter (isparzir)
Imperative
Singular

2.
3.

et (ezza, ezzazza)
ezzaddu
Plural

2.
3.

ezzatten (ezzasten)
adandu (ezzandu)

Inf. II
Part.

adanna
adant-

isparzant-

156) c) Similar, with ablaut (18) : kuen- "to strike, to kill", huek- "to swear" (and huek- "to throw
down") :
Indicative Present
Singular
1.
2.
3.

kuemi (31a)
kuesi (31a) (kuenti, 150a1)
kuenzi

1.
2.
3.

kuennummeni
kuenatteni
kunanzi (kuennanzi)

hukmi
kuerzi (kuirri)
Plural

huekzi (hukzi)

kuranzi

hukanzi

Indicative Preterite
Singular
1.
2.
3.

kuenun (kuenunun)
kuinnesta
kuenta

kuerta

huekta
Plural

1.
.2
3.

kueun (31a) (kuinnummen)

kuenten
kuennir

hugawen
kuerir
52

Imperative
Singular
2.
3.

kuen(n)i
kuendu

huikdu
Plural

2.
3.

kuenten
kunandu

Verbal subst.
Inf. I
Inf. II
Part.

kurandu
Gen. kuennumas
kuennummanzi
kunanna
kunant- (kuenniyant-)

kuranna
kurant-

hkannahgant-

157) d) Monosyllabic with two consonants ; cf. 22 and 23a : walh- "to strike", sanh- "to search",
hark- "to collapse", karp- "to lift", link- "to swear".
Indicative Present
Singular
a-an-ah-mi (a-an-ha-mi)
a-an-ah-ti (a-na!-ah-ti, 23c; a-an-ha-ti, a-an-ha-i)
a-an-ah-zi (a-an-ha-zi)
Plural

1.
2.
3.

wa-al-ah-mi
wa-la!-ah-i (23c)
wa-al-ah-zi

1.
2.
3.

wa-al-hu-wa-ni (wa-al-ah-hu-e-ni)
wa-al-ah-ta-ni
a-an-ah-te-ni (a-an-ha-at-te-ni)
wa-al-ha-an-zi (wa-al-ah-ha-an-zi) a-an-ha-an-zi
Singular

1.
2.
3.

kar-ap-mi
har-ak-ti
har-ak-zi

1.
2.
3.

har-ku-e-ni
har-ak-te-ni
har-ki-ia-an-zi

kar-ap-zi (karpizzi, kar-ap-p-iz-zi)

Plural

li-in-ga-zi (li-ik-zi)
li-in-ku-e-ni (li-ku-wa-an-ni!)

kar(-ap)-pa-an-zi, kar(-ap)-p-an-zi

li-in-kn-zi

53

Indicative Preterite
1.
2.

wa-al-hu-un (wa-al-ah-hu-un)
wa-al-ah-ta

2.
3.

wa-al-ah-tin
wa-al-hi-ir

Singular
a-an-hu-un (a-an-ah-hu-un, a-ah-hu-un)
a-an-ah-ta (a-an-ha-ta, a-ah-ta)
Plural
a-an-ah-tin
a-an-hi-ir
Singular

1.
3.

kar-ap-pu-un
har-ak-ta

li-in-ku-un
li-in-ik-ta (li-in-kt-ta, li-in-kn!ta [31b], li-ik-ta)

kar-ap-ta
Plural

1.
3.

li-in-ku-en (li-in-ga-u-en)
kar-p(-e)-ir
Imperative

2.
3.

wa-al-ah

2.
3.

wa-al-ah-tin

2.
3.

har-ak-du

.2
3.
Verbal subst.
Inf. I
Inf. II
Part.

Singular
a-an-ha (a-a-ah)
a-ah-du
Plural
a-an-ha-at-tin (a-a-ah-te-en)
a-an-ha-an-du
Singular
kar-ap (kar-ap-p-ia)
kar-ap-du
Plural
kar-ap-tin (kar-ap-p-ia-at-tin)

wa-al-hu-wa-ar
wa-al-hu-wa-an-zi
anhant-

li-in-ik (li-in-ki)

li-en-ik-tin
li-in-kn-du
kar-pu-wa-ar

a-an-hu-wa-an-zi
harkant-

har-kn-na
kar(-ap)-pa-an-t- li-in-kn-t-

158) The root hark- "to hold, to have" is special in that it drops its k before an ending starting with a
consonant whereas it keeps it before an ending starting with a vowel :

54

1.
2.
3.

2.
3.

Indicative Present
Singular
Plural
harmi
harweni (harwani)
harsi (harti)
harteni
harzi
harkanzi
Imperative
Singular
Plural
har-ak
harten
hardu
harkandu

Indicative Preterite
Singular
Plural
harkun
harwen
harten
harta
harkir
Participe

harkant-

159) e) Polysyllabic stems : istamas- "to hear", punus- "to ask", hamenk- "to attach".
Indicative Present
1.
2.
3.

istamasmi
istamassi (istamasti, istamaszi)
istamaszi

1.
2.
3.

istamasteni (istamastani)
istamassanzi

Singular
punusmi

ha-ma-an-ga-mi

punuszi
Plural
punussueni

ha-ma-an-ki

punussanzi

hamankanzi (haminkanzi, hamangazi)

Indicative Preterite
1.
2.

istamassun

Singular
punussun
punusta

3.

istamasta

punusta

1.
2.
3.

ha-mi-ik-ta (ha-ma-ak-ta, ha-ma-ankat-ta, ha-ma-na-ak-ta)

Plural
punussuen
istamasten
istamassir

punussir

haminkir

Imperative
2.
3.

istamas
istamasdu

2.
3.

istamasten
istamassandu

Singular
punus
punusdu
Plural
punusten
punussandu

hamankandu

55

Verbal subst.
Inf. I
Participe

istamassuwar
istamassuwanzi
istamassant-

punussuwar

hamenkuwar
hamenkant- (hamankant-)

160) f) Polysyllabic stems ; verbs in -es- and -ahh- : idalawes- "to become evil" ; idalawahh- "to
behave badly", suppiyahh- "to clean", maniyahh- "to give back".
Indicative Present
1.
2.
3.

idalawesti
idalaweszi

2.
3.

idalawesteni
idalawessanzi

1.
2.
3.

suppiyahmi

3.

suppiyahhanzi

suppiyahhi (150b1)

Singular
idalawahmi
idalawahti (idalawatti, 28b)
idalawahzi
Plural
idalawahhanzi
Singular
maniyahmi
maniyahti
maniyahzi (maniyahhi)
Plural
maniyahhanzi
Indicative Preterite

1.
3.

idalawesta

1.
2.
3.

HULME-sir

1.
2.
3.
3.

suppiyahhun
suppiyahhas

Singular
idalawahhun
HUL-ahta
Plural
idalawahhuen
HUL-ahten

Singular
maniyahhun
maniyahta
maniyahda (maniyahhis)
Plural
maniyahhir

56

Imperative
2.

Singular
maniyah
Plural
maniyahten

suppiyah

2.
Verbal subst.
Part.

suppiyahhuwar
idalawahhant-

maniyahhant-

2. Vocalic stems
161) a) Polysyllabic stems : uwate- "to bring", pehute- "to supply", wete- "to build", watku- "to
jump".
Indicative Present
Singular
1.
2.
3.

uwatemi
uwatesi
uwatezzi (uwadazzi)

pehutemi
pehutesi
pehutezzi

wedahhi
wedasi
wetezzi

watkuz(z)i

wedanzi

watkuwanzi

Plural
1.
2.
3.

uwateweni (uwatewani,
uwatummeni)
uwatetteni (uwatettani) pehutetteni
uwadanzi
pehudanzi

Indicative Preterite
Singular
wetenun (wedahhun,
wetun)

1.

uwatenun

pehutenun

2.
3.

uwatet
uwatet

1.
3.

uwatewen
uwater

pehutet
pehutet (pehutes)
wetet (wedas)
Plural
wetummen
pehuter
weter

watkut

Imperative
Singular
2.
3.

uwate (uwati, uwatet)

uwateddu

pehute
Plural

2.
3.

uwatetten (uwatatten)
uwadandu

pehutetten
pehudandu

wedandu
57

Verbal subst.
Inf. I
Part.

wetummar
wetummanzi

watkuwar

pehudant-

watkuwant-

162) b) Monosyllabic stems : l- "to detach", h- "to believe, to trust", s- "to be angry".
Indicative Present
1.
2.
3.

Singular
lmi
lsi
li

Plural
hmi
hsi
lnzi

snzi

Indicative Preterite
1.
2.
3.

Singular
lun (lnun)
lis
lit

Plural
lwen

hnun
his
sit
Imperative

2.

Singular
li

Verbal subst.
Part.

Plural
latten

lant-

swar
snt-

hnt-

163) c) The monosyllabic root te- "to speak" shares its paradigm with tar- "to speak" :

1.
2.
3.

2.
3.

Indicative Present
Sg.
temi
tesi
tezzi (and Luw. tardi)
Imperative
Sg.
tet
teddu

Pl.
tarweni
tarteni
taranzi

Indicative Preterite
Sg.
tenun
tet
Part.

Pl.

tarant-

Pl.
tetten
darandu

164) d) The very frequent verbs pi- "to go" and uwa- "to come" are special in that they make the
transition with the verbs in -i- :

58

Indicative Present
1.
2.
3.

Singular
pimi
pisi (psi, pitti)
pizzi

Plural
paiweni (paiwani)
paitteni (paittani)
pnzi

uwami (uwammi)
uwasi
uizzi

uwaweni
uwatteni
uwanzi (uenzi)

Indicative Preterite
1.
2.
3.

Singular
pun (pnun)
pit (paitta)

uwanun (uwanunun)
uwas
uit (uitti)

Plural
piwen (pwen)
pir

uwawen
uwatten
uer

Imperative
Singular
2.
3.

paiddu

Plural
wuiddu (uwadu)

Verbal subst.
Inf. I
Part.

pndu (pntu)

uwatten (uitten)
uwandu

pwar
pwanzi
pnt-

uwawar
uwawanzi
uwant-

2. The 2. Pers. Sg. (and partly Pl.) of the Imperative of pi- "to go" and uwa- "to come" are not
commonly used (uwat "come!" is only found once). Instead, the following locutions are used :
a) for pi- "to go" an independant and more frequent root i- "to go" with the Imperative 2. Pers. Sg.
it "go!" and a Pl. itten "go!" ;
b) for uwa- "to come" the interjection ehu "here!" > "come!". ehu can also be used with a particle :
andu ehu, par ehu, kattan ehu.
3. i-stems
165) hatri- "to write", kappuwi- "to count, to examine", handi- "to add", sarkuwi- "to tighten".
Indicative Present
Singular
1.
2.
3.

hatrmi
hatrsi
hatrizzi

1.
2.
3.

hatrweni (hatrauni, 16)

kapuesi (17b)
kappuwizi (kappuezzi, 13a)
Plural
kappuwatteni
kappuwanzi (kappuenzi, 17b)

59

Singular
1.
2.
3.

handmi
handsi
handizzi (hantezzi, 13a, handi)

3.

handanzi

sarkuezzi (sarkuizzi)
Plural

Indicative Preterite
1.
2.
3.

hatrnun
hatres
hatrit (hatres)

3.

hatrir

Singular
kappuwanun
kappuit (13a)
kappuwit (kappuet, 13a)
Plural

Singular
1.
3.

handanun
handit

1.
3.

handuen
handir

sarkuit (and Luw. sarkutta)

Plural

Imperative
2.
3.

hatri
hatru

2.
3.

hatratten

2.
3.

Singular
kappuwi (kappui, 13a)
kappuwiddu (kappuiddi, 13a)
Plural
kappuwatten
kappuwandu
Singular
sarkui (sarku, 16)

handi
handaiddu

Plural
3.

handandu

Verbal subst.
Inf. I
Part.

kappuwawar
hatrant-

kappuwant-

handwar
handawanzi
handant-

sarkuwant-

60

4. iya-stems
166) a) iya- "to do", tiya- "to move forward", wemiya- "to find", huitiya- "to pull".
Indicative Present
1.
2.
3.

iyami (iyammi)
iyasi
iyazi (iyazzi, iezi)

1.
2.
3.

iyaweni (iyawani)
iyatteni
iyanzi

1.
2.
3.

wemiyami
wemiyasi
wemiyaz(z)i (wemiezi)

1.
2.
3.

wemiyaweni
wemiyanzi

Singular
tiyami
tiyasi
tiyazi (tiez(z)i, tiyazzi, 14b)
Plural
tiyaweni
tiyatteni
tiyanzi (tienzi)
Singular
huittiyami
huittiyasi
huittiazi (huittiezzi, huittiyai)
Plural
huittiyatteni
huittiyanzi
Indicative Preterite

1.
2.
3.

iyanun (iyaun)
iyas (iyat, 151b)
iyat (iet)

1.
.2
3.

iyawen
iyatten
ier

1.
3.

wemiyanun
wemiyat (wemit)

1.
3.

wemiyawen
wemiyer

Singular
tiyanun
tiyat
tiyat (tiet)
Plural
tiyawen
tier
Singular
huittiyanun
huittiyat (huittit)
Plural
huittiyawen

61

Imperative
Singular
1.
2.
3.

iyallu
iya
iyadu (iedu)

2.
3.

iyatten
iyandu (iendu)

tiya
tiyaddu
Plural
tiyatten
tiyandu
Singular
huitti
Plural

2.
3.

wemiyandu

Verbal subst.
Inf. I
Inf. II
Part.

iyawar
iyawanzi

tiyawar
tiyawanzi
wemiyawanzi
tiyanna
tiyant- (tint-, 141a1)

iyant-

huittiyawar
huittiyawanzi
huittiyant-

b) The verb huwi- (hya-) "to run, to flee" oscillates between i-stem and iya-stem :

1.
2.
3.

Indicative Present
Sg.
huyami
huyasi (hueyasi)
huwi (huwizzi)

Verbal subst.
Part.

Pl.
hyaweni

Indicative Preterite
Sg.
huyanun

Pl.

hyanzi (huwanzi)

huwais (huwas)

huwair (hur)

Gen. huyawas
huyant- (huwayant-)

62

5. Stems with infix -nin- (139)

167) harnink- "to destroy", sarnink- "to replace", ninik- "to mobilize".
Indicative Present
Singular
1.
2.
3.

harnikmi
harnikti
harnikti

sarnikmi
sarnikzi

ninikzi
Plural

1.
2.
3.

sarninkueni
sarnikteni
sarninkanzi

harnikteni
harninkanzi

ninikteni
nininkanzi

Indicative Preterite
Singular
1.
2.
3.

harninkun
harnikta
harnikta

sarninkun

nininkun

sarnikta

ninikta
Plural

3.

harninkir

nininkir
Imperative
Singular

2.
3.

harnik

ninik
sarnikdu
Plural

2.
3.

harnikten
harninkandu

Verbal subst.
Inf. I
Part.

nininkandu
harninkuwar
harninkuwanzi
harninkant-

Gen. nininkuwas
sarninkuwanzi
sarninkant-

nininkant-

63

6. Iteratives in -sk- (141)

168) a) dask- "to take several times", pesk- "to give several times", usk- "to see often" (from aus-,
176), akkusk- "to drink a lot".
Indicative Present
Singular
1.
2.
3.

daskimi
daskisi
daskizzi

peskimi
peskisi
peskizzi

1.
2.
3.

Plural
daskiwani (dasgaweni, 11. 20) pisgaweni
daskitteni (daskatteni)
piskatteni
daskanzi
peskanzi (paiskanzi)

uskisi (uskatti)
uskizzi

akkuskizzi

uskatteni
uskanzi

akkuskittani
akkuskanzi

Singular
peskinun

uskinun

akkuskinun

peskit

uskit

akkuskit

Indicative Preterite
1.
2.
3.

dasganun
daskes
daskit

Plural
1.
2.
3.

usgawen
peskatten
peskir (piskar, 11)

daskir

akkuskir

Imperative
Singular
1.
2.
3.

piskellu
peski

uski
uskiddu

daskiddu

akkuski
akkuskiddu

Plural
2.

daskatten

piskatten

uskatten

3.

daskandu (daiskandu)

piskandu

uskandu

Verbal subst.
Supine
Part.

akkuskitten
(akkuskatten)
akkuskandu

uskiyawar
daskiwan

peskiwan
uskant-

b) azzikk- "to adore", zikk- "to put several times", tarsikk- "to say several times" (22b. 24)

64

Indicative Present
Singular
1.
2.
3.

azzikizzi

zikkimi
zikkisi
zikkizzi

tarsikkimi
tarsik(k)isi
tarsikizzi (tar-a-ki-iz-zi)
Plural

1.
2.
3.

zikkiuwani
azzikkittani
azzikkanzi

zik(k)anzi

tarsikkanzi (tar-a-kn-zi)

Indicative Preterite
Singular
1.
2.
3.

azzikkinun
zikkes
zikkit

tar-a-ki-it
Plural

1.
3.

tar-a-ki-u-en (tar-i-ga-u-en)
azzik(k)ir

zikkir
Imperative
Singular

2.
3.

azzikki
azzikkiddu

zikki
zikkiddu
Plural

2.
3.
Part.

azzikkitten (azzikkatten)
azzikkandu
zikkant-

65

7. Causatives in -nu169) arnu- "to bring", wahnu- "to turn", pahsanu- (pahhasnu-, 26) "to insure", assanu- (asnu-,
26) "to prepare, to obtain".
Indicative Present
1.
2.
3.

arnum(m)i
arnusi
arnuz(z)i

Singular
pahsanumi

wahnumi
wahnusi
wahnuz(z)i

assanumi
assanusi (asnusi)
assanuz(z)i (asnuzi)

Plural
1.

arnummeni

wahnummeni

2.

arnutteni

wahnutteni

3.

arnu(w)anzi

wahnuwanzi

pahsanutteni
(pahhasnutteni)
pahsanuwanzi

assanuanzi (asnuwanzi)

Indicative Preterite
Singular
1.
3.

arnunun
arnut

wahnunun
wahnut

assanunun
assanut
Plural

1.
3.

arnuir (arnur)

wahnum(m)en
wahnuir (wahnur)

pahsanuir

assanuir

Imperative
Singular
1.
2.
3.

arnut
arnuddu

2.
3.

arnutten
arnu(w)andu

Verbal subst.

pahhassanut
pahsanuddu
Plural
pahhasnutten
pahhasnuandu
arnummar

Inf. I
Part.

wahnumar
(wahnuwar)
wahnummanzi

arnuwant-

wahnuwant-

pahsanummar

assanullu (asnullu)
asnut
assanuddu

assanuwawar (!, Gen.

as(sa)num(m)as)

pahsanummanzi
assanummanzi
(pahhassanumanzi)
pahsanuwant(pahhasnuwant-,
pahhassanuwant-)

66

b. hi-Conjugation
1. Consonant stems
170) a) With one consonant : sak- "to know" (sek-, 11) ; ak- (ek-) "to die", ar- "to arrive", wak- "to
bite", asas- "to place".
Indicative Present
Singular
1.
2.
3.

saggahhi (skhi)
sakti (sekti)
sakki

arhi
arti
ari

akti
aki
Plural

1.
2.
3.

1.
2.
3.

sekkueni
sekteni
sekkanzi

waki

3.

akkueni
akteni
akkanzi

erweni
erteni (arteni)
aranzi
Singular
asashi (asashe, 10)
asasti
assi
Plural
asesanzi (asisanzi, 10)

Indicative Preterite
Singular
1.
2.
3.

saggahhun
sakta
sakkis (sakta, sekta)

1.
3.

sekkuen
sekkir

1.
3.
1.
3.

wakkis (waqas, wkit)

arhun (a-ar-ah-hu-un, 23a)

ak(k)is (akta)
Plural
ekir (akir)

a-ar-a
erwen
erir

Singular
asashun
asasta (asesta)
Plural

wakuen
asesir (aseser)

67

Imperative
Singular
1.
2.
3.

seggallu
sk
sakdu

aggallu
ak
aku (akdu)

aru
Plural

2.
3.

sekten (sikten)

arten
akkandu

Verbal subst.
Inf. I
Inf. II
Part.

sekkant-

asesuwar
asesuwanzi

arawanzi
waganna
arant-

akkant-

asesant-

171) b) With two consonants : pahs- "to protect", taks- "to gather", sipand- "to bestow a libation".
Indicative Present
Singular
1.
2.
3.

pahhashi (pahhasmi)
pahhasti

1.
2.
3.

pahsueni
pahhasteni
pahsanzi

taggashi
takkissi
takkeszi (taggassi, takkizzi)
Plural

sipandahhi
sipandi (sippantai, 152a1)
sipanduwani

takkesteni (taggasteni)
takkessanzi

sipandanzi (sippantinzi)

Indicative Preterite
Singular
1.
3.

pahhasta

3.

pahsir

takkista (taggasta)
Plural
takser

sipandahhun
sippandas
sippanter (sippantair)

Imperative
2.
3.

Singular
pahsi

Verbal subst.
Inf. I
Part.

Plural
pahhasten
pahsandu

pahsant-

taksuwanzi
taksant-

sippanduar
sip(p)anduwanzi
sipantant68

2. Vocalic stems
172) a) d- "to take".
Indicative Present
1.
2.
3.

Singular
dahhi
datti
di

Plural
dweni (dawani, dummeni)
datteni (tatteni)
danzi
Indicative Preterite

1.
2.
3.

2.
3.

Singular
dahhun
ds
ds

Sing.
d
du (daddu)

Plural
dwen
datten
dir
Imperative
Plur.
datten
dandu

Verbal subst.
Inf. I
Inf. II
Part.

Gen. dwas
d
danna
dant-

173) b) di- "to place", pi- "to give", ni- "to guide", zi- "to exceed", halzi- "to call".
Indicative Present
Singular
1.
2.
3.

tehhi
ditti (titti)
di

1.
2.
3.

tiyaweni
titteni (tisteni)
tiyanzi (tienzi)

1.
2.
3.
1.
2.
3.

zitti (zsi)
zi

pihhi
paisti (pesti)
pi
Plural
piyaweni (piweni)
pesteni (pisteni)
piyanzi

nehhi
nitti (neyat(t)i)
ni
neyaweni
nisteni (naistani)
neyanzi

Singular
halzihhi (halziyami)
halzitti (halzesti, halziyatti, halziyasi)
halzi
Plural
halziyaweni (halziwani)
halziyatteni
halziyanzi

69

Indicative Preterite
1.
2.
3.

tehhun (thun)

1.
3.

tiyawen (daiwen)
daier (tiir; dir)

Singular
pehhun (pihhun)
pitta
pis (pesta)
Plural
piyawen (piwen)
pir

dis (dista)

nehhun (neyahhun)
nis (naista, naesta)
neyawen
nir (nier)

Singular
1.
2.
3.
1.
3.

zihhun

halzihhun
halzit
halzis

zis

Plural
halziyawen (halziwen)
halzier

ziwen

Imperative
2.
3.

di
du

pi
pu

2.
3.

disten
tiyandu

pesten
piandu

Verbal subst.
Inf. I
Inf. II
Part.

tiyawar
tiyawanzi
tiyanna
tiyant-

Singular
ni (neya)
nu
Plural
nisten (neyatten)

piyawar
piyawanzi
piyanna
piyant-

halzi

zitten

halzisten

neyawar

Gen. halziyawas
halziyawanzi

neyant-

halziyant-

174) c) With -u(m)- for the 1st Pers. Pl., for Verbal subst. and for Infinitive : tarna- "to let", sarra"to separate", wasta- "to sin", uda- "to bring", pda- "to transfer".
Indicative Present
Singular
1.
2.
3.

tarnahhi
tarnatti (tarnsi)
tarni (tarnizzi)

1.
2.
3.

tarnummeni (tarnummani)
tarnatteni
tarnanzi

sarratti
sarrai (sarri, sarriyazi, sarrezzi)
Plural
sarraweni
sarratteni
sarranzi

wastahhi
wastatti (wastasi)
wastai (wasti)

70

1.
2.
3.

udahhi
udatti
udi

1.
2.
3.

utummeni
udatteni
udanzi (utinzi)

Singular
pedahhi (pitahhi)
pedatti
pedai
Plural
pedum(m)eni
pedatteni
pedanzi (pitenzi)
Indicative Preterite
Singular

1.
2.
3.

tarnahhun
tarnas
tarnas (tarnesta)

1.
2.
3.

tarnum(m)en (tarnuen)
tarnatten
tarnir

1.
3.

udahhun
udas

1.
3.

utummen
uter (utir)

sarrahhun

wastahhun
wastas
wastas

sarras (sarrt)
Plural
sarrummen
sarrr

waster
Singular
pedahhun (pidahhun)
pedas
Plural
petummen
peter (piter)
Imperative
Singular

2.
3.

tarna (tarni)
tarnu (tarnesdu)

sarri

uda
udu

peda
pedau

udatten
udandu

pedatten (pidesten)
pedandu

Plural
2.
3.

tarnatten (tarnisten)
tarnandu

Verbal subst.
Inf. I
Part.

tarnummar
tarnummanzi
tarnant-

sarrumar
sarrumanzi
sarrant-

wasdumar
wastant-

utummar
utummanzi
udant-

petummar
pedummanzi

71

175) d) With the 3rd Pers. Pl. Present built on the model of the verbs in -ya : essa- "to act" (iterative
of iya- "to do", 141d), mema- "to speak", unna- "to push", penna- "to pull", uppa- "to send".
Indicative Present
1.
2.
3.

essahhi (issahhi)
essatti
essai

1.
2.
3.

essueni
essatteni
essanzi

1.
2.
3.

pennahhi
pennatti
pennai

1.
2.
3.

pennanzi (penniyanzi)

Singular
memahhi (memahhe)
mematti
memai (memmai)
Plural
memaweni (memiyaweni)
mematteni
memanzi (memiyanzi)

unnahhi
unnatti
unnai

unnatteni (unnisteni)
unnanzi (un(n)iyanzi)

Singular
uppahhi
uppai
Plural
uppiweni
uppatteni
uppanzi (uppianzi)
Indicative Preterite

1.
2.
3.

essahhun

1.
2.
3.

essuen

1.
2.
3.
1.
3.

es(s)esta

esser (isser)

pennahhun
pennis (pennesta)

pennir

Singular
memahhun
memista (me(m)mas)
Plural

unahhun
unnes
unnes (unnesta)
unnummen

memisten
memir
Singular
uppahhun
uppesta
uppesta (uppas)
Plural
uppiwen
uppir

72

Imperative
Singular
1.
2.
3.

essa (essi, issa)

essau

2.
3.

issatten
essandu (issandu)

Verbal subst.

memallu
memi
unni
memau (me-ma-at-tu4) unnau
Plural
memisten
memandu

uppi
uppu

essuwar
memiyawanzi
(memiuwanzi)

Inf. I
Supine
Part.

penni

pennumanzi (pennuanzi,
penniyawanzi)

essuwan
memant-

uppant-

3. Irregular
176) au- (aus-) "to see".

1.
2.
3.

1.
2.
3.

Indicative Present
Sing.
uhhi
autti
auszi

Sing.
uwallu
au
ausdu

Plur.
aummeni (umeni)
autteni (austeni, usteni)
uwanzi
Imperative
Plur.

Indicative Preterite
Sing.
uhhun
austa
austa

Plur.
aumen
auer

Inf. II
uwanna

austen
uwandu

73

c. Blend of mi- and hi-conjugations

177) The previous paradigms already exhibited many variants of the Hittite verb, with pecular forms
that not only diverged from the regular model, but also from the regular conjugation. There is not
enough room here to treat all the variations between the mi- and hi-conjugations. The following
verbs exhibit forms of both conjugations (partly because of a change in the formation of the root) so
variable that it is impossible to affect them to a precise conjugation.
178) dala- and daliya- "to let", ishi- and ishiya- "to link", si- and siyai- "to open" (probably
ancient like di- "to place"), sunna- and sun(n)iya- "to fill", parsi- and parsiya- (parsi-) "to break".
Indicative Present
Singular
1.
2.
3.

dalahhi (daliyami)
dalatti (daliyasi)
dli (dalizzi, daliyazi)

1.
2.
3.

daliyaweni
dalesteni
daliyanzi

1.
3.

sunnahhi (suniyami)
sunnai (sun(n)iyazi, sunizzi)

2.
3.

sunnatteni
sunnanzi (sun(n)iyanzi)

ishi (ishiyazzi, ishzzi)

Plural

siyaizzi (siezzi)
siyaweni

ishiyatteni
ishiyanzi

siyanzi

Singular
parsiyahhi (parsiyami)
parsizzi (parsiyazi, parsiya [152c], pr-a-i-ia, pa-ar-i)
Plural
parsiyanzi (parsnzi)
Indicative Preterite

1.
3.

dalahhun (daliyanun)
dlis (dalesta, daliyat)

1.
2.
3.

daliyawen
daliyatten
dlir

Singular
ishih(h)un (ishiyanun)
ishiyat
Plural

siyanun
siyait

ishir

siyir
Singular

3.

sunnas (sunnista, sunet)

parsiyat
Plural

3.

sunnir

74

Imperative
2.
3.
2.
3.

Singular
si (siya)

dala (dali)
tlesdu
dalesten

Verbal subst.
Inf. I
Inf. II
Part.

ishiyandu
dalumar (taliyawar)

daliyant-

Plural
sisten
siyandu
ishiyawar

ishiyant-

siyawanzi
siyanna
siyant-

sunni
sunniddu
snisten

sunnumar
sunnumanzi

parsiyawanzi

sunniyant-

parsiyant-

75

2. Medio-passive voice
179) The difference between mi- and hi-conjugations has no importance for medio-passive (cf. the
outline of endings at 149). It is not taken into account in the following paradigms.
1. Consonant stems
180) ar- "to be placed", tarup- "to get together", es- "to be sat", kis- "to become", pahs- "to protect"
(deponent).
Indicative Present
Singular
1.
2.
3.

arhahari
artati (artari)
artari (arta)

eshahari
estari
esari (esa)

tarupta(ri)
Plural

1.
3.

arwasta
arantari (aranta)

1.
2.
3.

kishahari
kistati (kista)
kisari (kissari, kisa)

1.
2.
3.

kisandari (kisanta)

taruppantari

esuwasta(ri)
esanta(ri) (asanta)

Singular
pahhasha
pahhasta
pahsari
Plural
pahsuwasta
pahhasduma
pahsantari
Indicative Preterite
Singular

1.
2.
3.

arhahat
artat
artat

eshahat (eshat, eshati, ishahat)

estat
esat (esati, estat)

taruptat
Plural

1.
3.

arwastat
arantat (arandati)

taruppantari

esantat

76

1.
2.
3.

kishahat (kishat, kishati)

kisat (kistat)
kisat (kisati)

2.
3.

kisdummat
kisantat(i)

Singular
pahhashahat (pahhashat)
pahhastat
Plural

Imperative
Singular
1.
2.
3.
2.
3.

arhaharu
arhut
artaru
ardumat
arantaru

Verbal subst.
Inf. II
Part.

taruptaru

eshut
esaru
Plural
esdum(m)at

taruppantaru

kishut
kasaru

pahsaru

kisdumat
kisandaru

pahhasdumat
pahsandaru

kisant-

pahsant-

taruppuwar
taruppant-

asanna
asant-

2. Vocalic stems
181) iya- "to go, to march", ni- (neya-) "to speak to", zahhiya- deponent "to fight" (or middle "to
fight one another"), uwa- "to turn out, to appear" (middle of au(s)- "to see", 176 ; next to ausdeponent "to see"), ki- "to happen".
Indicative Present
Singular
1.
2.
3.
1.
2.
3.

3.
3.

iyahhari
iyattati (iyattari)
iyattari (iyatta)

iyadduma
iyantari (iyanta)

uwaitta(ri)

neyahhari
neyattati (naista(ri))
neyari (neya, niya(ri))
Plural

zahhiyahha(ri)
zahhiyattari
zahhiyawastati
zahhiyadduma

neyantari (neyanta)
Singular
kittari (kitta)
Plural
kiyantari (kiyanta, kianta)

77

Indicative Preterite
Singular
1.
2.
3.

iyahhahat (iyahhat)
iyattati
iyattat

3.

iyantat

neyahhat

zahhiyahhat

neyat(t)at (neyaddat, neyat) zahhiyattat (zahhiyatta)

Plural
ne(y)antat (neyantati)
Singular

1.
3.

uwahhat (aushahat)
uwaittat (austat)

3.

uwantat

kittat (kittati)
Plural
kiyantati
Imperative

2.
3.

iyahhut
iyattaru

2.
3.

iyaddumat
iyantaru

Singular
naishut (neshut)
neyaru
Plural
naisdumat
neyandaru

zahhiyahhut

zahhiyaddumat

Singular
1.
3.
2.
3.

uwahharu
kittaru
Plural
kiddumati
uwandaru

Verbal subst.
Inf. I
Inf. II
Part.

neyawar
zahhiyauwanzi
uwanna
iyant-

neyant-

zahhiyant-

182) The medio-passive of war- "to burn" (intr.) exhibits a dissimilation of the final r with the r of
the root : the 3rd Pers. Sg. Present is pronounced warni < *warri "it burns" (the 3rd Pers. Pl. is
regular : warandari) and the 3rd Pers. Sg. Imper. warnu < *warru "it must burn".

78

3. Compound forms
184) Hittite also has several compound verbal forms oddly similar to those of some modern
languages.
a) The participle with es- is used to express :
1. the passive of transitive verbs : DUMU.MUNUS piyanza esta "a girl has been given",
2. a state for intransitive verbs : antuhsatar pn esta "the population was gone".
b) The perfect and pluperfect can be expressed, as in modern languages, by means of har(k)- "to
have" (158) with the participle at the N.-A. Sg. Neuter : iyan harmi "I have done", iyan harkun "I
had done".
c) The expression "to begin to do something" is expressed by means of di- "to place, to put" with
the supine in -uwan of a verb generally iterative : ERIN2ME peskiwan dir (tier) "they prepared to
regularly give troops".

4. The verbal substantive

185) The verbal substantive in -war can be inflected according to its function :
a) The genitive is especially frequent ; it is not built like the stem in -war but like a shortened stem
in -u- : pwar "going", Gen. pwas ; tiyawar "sitting" (from di-), Gen. tiyawas ; nininkuwar
"quantity", Gen. nininkuwas ; turiyawar "harnessing", Gen. turiyawas ; arnummar (29a)
"bringing", Gen. arnummas ; tarnummar "leaving", Gen. tarnummas.
b) The other cases are not very frequent and are built differently :
1. Either from the shortened root in -u- (very rarely) : armahhuwar "impregnation", Abl.
armahhuwaza ; hanessuwar "plastering", Abl. hanessuwaz.
2. More frequently from the whole root in -war, with or without the change -war/-wan- (-un-) :
) With change : huittiyawar "pulling", D.-L. huittiyani ; assiyawar "love", Instr. assiyawannit ;
miumar "prosperity", Instr. miumnit.
) Without change (with preservation of the r in the whole paradigm) : wekuwar "demand", Abl.
wekuwarraz ; arkuwar "prayer", N.-A. Pl. arkuwarriHI.A ; minumar "enriching", N.-A. Pl.
minumarriHI.A (minumarHI.A).
186) The genitive of the verbal substantive looks like the Latin gerund : memiyas kuis iyawas
"which thing (is the one) of the making" means finally "which thing (is) to be made", kuis arha
tarnummas "who (is the one) of the leaving" means "who (is) to be left". Thus, these genitives of
substantives can be interpretated as singular nominatives of adjectives. They can also be built for
plural nominatives : next to kuis IKRIBU sarninkuwas "which prayer (is the one) of the atoning" i.e.
"as atonement to be done" one finds the plural IKRIBIHI.A kus sarninkus "which prayers (are) to
be done as atonement".

79

5. The infinitive
187) The difference between the infinitives in -uwanzi and in -anna can be summed up that way :
a) -anna builds the infinitive for all verbs with ablaut :
1. the root verbs with ablaut of the mi-conjugation : adanna (from ed- "to eat"), appanna (from ep"to take"), akuwanna (from eku- "to drink"), kunanna (from kuen- "to kill"), hukanna (from huek"to swear"),
2. the verbs with ablaut of the hi-conjugation : tiyanna (from di- "to put"), piyanna (from pi- "to
give") ; also in this category danna (from d- "to take"),
3. secondarily and without a clear rule for some other verbs : waganna (from wak- "to bite"),
harkanna (from hark- "to collapse"), tiyanna (next to tiyawanzi ; from tiya- "to walk"), tuhsanna
(next to tuhsuwanzi ; from tuhs- "to cut , to split"), unuwanna (next to unuwanzi ; from unuwai- "to
decorate"), hananna (next to hanumanzi ; from han- "to draw (water)").
b) -uwanzi builds :
1. the infinitive of all the other verbs of the mi- and hi-conjugations,
2. some isolated forms such as eppuwanzi (next to appanna ; from ep- "to take"), kuen(n)ummanzi
(next to kunanna ; from kuen- "to kill") which are also verbs with ablaut.
Both forms of the infinitive are completely equivalent at the syntactic level (272b).

80

Chapter 6

Syntax
A. Agreement
189) The adjective and the pronoun agree with the noun in gender, number and case.
a) Examples for the adjective and the participle : arranza halkis "washed grain", damain wtar "foul
water", arahzenes utneantes humantes "all the neighboring countries", tarpallius wassandus
"dressed idols".
b) Examples for the pronouns : aps-pat memias "also each word", tuzziyas-mis "my army", kn
MUNUS-an "this woman (Acc.)", k ishiul "this obligation", hassatar-set "his power", kus
auriyalus "which outposts", arsms (i.e. *ars-sms) "your (Pl.) comrades", sarhuwandus-sus "her
unborn children", k arkuwarri HI.A "those prayers", kdani pidi "at this place", apz linkiyaz "from
this oath", kardiyas-tas "of your (Sg.) heart".
190) However, Hittite often agrees according to the meaning, especially for the agreement of the
number :
a) 1. A collective singular can be understood as a plural : KUR-eanza humanza URUDIDLI.HI.A
BD EIR-pa eppir "the whole country took (Pl.) the fortified cities".
2. Conversly, a plural can be understood as a collective singular : hws kisa "the rains occur" (lit.
"a period of rain occurs"), apt ERIN2ME ANU.KUR.RAME "these foot-soldiers and chariot
drivers", NAM.RAME kuin uwater nas 1 LIM esta "the prisoners that they brought were (lit. was)
1000".
b) The point of view of Hittite can vary in the same sentence between singular and plural, or
between the common and neutral gender : KARA-za-kan kus tpaws isparter apt-ma-kan
hman arha haspir-pat "of the few troops that escaped, they were all destroyed too", nan GIM-an
KUR-eanza austa nat nahsarriyandari "and when the country saw him, they (i.e. the inhabitants)
took fright".
c) 1. It should also be underlined that a logogram can conceal several pronunciations and
grammatical forms. Thus, KUR "country" can stand for the neuter utn and the common utnyant-.
2. Behind logograms tagged as plural such as ERIN2ME and NAM.RAME, the plurals "soldiers"
and "prisoners" or the singulars "army" and "crowd of prisoners" can be hidden. That is why one
sometimes finds the plurals kus ERIN2ME "these soldiers", NAM.RAME kus "these prisoners",
and sometimes the singulars ks 6 ME ERIN2ME "this troop of 600 (men)", NAM.RAME kuin
"this crowd of prisoners".
191) True disagreements can be observed for gender :
a) For parts of body. Thus, the neuter genu "knee" sometimes agrees correctly with the neutral
possessive pronoun : genu-ssit "his knee", sometimes with the common possessive pronoun :
81

genus-sus "his knee". The two forms for "hand", kessera- (c.) and kessar (n.) seem to exhibit almost
an inversion of the gender of the possessive : on one hand U-as-set "his hand" (i.e. kesseras-set ;
subst. comm. + poss. neut.), on the other hand kessar-sis "his hand" (subst. neut. + poss. comm.).
b) Occasionally elsewhere in poorly known cases : mn antuwahhas (comm.) suppi (n.) "if a man
(is) pure". Next to the correct form GE6-an hmandan "the whole night", one finds several times
GE6-an hman (adj. n.).
192) c) Some adjectives like mekki- "much", kurur- "hostile", taksul- "friendly" are only partially
inflected ; kurur and taksul have no Nom. Plur. comm. Hence, for example kunanzassa mekki
Lappanzassa mekki "the killed as well as the prisoners (are) many" (literally "the killed as well as
the prisoners (is) many" ; kunanzassa and appanzassa = kunanza and appanza + -a "and" ; 25b).
aps DUMU-as U.GI-eszi nu-za DUMUME mekki iyazi "the mentioned boy becomes old and
begets many children", zik-ma-mu-za kurur es "but you (Sg.), be friendly towards me", kus kurur
esir "who were friendly", twaza-ma taksul-pat esir "but they were however faithful far away".
193) The Nom.-Acc. Plur. Neut. of the adjective is weak and the possessive pronoun does not use
this inflection ; instead of the plural, the corresponding forms in the singular can or must be used :
a) Optional for the adjective : EZENHI.A SISKUR2HI.A ... parkui suppi piskanzi "they give
celebrations (and) sacrifices as pure (and) saint", ME DINGIRME ... parku ITU K.BABBAR
GUKIN unuwanda "high temples, decorated with gold (and) silver", ku kallar idlu uddr "which
charming, nasty words".
b) Mandatory for the possessive pronoun : uddr-mit "my words", sakuwa-sset "his eyes". Cf. the
paradigms at 108.
194) Substantives with a numeral can be in the singular or the plural : 2 huprushs
"2 huprushi-containers" next to 2 huprushin, karila DUB.2.KAMHI.A "2 old trays", 7 NA4passilan
"7 flints", 7 DUGpurpuris ... suwan "7 filled purpuris-containers".
195) a) 1. In the present, it is common to build pure nominal sentences with a subject and an
attributive substantive without verbal phrase : attas assus "the father (is) good", ANA
dUTUI-ma-as anniniyamis "but the Sun (is) a cousin", MU.KAM-za-wa-ta sr tepawessanza
"hence the year (is becoming) short for you (Sg.)".
2. The same construction is also possible in the imperative (e.g. with the prohibitive l + Ind. Pres.,
264. 280a) : nu-war-as ammuk LMUDYA "thus he (must be) my husband", 1-as 1-edani
menahhanda l idlus "the one (must not be) nasty towards the other".
Example of mixed construction : nu-wa-za damdaza KUR-eza kurur es ammetaza-ma-wa-za-kan
KUR-eza arha l kurur "now be hostile towards another country, do not (be) hostile towards my
country".
3. Very short nominal sentences can be made of the only attribute without subject : hurkl "(it is) an
abomination", BUBUTNUM A NIM.LL "(it is) a famine of the bees", UL hartar "(it is) not a
blow", warpuwanzi "(it is time) to bathe".
b) In the preterite, the verbal phrase cannot be omitted : attas assus esta "the father was good",
ABYA genzuwalas esta "my father was helpful", nu-za MU.KAM-za ser tepawessanza esta "and
then the year became short".
Example of comparison present-preterite : dandukisnasa DUMU-as ukturi natta huiswanza "and the
82

child (is) not alive for ever " next to mmman danduskinasa DUMU-as ukturi huiswanza esta "if
the child was alive for ever".
196) When the subject of a sentence is a plural neuter, the predicate is in the singular :
a) This rule, the same as the Greek usage, is regular with a verbal phrase : uidr ANA APAL
MULHI.A seszi "the rations of water stay under the stars", ap-ya uddr QATAMMA lagru "thus
these words must bow as well", ku 2 ALAM ... kitta "which 2 images ... find themselves".
b) Unlike the Greek usage, the attribute is generally in the singular too, even if it is not isolated :
k-ma tuppaHI.A ... aniyan esta "but those tablets ... were written", kururiHI.A meggaya nininkan
esta "many enemy troops were mobilized". E.g. also : k-ya-kan DINGIRLIM ... ukturi
QATAMMA assu esdu "so these temples ... must be steady as well as good" with the variant
k-ya-wa DINGIRLIM QATAMMA pahhasnuwanda esdu nu-war-at-san ... ukturi esdu "so these
temples must also be safe, and they must be steady".

B. Case usage
1. Vocative
197) a) The vocative Sing. is notably used in prayers and mythological texts : dUTU-e isha-mi "
Sun, my lord", dUTU-e sarkui (variant sarku) LUGAL-e " Sun, heroic king".
b) In these texts, and even more in more recent texts or texts of other kinds, the forms of nominative
are used instead of vocative : zik-pat genzuwalas dUTU-us "you are obliging, Sun".
198) The base root of the noun (that looks like the vocative) can be used in order to introduce a new
name in a narration : MUNUS-as UM-set fSintalimeni "the name of a woman (is) Sintalimeni", but
also : DAM-S fTatizuli tamai UD-at seshas "his wife Tatizuli decided herself another day". It is
not easy to estimate the influence of the Akkadian writing here.

2. Accusative
199) The Hittite constructions using accusative for an "internal object" will be especially
emphasized.
a) The use consisting in adding to a verb a noun of the same root or meaning at the accusative (Lat.
acerrimam pugnam pugnare, longam viam ire, Akkadian dnam dnum, purussm parsum), also
exists in Hittite (cognate accusative) : hannessar hanna- "to solve a dispute", kupiyatin kup- "to set
up a plan", hukmais hu(e)k- "to take an oath", uppessar uppa- "to dispatch a sending".
b) The neuter accusatives of pronouns and numerals associated to intransitive and transitive verbs
(in addition to the external object) must also be understood as internal objects (Lat. hoc te rego,
Greek ) : tuk UL kuitki idalawahhun "I did not treat you (Sg.) badly at all", apptaya
NI DINGIRLIM sarratti "so you (Sg.) thus break the oath", kiyan 1-an dammeshanunun "I only
punished her with this".
200) a) Verbs related to illness can be built in two ways :
83

1. Either the ill person is the intransitive subject, as in English : fGassuliyawiyas istarkiat "G. fell
ill", EIR-ma-as irmaliyattat "but he fell ill".
2. Or the illness is subject and the concerned person is object in the accusative : kappin DUMU-an
HUL-lu GIG GIG-at "the bad illness stroke the young boy".
b) The illness is often omitted in construction 2, so that it looks like an impersonal construction
with the person as object in the accusative : istarkiyazzi kuinki "someone fell ill", tuk-ma
irmaliyattat "but you (Sg.) fell ill".
201) a) Very rarely (and formerly ?), the accusative answers the question "where to ?" : nu-smas
HUR.SA-an parhanzi "and they will chase you (Pl.) to the mountain", G-S IAPIN-an sr
tizzi "his neck goes onto a plough". Usually, the dative in Old-Hittite and the dative-locative in NeoHittite are used to answer the question "where to ?".
b) The accusative for ways is different : man-kan
Mount T.".

HUR.SATehsinan

sar pun "I climbed

202) The accusative can be used as is as an adverb, for example in hantezzi "firstly, at the first
opportunity", karuwariwar "in the morning", nekuz mehur "in the evening".

3. Dative-Locative and Allative

203) Old-Hittite still makes the difference between the allative in -a for the questions "to whom ?"
and "where to ?" and the locative in -i for the question "where ?". The allative aruna thus means "to
the sea", the locative aruni "at sea", likewise nepisa "to heaven", nepisi "in heaven".
204) In Neo-Hittite, allative and locative have merged in a single dative-locative form in -i that
answers the questions "to whom ?", "where ?" and "where to ?". Examples for locative : URU-an
sasti walhun "I attacked the city in bed (i.e. in dream)", URUHattusi gimmandarinun "I passed the
winter at Hattusa", for allative : URUK.BABBAR-si uwanun "I went to Hattusa", nu-smas-kan
peruni parhanzi "and they will hunt you (Pl.) to the rock", KUR DSeha R-anni dahhun "I reduced
the land of the river Seha in slavery".
205) a) The verb "to be" can have a possessive dative : ANA E-YA NU.L kuitki "nothing (is)
to my brother (i.e. my brother has nothing)".
b) It is the same for indications of measurement : ANA wasanni-ma pargater-set 6 IKU "the
wasanna (the track) is 6 ik high".
c) Hittite also uses a possessive genitive with the present meaning "to belong" : URUIyaruwaddas
URU-as annaz amml A ABI ABYA esta "the city I. previously belonged to my grandfather".
206) The dative-locative can be used in an apparently pleonastic way : nu-smas uzuhrin adanzi
"they eat (for themselves) grass", nu-smas DINGIRME-as ZI-ni mekki nahhantes estin "be (Pl.) (for
yourselves) very cautious with the mentality of the gods", assiyannas-wa-nnas RME esuen "we
were (for ourselves) beloved subjects (lit. slaves of love)", l-ta nhi "do not be afraid (for
yourself)".
207) The dative-locative gets the following uses from its locative meaning :
84

a) Dative of purpose : nu-kan kuin ANA mNuwanza haluki par nehhun "and whom I sent to N. with
the object of an embassy".
b) Dative of the actor of passive : zik-za-kan ammuqqa 1-edani AMA-ni hassantes "you (Sg.) and
me (are we) born from a mother ?", dUTU-i-kan kuis assiyattari "he who is loved by the Sun".
c) Comparative dative ; cf. 222.
d) Temporal dative : apdani UD-ti "this day", nekuz mehuni "in the evening" (58).
e) Dative of the person from whom one demands : nu-mu ... dITAR URUSamuha ANA ABYA
wekta "and Itar of Samuha demanded me from my father" (cf. French demander quelqu'un).
208) One finds the adverb assuli "for the good" from the dative-locative of assul "happiness" (it is
not an adverb in -li from assu- "good").

4. Genitive
209) a) The genitive generally stands before the noun it complements : parnas ishas "the man of the
house", attasas -ri "in the house of his father", L-nas wastul "crime of the man".
b) The opposite can happen when the complemented noun is a logogram : L taksulas "man of
peace" (next to taksulas URU "city of the peace"), INIM kunannas "an affair of murder".
210) a) A more clumsy use of the genitive occurs with the simultaneous use of the possessive
pronoun ("of the man his head"). It is especially popular in laws (and elsewhere in Old-Hittite) :
GUD-as IGI-U "the eye of the ox", MUNUS-as ELLI sarhuwandus-sus "the unborn child of a free
woman", kl mene-ssit "the face of this one".
b) The genitive stands after the indefinite pronoun : suppala-sset kulqa "the animals of someone".
211) Hittite also uses the genitive as other classical languages with the objective genitive, the
partitive genitive, etc... : U.DIM4-as sardiyas "help against an agression", hmandas-pat
EIR-izzis DUMU-as esun "I was the last child of all (lit. Dat.-Loc. Pl "under all")". Cf. also 205c.
212) a) A very popular construction is the expression "he of ..." to describe another substantive :
from wastul "sin", one finds wastulas for "(the man) of the sin" = "sinner" (next to wastulas
UKU3-as), from tayazil "theft" tayazilas "(he) of the theft" = "thief" and "(that) of the theft" =
"penalty for the theft". kardiyas-tas "(that) of your heart (kard-)" = "your desire", mn-as harkannas
"if he (is guilty) of the decease". More examples : assawas memiyanas "(he) of good relations" = "in
good relations", TI-annas "(he) of the life (huiswatar)" = "with a long life" ; also genitives of
infinitives (185a) : nahhuwas "(he) of the respect" = "reverential", kuis arha tarnummas "who (is
one) of the leaving" = "who (can be) exempted (of the military service)", kuit-ma DI-sar suml UL
tar(ah)huwas "what business (is) however (that) of your inability" = "what business that you cannot
settle by yourselves".
b) Whence the Akkadian : A MAMETI "he of the oath" = "suzerain", A KASKALNIM "that of the
trip" = "supply".
c) Sometimes, such genitives are inflected like independant nouns : from hassannas-sas "(one) of
his family" (hassatar [83] + possessive pronoun -si- "his"), one can build an Acc. Sing.
hassannas-san and a Dat.-Loc. Sing. hassannas-si.
85

213) a) A partitive apposition can be used instead of a genitive. Thus, two objects in the same case
depend on a verb, the first one expressing a whole and the second one a part of the whole concerned
by the action : takku A.-an ZAG-an kuiski parsiya "if somebody breaks the boundary stone of a
field" (lit. : the field (and of it) the border ; variant with genitive : A.-as ZAG-an !). nu-war-us
IGIHI.A-wa munnanzi "one will veil their eyes" (lit. : them, (that is) the eyes). mn ap-ma kuiski
ITTI dUTUI wastai "if somebody sins by these against the Sun" (lit. : if these, somebody sins).
nu-kan ANA dUTUI U-i anda miyahuwantahhut "now become old under the protection of the
Sun" (lit. : next to the Sun in the hand). nat ANA ABBAHI.A ANA ABBA ABBAHI.A-YA UL
kuedanikki uppir "they had not send it to any of my fathers and ancestors". nat-mu-kan UKU3-az
KAxU-az sar uizzi "and it (this word) comes out from my human mouth" (lit. : of the man, of the
mouth ; variant with genitive : antuhsas KAxU-az !).
b) 1. The use of personal pronouns in this construction is especially important : nu-za k KUR.KUR
LKR ammdaz U-az tar(ah)hun "now I have defeated these enemy countries with my hand"
(lit. : by me, by the hand). UL-war-an-kan tutaza memiyanaz kuennir "they did not kill him on your
order" (lit. : by you, by the order).
2. In practice in this construction, the personal pronoun has the role of a possessive pronoun. Thus,
one can even find plural forms of the personal pronouns "I" and "you (Sg.)" only conceivable in the
singular : one finds next to ITU HUR.SAHahruwa tuedaz assiyantaza "from your beloved
mountain H." a Dat.-Loc. Plur. tuedas assiyantas pdas "at your beloved places".
c) The indications of measuring must also be interpreted as partitive appositions : nas
parkuwatar-set 5 IKU "and it (the track), its height (is) 5 ik" (i.e. "and the height of the track is
5 ik"). gankuwar appttaya UL duqqari "also this one (302b), the weight is not important" (i.e.
"also its weight is not important").

5. Ablative and Instrumental

214) a) The ablative firstly points out the start point of a motion answering the question "from
where ?" : issaz "from the mouth", nepisaz "from heaven", wetenaz "from water".
b) The ablative is used for separation : parkuis apz linkiyaz "free from this oath", sullannaz
"following an argument".
c) For the ablative of comparison, cf. 222.
215) A frozen usage of the ablative probably occurs in the adverbs of place and time such as
ZAG-az "at right" (actually "from right"), iskisaz "at the back, from the back", hantezziyaz "(from)
front ; ahead", UD.KAM-az "at daylight", GE6.KAM-az "at night".
216) The instrumental points out the means or the tool : nu-kan IZI wetenit kistanuwanzi "now, they
extinguish the fire with water", dUTU-un IGIHI.A-it uskizzi "she sees the sun with her eyes",
kastita-man akten "you (Pl.) would starve to death (lit. be dead by hunger)", L.D-ma-as-kan
lamnit halzissai "the door-keeper calls him however by the name".
217) However, Hittite also uses an ablative of instrument : HAZZINNU-wa U-za ep "take (Sg.) the
axe with the hand", URU-an zahhiyaz katta dahhun "I have subdued the city through a fight".
218) a) This is why the ablative or the instrumental can be found in the same turn. One can say
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kunnaz kesseraz harzi and kunnit kessarta (61) harzi "he holds with the right hand", nat-za nassu
teshit uwallu (176) nasma-at ariyasesnaz handayattaru "(the reason is) that either I want to see
thanks to a dream (Instr.), or it must be observed by an oracle (Abl.)".
b) With verbs of motion, one can compare : R-it sar pun "I went up by foot", LUGAL-us
Ihulugannaz sar uizzi "the king comes up with the chariot".
c) ) With a substantive in the ablative, the possessive pronoun is always in the instrumental (the
ablative of the possessive pronoun is not used) : sarhuwandaz-set "from its inner", issazmit (i.e.
*issaz-smit, 19a. 27a and b. 42c) "from their mouth", ZAG-az-tit "to your (Sg.) right", kartaz-mit
"from my heart".
) The same construction is also used with the demonstrative pronouns : kit pantalaz "starting from
this moment". However, the ablative of the pronouns is regularly used : kz KUR-az "from this
country".

6. Ergative
218.1) The neuter noun has the same endings for the nominative and the accusative as long as it is
not used as the subject of a transitive verb. E.g. as the object of a transitive verb : takku pahhur
ANA A.-U kuiski pdai "if someone brings fire into his barn", and as the subject of an
intransitive verb : pahhur kistari "the fire goes out".
However, when the neuter noun is used as subject of a transitive verb, it takes another ending :
mahhan-ta ks tuppianza anda wemiyazzi "as soon as this tablet reaches you" (as shown by the
common gender of ks, the noun then works as if its gender had become the common gender).
This is the usual behavior of the so-called absolutive-ergative languages, hence Hittite can be
considered as functioning as an ergative language as long as neuter nouns are considered. The Neut.
Nom.-Acc. case can be viewed as the absolutive case, while the special endings -anza / -ants can
be viewed as the ergative case.

7. Supplement to case syntax

219) Some verbs can be used with several cases for similar or different meanings :
a) watarnah- means with the accusative "to ask someone, to order someone, to make someone
responsible for doing something", with the dative-locative "to inform someone".
b) katta di- means with the accusative "to subdue a city", with the dative-locative "to besiege a
city".
c) nah(h)- "to fear, to be afraid" governs the accusative : nahmi-us "I fear them", UL-za kuitki nahmi
"I am afraid for nothing", the dative-locative : pahhuenass-a uddani mekki nahhantes estin "fear
(Plur.) also an outbreak of fire" and in an isolated case : nu-za halluwayaza mekki nahhantes estin
"now be (Plur.) very afraid of a conflict".
d) punus- "to ask" can be constructed in two ways. One can either say "to ask someone (Acc.) about
something (Dat.-Loc.)", e.g. nas dUTUI ANA DIHI.A punusmi "and I, the Sun, will ask him about
the lawsuits", or "to ask something (Acc.) to someone (Dat.-Loc.)", e.g. nu-smas DIHI.A punuskiddu
"and he must ask them each time about the lawsuits".

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220) a) About the formal mutual alternation between the plural nominative and accusative, cf. 63.
In the singular, the use of the nominative in place of the accusative occurs only sporadically :
5 GUD tiugas 5 GUD iugas 5 GUD sawitisza pi "he gives 5 two-year-old oxen, 5 one-year-old
oxen, 5 sucking oxen" (roots iuga-, tiuga-, sawitist-, for the last one cf. 76a).
b) The fact that the nominative Sing. kanza (of kant- "wheat (?)") is generally used in horse-books
instead of the accusative Sing. kantan is explained by mistakes made by the non-Hittite author of
these texts.

C. Comparison of adjective
221) There is no comparison by means of a characteristic suffix, except for a few exceptions
(94 f.) ; it is instead expressed through syntax, as it is the case in the Semitic languages, in
Egyptian and in Indo-European Armenian.
222) The dative-locative is used for the complement of the comparative : nu-wa-kan ANA
ERIN2ME-KA
ERIN2ME-YA
mekki
ANA
ANU.KUR.RAME-<KA>-ma-wa-tta
ANU.KUR.RAME-YA mekki "now, my troops (are) more numerous than your (Sg.) troops
(lit. : more numerous by your troops), my chariots (are) more numerous than your chariots",
namma-kan anzl TI-anni UL A BELNI TI-tar nakki "besides (if) the life of our lord (is) not more
precious than our life".
223) When hmant- "all" is added to the plural dative-locative of comparison, it is translated by a
superlative : DINGIRME-nas hmandas dZashapunas sallis "among all the gods, Z. (is) the
greatest". Also without hmant- : sallayas-kan DINGIRME-as kuis sallis "who (is) the greatest
among the great gods".

D. Adverbs
224) Basic adverbs are for instance :
a) Adverbs of location : k "here", kt "to here", kz "from here ; this side", apiya "there", apda
(apadda, apaddan) "there, to there", apz "from there", ediz "beyond", kuwapi "where, to where",
kuwapit "where, to where", kuwatta "to where", kuwapiya "everywhere", kuwapitta "everywhere",
dam(m)da "elsewhere, to elsewhere", 1-da "particularly, for oneself", anda (andan) "in, inside,
into", andurza "in, inside", arahza (arahzanda) "round ; outside", arha "far", menahhanda "in front,
against", par "outside ; ahead", piran "in front", sr "at the top" (also "whence, consequently"),
sar "to the top, upwards", katta "to the bottom, downwards, at the bottom", tapsa (tapusza)
"along, next", duwan - duwan "here - there".
b) Adverbs of time : kinun "now", apiya "then", kuwapi "when", kuwapikki "any time, ever", UL
kuwapikki "never", kuwapiya "always", kar "earlier ; already", annisan "formerly, in the past",
lukkatta "tomorrow morning, next morning", zilatiya (ziladuwa) "in the future", nwa "again", nwi
"not yet" (cf. 260), nwn (nmn) "never, by no means", piran par "before", duwan par "till
now", hdak "immediately, suddenly".

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c) Adverbs of manner, degree, etc... : kissan "in this way", enissan "in the mentioned way",
apenissan "thus", apadda (apaddan) "in this way ; consequently", kuwat "why", kuwatqa "one way
or another, anyway ; maybe, for instance", UL kuwatqa "by no means", arumma "in a very
pronounced way", namma "then, besides, moreover", imma "at last (?)", katta "consequently (?)",
handa "thus (?)".
225) Derived forms can be used as adverbs :
a) frozen inflected forms ; cf. 205. 208. 215.
b) forms derived from adjectives ; cf. below.
226) The neuter nominative-accusative of the adjective can be simply used as an adverb :
a) In the singular : mekki "much", as adverb "very". LKR karsi zahhiyaddumat "fight (Pl.)
staunchly the enemy". mn antuhsan kuinki assu par huittiyan harmi "if I have well prefered some
man" (i.e. if I have particularly well treated).
b) In the plural : hatuga "dreadfully", munnanda "secretly".
227) a) -ili is a particular adverbial suffix (maybe originally the Nom.-Acc. Sg. Neut. of adjectives
such that karili- "old" ; 49b) : pittiyantili "according to the type of refugee (pittiyant-)",
karussiyantili "secretly" (karussiyant- "silent"), MUNUS-nili "in a feminine way", LKR-li "in a
hostile way".
b) -ili is also especially used as a language adverb (cf. -umnili with the ethnic suffix -umna-, 50b) :
hattili "in Hatti (i.e. Proto-Hatti)", hurlili "in Hurrian", luwili "in Luwian", nsili (nisili,
nesumnili ?) "in Nesian (i.e. Hittite)", palumnili "in Palaic", kanisumnili "in Kanesian", pabili "in
Babylonian (i.e. Akkadian)".

E. Postpositions
228) a) Hittite does not use prepositions but postpositions. The boundary with adverbs and verbal
particles is partially formal.
b) Hittite can often express syntactic relations usually conveyed by our prepositions by means of the
only declined forms (without postpositions) ; the Dat.-Loc. -ri means without postposition "in the
house" and "to the house", and the ablative URU-az "out of the city".
c) ) The same construction is usually used for the questions "where ?" and "where to ?" :
IBANUR-i piran means "in front of the table" (where ?) and "to the front of the table" (where
to ?).
) 1. One can find difference only between HUR.SA-i sr "at the top of the mountain" and
HUR.SA-i sar "to the top of the mountain".
2. The difference between -ri anda "in the house" and -ri andan "into the house" is seldom made,
even if it exists in the strict sense.
229) The confusion between the notions "where ?" and "where to ?" induces that most Hittite
postpositions govern the dative-locative. Some of them govern the ablative (to the question "where
from ?"), and it happens that the genitive is freely used with postpositions. Postpositions governing
the accusative are very rare (pariyan, 233), and none occurs with the instrumental.
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230) a) The following postpositions for example govern the dative-locative :

anda (andan) "in, into" ("where ?" and "where to ?") : -ri anda (andan) "in the house, into
the house" (cf. 228c2).
piran "in front of" ("where ?" and "where to ?") : IBANUR-i piran "in front of the table,
to the front of the table".
appa (appan) locally "behind", temporally "after" : tarnui appan "behind the washhouse, to
the back of the washhouse".
katta (kattan) "under, underneath" ("where ?" and "where to ?") ; also "next to, with" and
"to" : IBANUR-i katta(n) "under the table, to the underneath of the table", D-i katta(n)
"downstream of the river, to the downstream direction of the river", tuqqa katta "with you
(Sg.), to your house".
sr "on" ("where ?") ; also "for, because of" : suhhi sr "on the roof", R-i sr "for the slave",
ANA LME KUR Amurra sr "because of the people of Amurru".
sar "onto" ("where to ?") : suhhi sar "onto the roof".
istarna "among, between" ("where ?" and "where to ?") : DINGIRME-as istarna "among the
gods", ANA KUR URUHatti istarna "to the interior of the land Hatti".
handas "according to, in accordance with" : nakkiyanni handas "according to the esteem".

b) However, most of these postpositions also govern the genitive : LUGAL-was piran "in front of
the king", attas-mas appan "after my father", annasas katta "with his mother".
c) One can also occasionally find the ablative, either with a characteristic meaning : URU-az katta
"down out of the city", or without difference of meaning : tuzziyaz appa "behind the army".
231) tapusza (tapsa) "along, next to" uses the dative-locative : hassi tapusza "next to the herd, to
the herd".
232) a) par "out of" sometimes governs the ablative : IZA.LAM.GAR-az par "out of the tent".
b) However, one can also find the genitive : K-as par "out of the gate".
In the phrase hli par "in the courtyard outside", par is an adverb.
233) parranda and pariya(n), which both mean "through" (as well as "apart from" and "against"),
differ in that parranda governs the dative-locative, and pariya(n) the accusative : aruni parranda or
arunan pariyan "through the sea".
234) iwar "in the way of, like" uses the genitive : IN.NU.DA-as iwar "like straw".
mn is also used with the meaning "like" without specific case.

F. Pronouns
1. Personal pronouns
235) For the forms of the emphatic and enclitic personal pronouns, cf. 96 to 105. About the
position of the enclitic personal pronouns in the sequence of the enclitic elements at the beginning
of the sentence, cf 288.
236) The pronominal accusatives -an "eum, eam", -at "id", -us (-as) "eos, eas", -at "ea" (102a) can
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be omitted in the legislative language : takku GUDHI.A A.-ni pnzi BL A. wemiyazi

UD.1.KAM turiyazi "if oxen run across a field (and) the owner of the field finds (them), he can tie
(them) up (for) one day".
237) a) The pronominal accusatives can also be omitted with ta "and" (316) even out of the
legislative context : LSILA3.U.DU8.A GAMAM LUGAL-i pi ta harzi "the cup-bearer gives the
chalice to the king and holds (him)", LUGAL-us IBANUR-az NINDA-an di ta-sse pi "the
king takes bread on the table and gives (it) to him" (variant nan-si pi "and gives it to him").
b) However, the pronouns above can also be attached to ta "and" in the same way as nu "and" : kuit
kuit harakzi tat sarnikzi "all that decays, he replaces it" (cf. 103a).
238) The importance of the impersonal verbs in Hittite is still unclear. Next to impersonal verbs of
disease (200) and tethi "it is thundering", duggari "it seems (good)" among others, the possibility
that a deity could be considered as the subject should be envisaged. However, cf. also akkiskittari
"(some) regularly die" (i.e. deaths always regularly occur), mn LUGAL-i assu "if it (seems) good
to the king".

2. Reflexive pronouns
239) The enclitic personal pronouns can be used as reflexive pronouns : nu-nnas DUMU.NITAME
DUMU.MUNUSME iyawen "and we conceived for ourselves sons (and) daughters", nu-smas
DINGIRME-as ZI-ni mekki nahhantes estin "now, be (for yourselves) very cautious with the
mentality of the gods" (ethical dative), warpanzi-ma-wa-smas UL "but they don't wash themselves"
(lit. : they don't do a washing on themselves ; Dat.-Loc. Plur. !), l-ta nhi "don't fear (for yourself)"
(206).
240) However, the usual means to express the reflexive is the enclitic -za (-z) ; its position in the
sequence of the enclitic elements at the beginning of the sentence is treated in 288 and it is used
for all persons. Thus, next to the sentences quoted in 239 : nu-za DUMU.NITAME
DUMU.MUNUSME D-nun "and I have conceived for myself sons (and) daughters", nu-za
DINGIRME-as ZI-ni mekki nahhantes estin (same translation as above), warpanzi-ma-wa-z UL
(idem).
Further examples : nat-za-kan pidi-pat R-ahta "and he submitted at the same place", nu-za-kan
INA KUR URUHatti dUTU URUTL-na UM-an daista "and in the land Hatti, you have added to
yourself the name 'Sun-goddess of Arinna'", ta-z UME arri "and he washes his hands" (cf. French
il se lave les mains), nan-zan LHADANU essesta "and he made himself as son-in-law" (-zan
instead of -za according to 34. 42b2), nu-za-kan 2 EN SISKUR wtar INA SA.DUME-UNU
sar lahhuwanzi "and the two sacrificers pour water on their head".
241) Some verbs change slightly of meaning depending on whether they use -za or not :

d- with -za "to take with oneself, to take for oneself", without -za "to take something with a
given intent, to use".

peda- with -za "to take away with oneself", without -za "to remove".

es- with -za "to sit (down)", without -za "to seat".
91

kis- with -za "to become something", without -za "to happen".

tarh- with -za "to defeat someone", without -za "to triumph" or "to be able to".

aus- with -za "to see in oneself, to feel ; to admit", also "to dream", without -za "to see
something in someone else".

242) Other verbs always or nearly always use -za without any particular meaning for -za, e.g. :
ilaliya- "to wish", mali- "to agree", markiya- "to disagree", dusk- "to rejoice", UL mema- "to
refuse", arkuwar iya- (arkuwar essa-, arkuwar di-) "to pray". They can be considered as reflexive
verbs (cf. English to rejoice = French se rjouir).
243) -za is also used in nominal sentences (195a1), but irregularly ; the exact conditions are still
unclear : nu-za ANA dUTUI warris U.DIM4-ass-a sardiyas es "now, my Sun, be the helper and
the support against violence" (next to katta-ma tul DUMUME-KA NARRU U.DIM4-as
sardiyas-a asandu "thus, your sons must be the helper and the support against violence").
244) The reciprocal relations are described like this : "they see each other" = "one sees the other" is
expressed by means of E-as E-an auszi "the brother sees the brother" or aras aran auszi "the
friend sees the friend" or 1-as 1-an auszi "one sees the other" or ks kn auszi "this one sees this
one".

3. Possessive pronouns
245) amml UKU3-as "my man" also means "one of my family".
246) a) The possessive pronoun of the 3. Pers. Sing. -sis "his" is sometimes incorrectly used instead
of the 3. Pers. Plur. -smis "their" ; the Dat.-Loc. ishi-ssi "to his master" can also mean "to their
master", ITUKULHI.A-us-sus "their weapons".
b) In set phrases, the possessive meaning can completely vanish : pedi-ssi "at his place" simply
means "on the spot".
247) The postpositions piran "in front of", appa(n) "behind", sr "on", katta "under, next to" and
istarna "amid" are built differently according to the form of the personal pronouns :
a) They are placed after the independant forms : ammuk piran "in front of me", duqqa katta "next to
you (Sg.)".
b) Instead of enclitic personal pronouns, Hittite uses the Nom.-Acc. Neutr. of the possessive
pronouns placed after piran, appa(n) and sr : piran-tet "in front of you (Sg.)", piran-set (pirasset,
36a1) "in front of him", piran-semet "in front of them" (instead of *piran-smet, 22a. 26), appansamet "after them" (instead of *appan-smet), sr-set "on him, for him". The postpositions are thus
built like the substantives "front, back, etc...".
c) In the second case, katta(n) and istarna are built like the substantives "underside" and "middle",
but in the Dat.-Loc. Sing., the forms are katti and istarni ; thus katti-m(m)i "next to me", katti-t(t)i
"next to you (Sg.)", katti-s(s)i "next to him, under him" ; istarni-smi (istarni-ssumi, 22a. 26)
"among them".
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d) The unclear word kitkar "on foot (?)" gives kitkar-si "him on foot (?)" (like katti-ssi), but kitkarsamet "them on foot (?)" (like appan-samet).
e) If in-between enclitics are inserted in a group postposition-pronoun, the possessive pronouns are
replaced by enclitic personal pronouns : piran-ma-at-mu "in front of me (-mu) but (-ma) it (-at)",
sr-a-ssi-ssan "and (-a) on him (-ssi)". Especially instructive : sr-sit-wa sarnikmi "I want to pay for
him" against the variant sr-wa-ssi sarnikmi.
248) About the use of the instrumental of the possessive pronouns with substantives in the ablative,
cf. 218c.

4. Demonstrative pronouns
249) k-, ap-, eni- and asi- correspond to Latin hic, is, ille, iste. The corresponding adverbs are
kissan and enissan (114c. 117b).
250) This is why one finds for instance kissan memista "he spoke as follows" with a following
quotation, but enissan memista "he spoke thus" with a preceding quotation.
251) One also finds, in addition to the meaning following - preceding, k- in relation with the 1st
person, ap- in relation with the 2nd and 3rd persons. The expression kz KUR-az - apiz KUR-az
"from this country - from that country" is equivalent to "from my country - from your country". k
corresponds to "here with me", apiya to "there with you" (or "there with him").
252) One can even use k- and kissan in relation with the 1st person and the preceding context : nu
k INA MU.1.KAM iyanun "Now, I achieved that (= my aforementioned deeds) in one year", nan
punus mn kisan mn UL kisan "ask him whether it is like that or not like that (as I exactly said)".

5. Indefinite pronouns
253) One occasionally finds instead of kuiski "someone, anyone" the simpler form kuis :
a) UL kuis means "none, not the slightest" (cf. Latin non aliquis).
b) ) For "if someone", one usually finds mn kuiski, but sometimes also mn kuis (cf. Latin si
quis).
) mn kuwapikki and mn kuwapi mean "if ever".
c) kuis - kuis means "the one - the other" (cf. Italian chi - chi ; distributive, not reciprocal).

G. The verb
1. Voices
254) a) Many verbs conjugated in the middle voice are deponent, e.g. : ar- "to stay", kis- "to
become", ki- "to lie".
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b) However, true middle forms can be found with a usage similar to Greek, e.g. : nishut ""turn
(Sg.) round", unattat "she adorned herself" ; also the reciprocal middle : zahhiyawastati "we want to
fight each other", appantat "they grabbed each other", sarrandat "they parted".
c) Cf. also irhi- Act. "to bound", Mid. "to end", handi- Act. "to add", Mid. "to be added, to
result", zenna- Act. "to finish", Mid. "to end", etc...
255) Occasionally, the active and middle voices occur without any discernible difference : pahsAct. and Mid. "to protect", sarra- Act. and Mid. "to split, to go beyond", huwa- (huya-) Act. and
Mid. "to flee".
256) The passive voice is uncommon. Some verbs have no passive form but are replaced by other
verbs (active or deponent) of similar meaning. Thus, ak- "to die", which also means "to be killed", is
used as the passive of kuen- "to kill". For the passive of di- "to seat, to lay", ki- "to lie" is used, for
the passive of sr di- "to put onto" sr tiya- "to lie on top". For the passive of iya- "to do", kis- "to
become" is used.
257) Transitive verbs sometimes have an intransitive usage : from maninku- "short ; near", one
builds according to 136 maninkuwahh- transitive "to shorten", intransitive "to be near".

2. Tense and mode usage

258) Hittite has neither subjunctive nor optative unlike the others I.E. languages ; it has only two
simple tenses like the Germanic languages :
a) 1. Present is also used for future (uwami "I come" and "I will come").
2. It can replace the imperative with a future meaning in prayers and orders : NINDA-an azzasteni
wtarra ekutteni "you (Pl.) will (i.e. shall) eat only bread and drink only water".
b) 1. Preterite is used for all past tenses : hatrnun can mean "I wrote", "I have written" and "I had
written".
2. Preterite can also indicate a resulting state : DINGIRLIM-is kisat "he has become a god (= he is
dead now)".
259) The verbal forms briefly mentioned in 184 allow a more precise distinction :
a) 1. Perfect and pluperfect are expressed in a "modern" fashion by means of har(k)- "to have" with
the Nom.-Acc. Sing. Neutr. of the participle : perfect antuhsan kuinki par huittiyan harmi "I have
prefered some man", IGIGIR turiyan harweni "we have harnessed the chariot", LME
URUGasga kuit dn harkanzi "that the people of Gasgas has taken". Pluperfect nu-mu dITAR
kanissan harta "and Itar had honored me", 300 GUKIN ishiyan harta "he had imposed (as a
tribute) 300 (shekels) of gold", nu-mu istamassan harkir "and they had learnt from me".
2. Such compositions also occur with the imperative : nu-mu stamanan lagn har(a)k "and keep
your ears pricked up toward me", nu A LKR kus KASKALHI.A nas-za BL MADGALTI
kappuwan hardu "and whatever roads of the enemy (may be), the gouvernor must keep them
watched".
b) es- with the participle can express two things :

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1. The participle of the transitive verb with es- can express the perfect of the passive :
DUMU.MUNUS piyanza esta "a girl has been given", hurtantes esir "they have been cursed",
lamniyan esdu "he must be appointed", IGIGIR iskiyan esdu "the chariot must be anointed".
2. The participle of the intransitive verb with es- expresses a state resulting from an action :
antuhsatar pn esta "the people had left".
c) The expression "to start (to get ready) to do something, to consider doing something" is expressed
by means of di- "to put, to set, to place", sometimes of tiya- "to go on", with the supine in -uwan of
a verb generally iterative : ERIN2ME peskiwan tiyaweni "we are ready to regularly give troops",
EZENHI.A essuwan tiyanzi "they prepare to celebrate the festival", LU.GI kisat nas
DINGIRLIM-is kikkissuwan dis "he became old and started to become a god (i.e. he wasted away)",
ME-UNU karipuwan dir "they started to pull down (lit. to devour) their houses", nu-mu asi
memiyas teshaniskiwan tiyat "and the thing in question began to come regularly to me in dream".
260) a) Where we use "not yet" with perfect, Hittite always uses present with nwi "not yet" : takku
L-as DUMU.MUNUS nwi di nanza mimmai "if a man has not yet named a girl, he can (still)
reject her", nu-wa 5 ANU.NITAME EIR-pa unnanzi unnanzi-ma-war-as nwi "one will again
drive on the 5 jackasses, but no one has yet driven them on".
b) Where we use "not yet" with a pluperfect, Hittite uses the basic preterite with nwi : kuitman-zakan ANA IGU.ZA ABYA nwi eshat nu-mu arahzenas KUR.KUR LKR kururiyahhir "as long
as I was not seated on the throne of my father, the neighboring enemy countries fought me".
261) a) In a subordinate iterative clause of past meaning, present can be used instead of our
preterite : kuwattas lahha-ma paizzi nu LKR-an utn kuttanit tar(ah)han harta "but where he
campaigned, he seized the enemy countries by the neck".
b) The present can also be found instead of the preterite in the main clause :
1. in a clear description : azzikanzi nat-za UL ispiyanzi akkuskanzi-ma nat-za UL hassikanzi "they
eat and are not satiated, they drink and don't quench their thirst" (in a text in the preterite and
parallel to the same sentence in the preterite : eter ne UL ispier ukuer-ma ne-za UL hassikkir "they
ate and were not satiated, they drank and didn't quench their thirst").
2. With the verbs meaning "to say" in vivid texts (historical present) : huhhi-ssi pit nu-ssi tarsikizzi
"he went to his grandfather and talked to him".
262) a) In the correspondence, the sender can stand in the point of view of the recipient and use the
preterite instead of the present : ksma-tta uiyanun halugatallan-min "look, I send you (lit. I sent
you) my messenger".
b) In the same way, preterite is used in the introduction of royal decrees : LUGAL GAL Tabarna
memista "the great king Tabarna has spoken".
263) a) The imperative is used as a substitute for the missing optative in prayers : utn mu sesdu
"may the country prosper and be in peace", ANA DINGIRME ENME-YA ZI-anza namma warasdu
"by the gods, my lords, may the spirit calm down again".
b) The 1. Pers. Sing. of the imperative is a voluntative : piskellu "I always want to give", agallu "I
want to die", but it can also be used as an optative : teshit uwallu "may I see in dream".
c) The 1. Pers. Plur. cohortative has a formal usage like the corresponding forms of the Indic. Pres. :
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ehu ANA dU ... DI-esni tiyaweni "come on now! let us take a step towards the weather-god",
kinuna-wa ehu nu-wa zahhiyawastati nu-wa-nnas dU BELYA DNAM hannau "but come on now!
we want to fight each other, and the weather-god, my lord, must rule on our dispute".
264) a) For the negative imperative, l "not!" (280a) is used with the Ind. Pres. ; thus istamas
"listen!", but l istamasti "do not listen!".
b) Therefore with the voluntative 1. Pers. Sing. : l saggahhi "I do not want to know".
265) To express the potential and the unreal, one uses the special particle man, which differs
generally, but not always, by its spelling ma-an from the conjunction mn (ma-a-an) "if". About the
lack of nu next to man, cf. 310f.
266) man with the present means a present potential : man-war-as-mu LMUTYA kisari "he could
become my husband".
267) man with the preterite means :
1. a past potential : man-ta-kkan ABKA KUR-KA-ya UL arha dir man-at damdani kuedanikki
pier "could not they have taken away from you the house of your father and your land (and) have
given them to another one ?"
2. an unreal : man INA URUHayasa pun-pat nu-za MU.KAM-za sr tpawessanza esta "I would
have gone also (-pat, 293c) to Hayasa, but the year had become (too) short for that" (about
nu = "but", cf. 313a), mn-us-kan mHuzziyas kuenta nu uttar isduwati "Huzziya would have killed
them, but (313a) the affair got out".
268) The "nearly" unreal is expressed by means of the verb waggar- "to miss, to fail" : nu-kan
dHepadus suhhaz katta maussuwanzi waqqares "the goddess Hebat nearly fell from the roof"
(cf. French : elle a failli tomber).

3. Iterative usage
269) The iterative in -sk-, sometimes in -ss- borrowed from Luwian (141), still requires a thorough
study. Here are some comments in particular about it :
a) It points out an accomplished action frequently repeated : ANA DINGIRLIM anda UD-at UD-at
memiskizzi nu DINGIRLIM walliskizzi "he talks to the deity day after day and he extols the deity
each time", GE6-ti-ma GE6-ti turiskizzi "night after night he harnesses (them)", watar-ma-ssi
KAS-si KAS-si-pat ITU 1 UPNI peskanzi "but they give each time water to them from the cup of
one hand" (before actions occurring once : hantezzi BAL-si uzuhrin UL pi "the first times, he does
not give grass"), nu-smas-kan LSANGA ANA DIHI.A istarna teskiddu nu-smas DIHI.A punuskiddu
"and the priest must attend (in any case) each time the proceedings and must examine each time
their cases", nu nesumnili hatreski "write to me each time in Hittite", nan-za turiskizzi "he can keep
it (a found animal) for himself (for several days)" (but without iterative : UD.1.KAM turiyazi "he
can keep (it for) one day").
b) It is found if a uniform action of several subjects is accomplished : uskandu istamaskandu-ya
"(all the gods) should look out and listen", tuk-ma-wa DUMUME-KA mekkaus memiskanzi "the one
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to whom everybody however attributes many sons", 1 LIM MULHI.A hukkiskanzi "the 1000 stars
take an oath", kuis-pat-kan imma kuis DINGIRME-as Ikattaluzzi sarreskizzi "whoever crosses
the threshold of the gods".
c) Or the action can apply to several objects : NINDAHI.A-ya kueus parsiyanneskit "and the loaves
of bread that he broke (into small pieces)", halkis-wa mahhan NAM.L.ULU3 GUD UDU huitarra
hman huisnuskizzi "as the grain of people, the ox, the sheep and the whole species come to life",
nu-tta kuit memiskimi nu-mu DINGIRLUM istamanan har(a)k nat istamaski "(all) that I say to you,
deity, prick up your ears and listen to it (all)".
d) The action can also be made up of several simple actions, e.g. be achieved in several stages :
DUGhupuwaya hassi anda lahuskizzi DUGhupuwaya-ma tuwarniskizzi "(the priestess) fills the
hupuwaya-jar (little by little) on the stove, but she breaks the hupuwaya-jar (piece by piece)", kissan
hukkiskizzi "he thus takes an oath (in its various parts)", anniskimi kuin "that I achieve (in several
ritual stages)".
e) In some rare cases, the iterative can point out, not a repeated action, but an action that lasts for
long : GE6-an hmandan uzuhrin HD.DU.A azzikkanzi "during the whole night, they eat hay".

4. Verbal substantives usage

a) Infinitive constructions
270) Hittite infinitives and their usage are a frequently studied and highly disputed subject. The
following presentation is based on the most recent and detailed treatment by Kammenhuber.
271) a) What was formerly called Infinitive 1 (in -uwar) is a verbal substantive. It has an equivalent
formation in -atar. The two constructions are divided as follows : the one in -atar is mainly used by
the root verbs with ablaut of the mi-conjugation (appatar "catching" from ep- "to catch", adatar
"eating" from ed- "to eat", akkuwatar "drinking" from eku- "to drink", kunatar "killing" from kuen"to kill", uwatar "visit" from aus- "to see"), whereas -uwar (Gen. -uwas, 185a) is used by the other
verbs of the mi- and hi-conjugations : nahhuwar "fear, respect" from nahh- "to fear", wetummar
"building" from wete- "to build", gankuwar "hanging, balancing, weight" from gank- "to hang, to
balance", etc...
b) The verbal substantive is not a verbal but a nominal construction : ANA KARA uwatar iyanun
"I did a visit to the army", LME KUR URUMizra-ma mahhan A KUR URUAmka GUL-ahhuwar
istamassanzi "but as the people of Egypt hear the defeat (lit. the stroke) of the land Amka".
272) a) The two constructions of the verbal substantive match the two constructions of the
infinitive, the one in -anna for the verbs with ablaut of the mi-conjugation (derived from the verbal
substantive in -atar ; formerly called Infinitive 2) : adanna "to eat" from ed-, akuwanna "to drink"
from eku-, kunanna "to kill" from kuen-, uwanna "to see" from aus-, the other in -uwanzi for the
other verbs of the mi- and hi-conjugations (derived from the verbal substantive in -uwar ; formerly
called Supine 1).
b) These two constructions are completely equivalent and correspond to infinitives in the modern
meaning : 1-as 1-an kunanna l sanhanzi "the one must not try to kill the other" (next to nu-mu
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tepnumanzi san(a)hta "and he tried to humiliate me"), LSANGA akuwanna wekzi "the priest
demands to drink", nu-mu-za-kan GE6.KAM-za walhuwanzi zikkir "they get ready to attack me by
night", AMARHI.A iyauwanzi zinnahhi "I have finished to bring the calves".
c) Note UI LUGALME siyawanzi tar(a)hta "he beat 60 kings in shooting".
273) The supine in -uwan (formerly called Supine 2) is only found associated with di- "to put, to
set" (or with tiya- "to go forward") to express the notion "to start to do sth" (259c).
274) Some other constructions with the infinitive should also be mentioned :
a) The association of the verb es- "to be" with the infinitive with the meaning "something must be
done" : tuk-ma k uttar -ta siyanna ishiull-a esdu "but this word should be placed in your heart
and should be a rule", NINDA.KUR4.RA parsiyawanzi NU.L "there is no bread to break", INA
KUR URUAssuwa lahhiyawanzi esun "I had to campaign in the land Assuwa" (cf. English I was to
fight).
b) kisari "it becomes" with the infinitive means "it is possible to do sth" : mn tuk-ma warissuwanzi
UL kisari "if it is not possible for you (Sg.) to help".
275) a) An accusative can be the complement of an infinitive, but Hittite readily makes this
accusative depend on the infinitive by placing it as object of the main verb if this verb is active :
aps-ma-mu harkanna san(a)hta : "lit. : but he looked for me to knock down" (i.e. "he looked for
knocking me down").
b) If the main verb is passive or is the verb "to be", the noun or the pronoun which is interpreted as
the object of the infinitive appears in Hittite as the subject of the main verb : LMUNABTUM
EIR-pa piyanna UL ara (or LMUNABTUM EIR SUM-anzi UL ara) "lit. : a refugee (is) not
right for an extradition" (i.e. it is not right to extradite a refugee), nu-ssi GUD piyawanzi SIxS-at
"lit. : and an ox was established to him to give" (i.e. it has been established for him to give an ox),
mn URULUM kuiski ... ANA mUlmi-dU piyanna UL ZI-anza "lit. : if a city is not the intention (of
the Sun) to give to U." (i.e. if the intention (of the Sun) is not to give a city to U." (URULUM kuiski
is a nominative !).
276) In these constructions, the infinitive is indifferent :
a) to the tense ; it is used likewise for present and future : DINGIR LUM-kan kuis ANA dUTUI
tarnumanzi SIxS-at "lit : the deity who was observed to admit the 'Sun' (i.e. who was observed
that he shall be left for the 'Sun')" as well as for preterite : DINGIRLUM-ma-kan kuis arha
sarrumanzi SIxS-at "lit : the deity (the divine picture) who was observed to break (i.e..the divine
picture who was observed that it has been broken)".
b) to the voice ; cf. the last example of a).
c) to the difference between the causative and the base verb : aps-ma-mu harkanna san(a)hta
"lit : he looked for me to collapse (i.e. he aimed to knock me down)" (hark- "to collapse" instead of
harganu- or harnink- "to throw down"), nas katta asanna kuit SIxS-at nan katta asashun
"lit. : and since she was observed to be seated (!), then I seated her" (es- "to be seated" instead of
ases- "to seat").

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b) The participle
277) a) The Hittite participle in -ant- is passive for transitive verbs and active-intransitive for
intransitive verbs. Thus the following meanings : on one hand kunant- "killed" (from kuen- "to
kill"), appant- "grabbed, collected" (from ep- "to grab"), dant- "taken" (from d- "to take"), sekkant"known" (from sak- "to known"), on the other hand pnt- "gone" (from pi- "to go"), akkant- "dead"
(from ak- "to die"), tepawessant- "decreased" (from tepawes- "to decrease, to get fewer"), huyant"fled" (from huya- "to flee").
b) Exceptionally, adant- and akuwant- mean not only "eaten" and "drunk" (from ed- "to eat" and
eku- "to drink"), but also "having eaten" and "having drunk" (like Lat. pransus and potus,
Old-Indian bhukta- and pta-).
c) The participle has sometimes the meaning of a verbal adjective : kappuwant- "counted" also
means "countable, few".
278) About the expression of the gerund, cf. 186.

H. Negation
279) a) To negate the positive sentence, texts usually use the Akkadian UL and seldom the Hittite
natta.
b) Other negations are also used : nwi "not yet" (224b. 260) and nwn (nwn) "not at all ; no
more" (224b).
280) a) The prohibitive negation is l with the indicative present, cf. 264a.
b) One can sometimes find :
1. l with the imperative (264) : nu-tta LME U.GI l memiskandu "and the elders cannot talk to
you", l-ta nhi "do not be afraid".
2. once l with man potential-present in Old-Hittite with the meaning of Lat. utinam ne : l-man-se
LUGAL-us kissan tezzi "may the king not talk of him like this".
281) The negation is placed before the verb, and, for compound verbs, between the particle and the
verbal form : nu namma INA DSeha UL pun "so (315) I did not go to the land of the river Seha",
nu-wa BLNI INA URUHayasa l pisi "now, our lord, do not go to Hayasa", apiya-ya-ta-kan anda
UL daliyami "then I will not let you down", nu-za-kan memiyani sr l karussiyasi "do not stay
quiet in front of the thing", nu namma dUTUI URUDuqqaman saruwawanzi UL tarnahhun "So
(315) I, the Sun, let here the city Duqqama without plundering it".
282) a) However, various accentuated words can attract the negation : nu-wa BLNI l namma
uwasi "now, our lord, do not come yet", nu-tta UL kuwatqa amml A. kueri anda zahhiya tiyami
"now, I will by no means come to fight on my field (and my) soil".
b) The emphatic negation can be placed at the end of short sentences : namma-ma-kan KUR
URUHapalla kuenta-ya UL epta-ya-at UL "then you did not strike the land Hapalla and you did not
seized it either", nu-war-an sannatti-ya l munnsi-ya-war-an l "now do not hide him and do not
conceal him", parkunusi-ma-za UL kuit "but you do not let the least go through".
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c) The negation is placed at the beginning of the interrogative sentence : UL-war-an-kan tutaza
memiyanaz kuennir "did not they kill you because of your word (cf. 213b2) ?".
d) The negation can also be doubled to strengthen the negative aspect : nu-war-an huwappi
DINGIRLIM-ni UL par UL kuwapikki tarnahhun "now, I have never, never left him with a bad
deity".
283) A negation can act on the following sentence : hassannas DUMU-an idlu l kuiski iyazi nussi-san R-an takkeski "nobody should mistreat a son of the family, nor prepare a dagger against
him", ANA BULU3 GIM-an hassatar-set NU.L UL-an A.-ni pdanzi nan NUMUN-an
ienzi "since there is no vitality in malt (?), it is not brought to the field and it is not sown".

I. Interrogation
284) a) Interrogation was expressed in speech by the tone rather than by a particle, hence it is not
directly recognizable in written texts : E-YA-za malsi "do you agree, my brother ?",
DINGIRLUM-za kdas waskuwas sr TUKU.TUKU-wanza "is the deity very angry because of those
breaches ?".
b) The negation is placed at the beginning of the interrogative sentence (cf. 282c).
285) a) The double interrogation uses nu and -ma in the second clause : BAL andurza kuiski
D-yazi ... nu BAL arahza-ma kuiski D-zi "does someone revolt inside ... or does someone revolt
outside ?", nu-war-at E-YA DE nu-war-at UL-ma DE "does my brother know it or does not he
know it ?".
b) About the indirect double interrogation with mn - mn "if - or else", cf. 333.
286) Abrupt questions can occur, e.g. : kuit apt "what (is) that ?", nu namma kuit "what more ?".

J. Particles
1. Generalities
287) The following words are designated as particles in the strict sense : -wa (-war) of quotation,
-pat "also, too, even", the positioning particles -kan and -san and the still poorly understood
particles -(a)sta and -(a)pa (-ap), maybe too the enclitic conjunctions -a (-ya) "and" and -ma "but".
In a broader sense, the enclitic pronominal forms (100 and 102) as well as the reflexive pronoun
-za (-z) (240 - 243) can be added. All these enclitic elements are affixed to the first accentuated
word of the sentence and their abundance gives its peculiar character to the linking of the Hittite
sentences, especially in Neo-Hittite.
288) If these enclitic words seem crowded, they are however affixed in a perfectly regular order :
1. The conjunctions -a (-ya) "and" and -ma "but" (302 - 305. 318 f.) are at the first place.
2.The quotation particle -wa (-war) (289 - 292) is at the second place.
3. The enclitic pronouns (100 and 102) and the reflexive pronoun -za (240 ff.) come after the
100

conjunctions and after -wa.

4. The particles -kan, -san, -(a)sta and -(a)pa (294 - 301) end the series.
5. a) Several enclitic pronouns come before ; thus, the forms of the 3rd person (102) are generally
placed before the forms of 100 and before -za.
b) -za also follows the forms of 100.
Examples (with a reference to the numbering of the enclitics) : nu-mu-kan "and to me" (3. 4),
n-at-mu "and he to me" (3. 5a), n-at-si "and it (they) to him" (3. 5a), n-as-za "and he himself"
(3. 5a), nu-mu-za-kan "and to myself" (3. 4. 5b), kinun-as-mu-kan "now he to me" (3. 4. 5a),
mahhan-ma-mu-kan "but while to me" (1. 3. 4), n-an-za(n) "and he himself" (3. 5a ; about -za(n),
cf. 34. 42b), GE6.KAM-az-ma-at-kan "but during the night it (they)" (1. 3. 4), piran-ma-at-mu
"but it in front of me" (1. 3. 5a), nu-war-an "and he" (2. 3), nu-war-as-za "and he himself" (2. 3.
5a), ammuk-ma-wa-kan "but me" (1. 2. 4), nu-wa-mu-za "and to myself" (2. 3. 5b), nu-wa-mu-kan
"and to me" (2. 3. 4), nu-wa-nnas-za "and we ourselves" (2. 3. 5b), nu-wa-mu-ssan "and to me" (2.
3. 4), nu-wa-smas-(s)ta "and to you (Pl.) (to them)" (2. 3. 4) (about -(s)ta for -(a)sta, cf. 42c),
nu-war-as-ta "and he to you (Sg.)" (2. 3. 5a), unnanzi-ma-war-as "but they bring him away"
(1. 2. 3), kinun-a-war-as "and now he" (1. 2. 3), KASKALHI.A-ya-wa-smas "also the roads to you
(Pl.)" (1. 2. 3), arahzenas-wa-mu-za "the neighbors themselves to me" (2. 3. 5b), mnn-a-wa-mu
"and if to me" (1. 2. 3), DUMU-U-ma-wa-ssi-za-kan "but his son to himself" (1. 2. 3. 4. 5b),
kinun-ma-wa-tu-za "but now to himself" (1. 2. 3. 5b ; about -tu-, cf. 40. 100), dUTUI-wa-du-zakan "the Sun to yourself" (2. 3. 4. 5b).

2. The quotation particle

289) If a quotation is included in a narration, the enclitic particle -wa is affixed to the first
accentuated word of each clause of the quotation : mPihhuniyas-ma-mu kissan hatres UL-wa-tta
kuitki EIR-pa pihhi mnn-a-wa-mu zahhiya uwasi nu-wa-tta UL kuwatqa amml A. kueri anda
zahhiya tiyami ANA KURTI-KA-wa-tta menahhanda uwami nu-wa-tta-kkan ANA KUR-KA
zahhiya tiyami "but Pihhuniya wrote thus to me : I will give you nothing back. And if you come to
fight me, I will go by no means onto my own land (and) soil ; I will meet you in your country and I
will fight you in your country".
290) Several enclitic words starting with a vowel can follow the quotation particle, such as all the
forms of the pronoun -a- (102) or the particles -asta and -apa (301). In that case, the particle
occurs in its whole form -war- (30) : nu arahzenas KUR.KUR LKR kissan memir
ABU-wa-ssi kuis LUGAL KUR Hatti esta nu-war-as UR.SA-is LUGAL-us esta nu-wa-za
KUR.KUR LKR tarahhan harta nu-war-as-za DINGIRLIM-is D-at DUMU-U-ma-wa-ssi-zakan kuis ANA IGU.ZA ABU esat nu-wa apss-a kar LKALA-anza esta nu-war-an
irmaliyattat nu-wa-za apss-a DINGIRLIM-is kisat "and the neighboring enemy countries spoke
thus : his father, who was king of the land Hatti, was a heroic king and he held the enemy countries
in check ; and he became a god. But his son, who sat on the throne of his father, was before a war
hero too ; now he fell ill (200b) and he became a god too".
291) It sometimes happens that the verb introducing the quotation is missing ; the sentence can be
understood by adding "with the words" before the quotation : nu-kan NAM.RAME katta uer
nat-mu RME-as kattan haliyandat BLNI-wa-nnas l harnikti "the prisoners came down, and
101

they knelt at my feet (with the words) : our lord, do not slaughter us !".
292) a) In the language of mythological texts, more rarely in the other texts, the use of the particle is
less strict : nu sar nepisi atti-ssi halzis ammuga EIR-pa anda ep l-mu genzuwisi "now, he
called his father towards heaven : bring me again ! do not shield me !" (next to several correct uses
of the particle in the same text).
b) Conversely, -wa can be found at the wrong place in isolated cases : nu DUMUME-KA
DUMUME dUTUI-pat AUM BLTIM pahsantaru nu-wa-smas HUL-lu menahhanda l
sanhateni "and your sons must respectfully get under the authority of the sons of the Sun. And do
not plan anything evil !", nu-wa mUkkuras LUGULA.10 MUNUS.LUGAL li-in-kn!-ta "and
Ukkura, the decurion of the queen swore (!)".
c) 1. Occasionally, -wa can be found at the beginning of a quotation, but not in the following part of
the quotation.
2. -wa can also be omitted in short sentences of a dialogue.

3. The particle -pat even, also

293) Only the main uses of the enclitic particle -pat (of unsure reading, maybe -pit or -pe) can be
presented here since there is no thorough study about it :
a) it corresponds to English "even" (concerning what has already been mentioned) : if a slave has
stolen, and takku BLU tezzi ser-wa-ssi sarnikmi nu sarnikzi takku mimmai-ma nu R-an-pat
sizzi "if his master says : 'I want to execute his punishment for him', then he must execute the
punishment. But if he refuses, he must even forsake the slave", nu-kan mUhha-L-is aruni anda
BA.UG7 DUMUME-UNU-ma-za arha sarrandat nu-kan 1-as A.AB.BA-pat esta 1-as-ma-kan
arunaz arha uit "and Uhha-L died in the sea (i.e. on an island). His (353c) sons separated
(254b) ; and one still stayed in the sea, but the other came back from the sea".
aps-pat can be translated by "this very, it itself" : takku R-is huwi nas kururi KUR-e pizzi
kuis-an EIR-pa uwatezzi nan-zan (34) aps-pat di "if a slave flees and goes into an enemy
country, the one who brings him back can keep this very one for himself".
b) -pat with a possessive pronoun has the meaning "own" : apl-pat annasas katta "with his own
mother", SA.DU-KA-pat "your own head".
c) With a predicate, it means "also, as well" : nu-za ABYA kuwapi DINGIRLIM-is D-at
mArnuwandas-ma-za-kan E-YA ANA IGU.ZA ABU esat EIR-an-ma-as irmaliyattat-pat
"and as soon as my father became a god, my brother Arnuwanda sat on the throne of his father. But
after, he also fell ill".
d) A frequent meaning of -pat is "only" : kappuwantes-pat-mu-kan antuhses isparter "only few
people (lit. countable, 277c) escaped from me", LUGAL-us-san hantezziyas-pat DUMU.LUGAL
kikkittaru "only the first prince shall become king", nu-za R-S-pat di sarnikzil NU.L "he can
only take his slave, there is no compensation". In predictions, often after having determined the
reason for the divine wrath : mn k-pat namma-ma tamai NU.L kuitki "if there is only this one,
then nothing else is available".
e) Less frequently, it means "nevertheless, all the same" : nu-za mn irmalanza-sa (25b) esta
dUTUI-ma-tta ANA AAR ABKA tittanunun-pat "and although you are ill, I have nevertheless
installed you at the place of your father".
102

4. The particles of position -kan and -san

294) The particles -kan and -san are presented together since they both imply a relation with
location ; they are mainly used with verbs of motion. The different uses of -kan are not yet fully
understood.
295) -kan is especially found with locations. It modifies above all the meaning of the particle of
verbs of motion. If the motion is the consequence of a previous motion, -kan is lacking, if it is an
independant motion, -kan is present. More precisely :

anda without -kan "again inside", with -kan "inside"

appa without -kan "back", with -kan "away"
arha without -kan "home", with -kan "outside, far"
par without -kan "again forward", with -kan "forward, outside"
katta without -kan "again below", with -kan "below"
sar without -kan "again above", with -kan "above".

Examples : nekuz mehur-ma DINGIRLUM anda udanzi "in the evening however, they bring the deity
in again", nu-war-as-kan ksma sums anda uit "and see! he came in your house", GIM-an-ma
URUNeriqaza EIR-pa uizzi "as he comes back however to Neriqqa", nan-kan EIR-pa INA
KUR-U pehutezzi "and he brings him away to his country", nas URUK.BABBAR-si arha
udahhun "and I brought them back to my house in Hattusa", nas-kan URU-riaz arha hdak piddu
"and he must immediately leave the city", lukkatta-ma par pun "but the following day, I went
forward", L IPA-ma-kan par aski pizzi "but the messenger goes out through the gate", nu
nekuz mehuni hdak GAM pitten "and goes down again immediately at night", nu-kan ERIN2ME
URU-az katta udas "and he brought troops at the bottom of the city", nas INA DINGIRLIM
sesuwanzi hdak sar uiddu "and he must go up again immediately to the temple to sleep", nu-kan
URUAstata URU-ri sar pun "and I went up to the town Astata".
296) One can compare other cases : nat-kan ANA KUR URUHatti istarna uda "bring that to the land
Hatti", nas-kan aruni parranda pit "and he crossed the sea", nat-kan INA KUR Gasga kattanda
pdas "and he brought him down to the land Gasga", kuitman-as-kan INA KUR URUHatti sr "as
long as he (is) above in the land Hatti". Conversely, nu-mu E-YA dNIR.L-is EIR-anda uit
"and my brother Muwattalli came behind me", nu-mu ENME hmantes menahhanda uer "and all
the lords came in front of me".
297) -kan disappears :
a) next to the particles -san (300) and -asta (301a) : nasta LUGAL-us ITU dZababa par uizzi
"and then the king went out of the temple of Zababa".
b) near andan, appan and kattan : nu-ssi INA
his house in Samuha".

URUSamuha

ukila kattan pun "and I myself went to

c) when a verb has no particle : nan BLUM kuiski uwateddu "and any lord must bring him back".
298) 1. -kan is also present :
a) with some adverbial phrases of spatial meaning such as pedi daliya- "to give place", -ta tarna"to take into account", U-i di- "to put in one's hand", KASKAL-si di- "to implement".
b) with verbs of meaning "to influence someone physically or mentally" such as es- "to occupy",
103

kuen- "to strike", ishi- "to impose", zammuri- "to humiliate", etc...
c) with verbs of meaning "to be influenced by someone" such as nahh- "to be afraid of", aus- "to see
something in somebody", wemiya- "to find something in somebody", etc...
2. But it is lacking with these verbs in legal texts after takku : man-kan kuenzi "and he kills him",
nan-kan kunanzi "and they kill him", but takku LDAM.GR URUHatti kuiski kuenzi "if someone
kills a merchant of Hatti", takkus L-is wemiyazi tus kuenzi "if a man finds them and kills them".
299) The particle -san never occurs next to -kan. They are mutually exclusive (297a). The group
-za-san becomes -zan according to 42b1.
300) -san is especially found with verbs of position which can also use -kan ; -san probably gives to
these verbs the special meaning "on, over". The particle ser is frequently found next to -san.
Examples : ser-a-ssan A I LI artari "and upon it a wooden handlebar is found" (on the other
hand ANA IGIGIR-ya-kan kudani apdani UD-ti arhahat "and the chariot on which I stood that
day"), nas-san A dU I.A assi "and he seats her on the chair of the weather-god" (but
nan-kan Ihuluganni asesanzi "but one seats him in the chariot"), nu-ssi-ssan UDU UZUGAB-i ser
epzi "and he holds the sheep on his chest" (next to nu-ssi-kan iskisas ser epzi "and he holds (it) on
his back"), nu-zan mn ANA dUTUI ser SA.DU-KA-pat ser autti "and if you watch the Sun (like)
your head".

5. The particles -(a)sta and -(a)pa

301) a) The meaning of the particles -(a)sta and -(a)pa (-ap) is not yet understood ; the latter
commonly and occasionally alternates with -(a)sta in Old-Hittite.
b) 1. About the reduction of -asta in -sta or -ta after the syllables -as, -is, -us, cf. 42c1.
2. If -apa follows a word ending in -i, it is reduced to -pa : aki "he dies" + -(a)pa > akipa, nu + -at +
-si + -(a)pa > natsepa "and it to him".

K. Conjunctions
1. -a, -ya and, also
302) a) The conjunction is affixed as an enclitic to the second word or the first word of the second
clause. It is written -a after a consonant, -ya after a vowel or a logogram, cf. 41a.
b) It is sometimes written -a + -ya without any particular reason : wtarr-a-ya "and water", aptt-aya "also this", and often kinun-a-ya-war-an "and now him".
303) a) -a, -ya "and" connects individual words : appanti kunanti-ya mekki esta "the prisoners and
the killed were many", mManapa-dU-an-ma-za KUR DSeha-ya R-anni dahhun "but I have
enslaved Manapa-Datta and the land of the river Seha", dUTUI-in-pat sk pahsi-ya-an "so 'my
Sun', recognize them and protect them".
b) However, some words are easily paired without conjunction (asyndeton) : attas annas "father and

104

mother" (= "parents"), LUGAL MUNUS.LUGAL "king and queen, the royal couple", ERIN2ME
ANU.KUR.RAME "foot-soldiers and charioteers", arahzens antrs "foreigners and natives",
mallanzi harranzi "they grind and crush", adanna akuwanna "to eat and to drink".
304) a) Moreover, -a, -ya connects two juxtaposed clauses without progress of the action : nu-mu
dITAR GAAN-YA kuit kanissan harta E-YA-ya-mu dNIR.L-is assu harta "because Itar, my
lady, kept me blessed and my brother Muwattalli kept me well", nu-wa memiyan ANA dUTUI
hatri antuhsann-a-wa ep nu-war-an ANA ABI dUTUI uppi "write the word to the 'Sun' and arrest
the man and send him to the father of the 'Sun'".
b) 1. -a ... -a (-ya ... -ya) means "sth ... as well as sth" : A mAttarissiya-ya 1 L SIG5-in kuennir
anzll-a-kan 1 L SIG5-in kuennir "they killed a noble man of A. as well as a noble man of ours",
eppirr-a mekki kuennirr-a mekki "they sheltered many as well as they killed many".
2. With a negation, it means "neither ... nor" : nu-war-an sannattiya l munnsi-ya-war-an l
"neither hide him nor conceal him".
305) a) Finally, -a, -ya means "also, too" : nu-wa-za apss-a DINGIRLIM-is kisat "now he has
become a god too (like his father before)", nu-za MU.KAM-za ser tepawessanza esta BLHI.Aya-mu memir MU.KAM-za-wa-tta ser tepawessanza "then the year had become (too) short. Also
the lords told me : the year has become (too) short".
b) Occasionally, -a, -ya is translated by "but" : kar 30 GUDHI.A peskir kinun-a 15 GUDHI.A pi
"one formerly used to give 30 oxen, but now he gives 15 oxen", kissan-a l tesi "but you (Sg.) must
not speak like that".

2. nu and
306) a) nu is used to connect whole sentences. With the pronoun -a- (102) and the particles -(a)sta
and -(a)pa, it becomes na- (38a. 103a), nasta and napa (301a).
b) nu is a word to which enclitic pronouns and particles are easily affixed ; examples at 288.
307) In Neo-Hittite, nu has two functions :
a) It connects two coordinate clauses and corresponds to "and" ; it implies however a progress in the
action ("and then") : nu-mu-kan mSUM.MA.dKAL-an DUMU-U menahhanda par nesta nas-mu
INA DAstarpa M-ya tiyat nan dUTUI zahhiyanun nu-mu dUTU URUArinna DINGIRME-ya
hmantes piran hur nu-za mSUM.MA.dKAL-an tarahhun nan-kan kuenun nu-kan INA KUR
URUArzawa parranda pun nu-mu mUhha-L-is UL mazzasta nas-mu-kan huwis nas-kan aruni
parranda pit nas-kan apiya anda esta "and he dispatched his son S., and he went forward to the
river Astarpa to fight me, and I, the Sun, fought him. And the Sun-goddess of Arinna and all the
gods rushed before me, and I defeated S. and I stroke him. Then I went into the land Arzawa and
Uhha-L did not resist to me and he fled before me and he crossed the sea to an island and he
stayed there".
b) It connects the main clause (apodosis "then ...") to the conditional subordinate clause (protasis "if
...") : kuitman-za-kan ANA IGU.ZA ABYA nwi eshat nu-mu arahzenas KUR.KURME LKR
hmantes kururiyahhir "as I was not yet seated on the throne of my father, all the enemy
105

neighboring countries began to attack me".

308) a) nu can also stand at the beginning of longer sections where it can be translated by "then" :
nu tul mahhan mMashuiluwas ABKA ITTI dUTUI wastas zik-ma-za mKupanta-dKAL-as ANA
mP.TUR-wa UL KR-as esta nu-tta-kan UL ABKA arha dahhun "then after your father
Mashuiluwa had sinned against the 'Sun', from you, K., who were not hostile against Mashuiluwa, I
did not take the house of your father", nu kuitman ABYA INA KUR URUMitanni esta "then while
my father was in the country Mitanni, (this and that happened)".
b) However, it is usually missing at the beginning of long sections : ABYA-annas-za mMursilis
4 DUMUME hasta "my father Mursili begot 4 children" (at the beginning of the autobiography of
Hattusili).
c) 1. It is especially missing in general at the beginning of quotations : nat-mu RME-as kattan
haliyandat BLNI-wa-nnas l harnikti nu-wa-nnas-za BLNI R-anni d "they prostrated
themselves at my feet (with the words) : our lord, do not slaughter us, and take us, our lord, at your
(240) service".
2. But it sometimes stands at the beginning of a quotation : dIKUR-sa tezzi nu-war-an kuit handa
UL wemiyatten "and the weather-god says : then since you did not find him". It is the same with
shorts sentences : nu kuit "so what ? (i.e. what is there to say ?)".
309) In Old-Hittite, nu has a more restricted use :
a) It can occasionally stand between two coordinate clauses : takku L-is GUD-as katta wastai
hurkil aki-as LUGAL-an aski uwatezzi "if a man sins with an ox, (it is) an abomination, he will be
killed. He will bring him at the court of the king (62c)".
b) It generally stands between coordinate clauses in asyndeton in rituals : nu PNI IDAG-ti
PNI dZababa 2-U di hassi 1-U IDAG-ti 1-U IAB-ya 1-U Ihattalwas I-rui 1-U
namma hassi tapusza 1-U di UGULA LME MUHALDIM ispanduzzisar ETIN LUGAL-i
par epzi LUGAL-us QTAM di "then he sets once in front of the throne and in front of the god
Zababa, once in front of the hearth, once on the throne, once in the window, once on the wooden
bolt, once more next to the hearth. The manager of the cooks holds a wine ration out to the king, the
king puts his hand".
c) In legislative texts, an asyndeton should generally be understood when a protasis has several
terms : takku DUMU.MUNUS L-ni taranza tamais-an pittenuzi "if a girl (is) promised to a man
(and if) another one abducts her".
d) Old-Hittite generally does not add nu to the apodosis contrary to 307b : takku R-an KAxKAKset kuiski wki 3 GN K.BABBAR pi "if someone bites off the nose of a slave (213a), he will
give 3 shekels of silver", nu GIM-an lukkutta dUTU-us-kan kalmaraz uit mKissis suppiyaz sastas (!)
aris "then when the morning after the Sun-god came above the mountain (?), K. arose from the
pure bed" (sastas : mistake for sastaz ?).
310) In some cases, nu is omitted, especially in Neo-Hittite :
a) at the beginning of a long section (cf. 308b) ;
b) with prohibitive clauses between two prohibitions, with an order and a prohibition, as well as
with a positive clause after a prohibition : nu-wa-kan URUIyalanda tul UKU3-an l kuinki
wemiyami ziqqa-wa-za-kan EIR-pa anda l kuinki tarnatti amml-wa RME ukila EIR-an
106

sanhmi "now I do not want to find any of your people in the city I. ! Do not let any inside again ! I
will look after my sujects by myself", apn-wa UKU3-an d l-war-an arha datti "accept this man !
You should not take him away" ;
c) 1. with emphasis, especially with emphatic and rhetorical questions : eshar INA KUR
URUK.BABBAR-ti ara "is the blood (crime) lawful in the land Hatti ?", UKU -as
3
DINGIRME-ass-a ZI-anza tamais kuiski UL "is the mentality different between men and gods ?
No !" ;
2. on the other hand, nu is present with rhetorical questions after a subordinate clause : E-tar kuis
kudani hatreskizzi nu-kan UL assiyantes kus nu 1-as 1-dani E-tar hatreskizzi "those of the
brotherhood who keep on writing, (are they) not those who (are) friends ? Thus, the one keeps on
writing to the other one of the brotherhood" ;
d) in the explanatory parenthetical clauses : ks-ma LKARTAPPU kuis A MUNUS.LUGAL-za
kuit A MTI harzi INA KUR URUHatti A MUNUS.LUGAL MTUM mekki salli nas-mu UL
imma LHADANU "but this riding master, because he has (a woman) from the family of the queen in the land Hatti, the family of the queen (is indeed) highly regarded - (is) so to speak (lit. not
completely) a brother-in-law of mine" ;
e) in result adverbial clauses (English "in such a way that, to the point that") : namma-kan mn
ITU KUR URUHatti kuiski idlus memiyas A BAL sar isparzazi KURTUM kuitki arahza ANA
dUTUI kururiyahzi ITTI dUTUI-ma hman SIG -in nu AWT dUTUI huski "besides, if the bad
5
rumor of a riot comes out from the land Hatti, in such a way that a country starts a war outside
against the Sun, all (is) favorable however for the Sun, so await the instructions of the Sun", nu mn
mDU.dU DUMU-U ANA PNI mAbiratta ABU kuitki wastai ABAU HUL-anni sanhazi "if now
his son D. sins against his father A. in such a way that he looks for his father for evil (i.e. that he
tries to act badly towards his father)", nu KUR-ya andan ksza kisati DUMU.LU.ULU3LU.ME
DINGIRME-s-a kistantit harkiyanzi "and in the country the famine happened, to the point that men
and gods starve to death" ;
f) next to the unreality particle man : nu-war-as-mu-kan sullit nu-wa-mu RME-YA kattan
harnamniyat man-wa-mu menahhanda kururiyahha nu-war-as-mu piran arha piddais "and he
quarreled with me and he persecuted (?) my subjects (and) he would have started to make war
against me ; and he fled before me", man-kan mn ANA dUTUI kuwapi HUL-wanni kittat man-ta
dUTUI arha pessiyanun man-ta-kkan ABKA arha dahhun "if this had ever (253b) appeared
evil for the Sun, I, the Sun, would have rejected you and I would have taken the house of your father
from you" (on the other hand, in the real mode : kinun-a-kan ANA dUTUI kuit HUL-wanni UL
kittat-nu-tta arha UL pessiyanun nu-tta-kan ABKA arha UL dahhun "since this has not appeared
evil for the Sun, I have not rejected you and I have not taken the house of your father from you").
g) in series of clauses with kuitman "until" (326d3).
311) a) The sentences with kuit "because" (323) usually have nu at the beginning of the clause with
kuit as well as at the transition with the main clause : nu-wa-mu IBILA kuit NU.L mKupantadKAL-as-ma-mu DUMU E-YA nu-war-an-mu EN-YA DUMU-anni pi "since there is no
offspring for me, but K. is the son of my brother, then give him to me, my lord, as a descendant".
b) However, the clause with kuit can also have no particle : ABKA-mu kuit tul UM-an memiskit
nu-tta apaddan EIR-an san(a)hhun "since your father had told (i.e. recommended) me several
times your name, then I have taken care of you".
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c) In the same way, nu can be missing from the beginning of the main clause : ANA PNI
DINGIRME kuit par handandanni iyahhahat A DUMU.NAM.L.ULU3LU-UTTI HUL-lu uttar
UL kuwapikki iyanun "since I have walked in front of the gods according to (their) rule, I have never
made the evil of humanity (i.e. I have never acted badly as the other men usually do)".
312) The verbs uwa- "to come" and pi- "to go" (along with the imperatives it "go! (Sg.)" and itten
"go! (Pl.)", 164 2a) are often followed by another verb. In that case, they are placed before the
following verb in asyndeton and they can take, like an adverb, the particles at the beginning of a
clause : wer-ma mTettes mEN-urtass-a ITTI dUTUI kururiyahhir "but Tetti and E. came (and)
fought against the Sun", nu-wa uizzi zilatiya ANA KURTI EN-as "then he will go (and he will be) in
the future the lord in the country", it-wa-mu karsin memiyan zik EIR-pa uda "go (and) bring back
a clear information !", piweni-war-an-kan kuennummeni "we want to go (and) kill him".
They can also be placed between a transitive verb and its preceding direct object : nan uwammi
LKR-as iwar wal(a)hmi "and I will come (and) I will attack it (an aforementioned city) as an
enemy".
313) a) In a sentence like "this would have happened, but for any reason it happened differently",
Hittite usually uses nu to say "but" : man-ta-kkan kuennir nu zik isparzasta "they would have killed
you, but you escaped", man-si pun mn-an arha harninkun nu-mu-kan AMA-U menahhanda
par nista "I would have gone against him (and) I would have thrown him down, but he sent his
mother to me (with an offer for peace)".
b) -ma "but" is sometimes used in this case : man INA KUR URUAzzi taninumanzi pun mahhan-ma
LME URUAzzi istamassir "I would have gone in the land Azzi to organize it (as a district). But
when the people of Azzi heard (this) (they voluntarily surrendered)".
314) a) nu and -ma are very rarely found together in positive sentences : nu ammuk-ma GIM-an
nakkesta nu-mu-za hant kuwapiki esta UL-mu-za GAM-an esta "while it was starting to be
oppressive for me, you were somewhere far away from me, and you were not with me".
b) The group nu ... -ma on the contrary is very frequent in multiple interrogations (cf. 285a).
315) namma "furthermore, again" is tied to nu in the expression nu namma "thus, hence,
consequently" whose terms can only be separated by enclitics : nu-mu MU.KAM-za kuit ser
tpawessanza esta nu namma KUR URUAzzi UL daninunun "since the year had now become (too)
short for me, then I did not organize the land Azzi (as a district)", nu mahhan mUhha-L-is GIG-at
nas-mu namma zahhiya menahhanda UL uit "since U. has now fallen ill, he has therefore not come
to fight me".

3. ta and su "and"
316) ta is used as a synonym of nu by Old-Hittite as well as by the legislative language and the
language of worship. It is also used :
a) to link coordinate clauses : cf. the alternation between nu, ta and the asyndeton in the ritual :
LME IBANUR-kan 2 NINDAmitgaimius danzi tas LUGAL MUNUS.LUGAL-ri pianzi ta
parsiyanzi LME IBANUR-kan 2 NINDAmitgaimis appanzi nas-kan appa suppayas
IBANURHI.A-as tianzi "the table servants take 2 loaves of mitgaimi-bread and they give them to
the royal couple, and they break (them) (237a). The table servants take the 2 loaves of mitgaimibread and they put them again on the pure tables", and nearly identical but with a different
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distribution of the conjunctions : L IBANUR ... NINDAmitgaimius di LUGAL-i pi LUGALus parsiya tus-kan L IBANUR appa suppai IBANUR-i di "the table servant takes ... the
loaf of mitgaimi-bread (and) he gives (it) to the king, (and) the king breaks (it). The table servant
puts it again on the pure table".
b) in introduction to the apodosis : takku RME-U GEME2ME-U kulqa hurkel iyanzi tus
arnuwanzi "if the servant and the maid of someone commit an abomination, then they will be
dismissed".
c) about the peculiarity that an accusative pronoun in the 3rd person cannot be expressed with ta, cf.
237a.
317) su has the same usage as nu and ta, but is more rarely used and only in Old-Hittite texts :
uk-wa atti-mi UL assus su-wa URUHattusi hingani pun "I (am) not the favorite of my father and I
will have to go to Hattusa to die", mIsputas-Inari-ma piir san-atta ITU .EN.NUN tarnir "they
however went to I. and they left him out of prison".

4. Other coordinating conjunctions

318) -ma means "but", sometimes with a weaker meaning (like Greek ).
a) It is generally affixed as enclitic to the first word of the sentence : mahhan-ma-za-kan dUTUI
ANA IGU.ZA ABYA eshat "but when I, the Sun, sat on the throne of my father, (such thing
happened after)".
b) It is often found affixed to the second word in the protasis of conditional sentences and in
conditional relative clauses : mn-kan ERIN2ME-ma ANU.KUR.RAME warri UL arnusi "if you
do not bring foot-soldiers and chariots" (next to the sentence of similar meaning mn-ma-kan
ERIN2ME ANU.KUR.RAME warri UL arnutti ), takku kessiras-ma wastai "but if the hand
commits an outrage", kuis-an appa-ma uwatezzi "but who brings him back".
c) In the same case, -ma is occasionally doubled : mn-ma-as-ta-kkan KUR-KA-ma uizzi "but if
he comes to you into your country".
319) -ma has sometimes so little intensity in the apodosis that it can be left untranslated in English :
GIM-an-ma-za E-YA DINGIRLIM-is D-at mUrhi-dU-upan-ma DUMU E-YA sar dahhun
"but since my brother had become a god, (but) I took Urhi-Tessup, the son of my brother".
320) a) nasma usually means "or" : R-an nasma GEME2-an "a servant or a maid", mn tuk-ma
kuiski mTargasnallin nasma DUMU-KA kunanna sanhanzi "but if you, Targasnalli, or your son try
to kill someone".
b) nassu - nasma means "either - or" : nassu L URUHatti kuiski nasma L URUArzawa kuiski
"either a man of the land Hatti, or a man of the land Arzawa", nassu-wa-kan LKR aps kuindu
nasma-wa-kan LKR aps kunandu "either the enemy can strike these one, or these one can strike
the enemy".
321) nassu sometimes has the meaning of the disjunctive conjunction "or" : EBURME-wa-mu-kan
piran nassu kusta nassu KASKAL-as nasma tamai kuitki uttar "the harvest (occurs) for me before
the dowry or a trip or anything (that will require an expense of money)".
Thus, nassu originally meant "either" as well as "or", and nasma (< nassuma) contains the multiple
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interrogation particle -ma (285a).

L. Clauses
1. Final clause and purpose clause
322) Hittite has no specific forms for the final clause or the purpose clause. In order to build such
clauses, Hittite only juxtaposes them with nu : nas UL tarnahhun nan-kan UL kuennir "and I did not
let them, and they did not kill him" (= I did not allow that they kill him), takku L-an nasma
MUNUS-an ELLAM wal(a)hzi kuiski nas aki "if someone strikes a free man or a (free) woman and
(in such a way that) he (she) dies", nu taskupi nu URU-as dapiyanzi isdammaszi "cry now, and the
whole city will hear (it)" (= in such a way that [or : in order that] the whole city can hear it).

2. Causal clause and dependant positive sentence

323) The conjunction introducing a causal clause is kuit "because". It never stands at the beginning
of the clause. The clause introduced by kuit usually stands first : nu ABYA genzuwalas kuit esta
nas A MUNUSTI memiyani kri tiyat "because my father was lenient, he favorably received the
case of the woman", annisan-ma kuit ANA mMahsuluwa IBILA NU.GL esta nu-za tuk mKupantadKAL-an DUMU E-U IBILA-anni sar dn harta "but since at that time no descendant was
born to M., then he had taken you, K., the son of his brother as descendant".
About the presence or not of nu in the causal clauses, cf. 311.
324) kuit can also mean "that" ; in this case, the clause introduced by kuit often stands after. Thus :
a) with kuit with the meaning "the fact that" : amml ks-pat 1-as dammeshas kiy-an 1-an
dammeshanunun ITU .GALLIM-pat-kan kuit katta uiyanun "this (is) my only sentence : thus I
only condemned that I throw him away of the palace" ;
b) after a verb of perception : mahhan-ma LME URUAzzi auer URUDIDLI.HI.A BD-kan kuit
zahhiyaz katta daskiwan tehhun "but the people of Azzi saw that I started to subdue cities in
fighting".
325) A nominalized participle or a noun can also depend on a verb of perception or of speech with
the meaning "that" : ammuk-war-an akkantan IQBI "he announced him to me as dead" (i.e. he told
me that he was dead), mahhan-ma KUR.KURME LKR mArnuandan E-YA irman istamassir
"but since the enemies heard my brother Arnuwanda ill" (i.e. since they heard that he was ill).

3. Temporal clause
326) The temporal clauses are introduced by :
a) mahhan "while, as, when" : mahhan-ma hameshanza kisat "but as it was spring", mahhan-ma
UZU zeyari "but while the fat is cooking" ;
b) mn "as, when" in Old-Hittite instead of mahhan : mn-san mTelepinus INA
eshat "when I, Telepinu, sat on the throne of my father" ;

IGU.ZA

ABYA

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c) kuwapi "at the time" : nu-za ABYA kuwapi DINGIRLIM-is D-at "at the time when my father
became a god" ;
d) kuitman = lat. dum, thus :
1. "as long as, while" : nu kuitman ABYA INA KUR URUMitanni esta "as long as my father was in
the land Mitanni" ;
2. "until" (placed after the main clause) : nu -ri-ssi anneskizzi kuitman-as SIG5-attari "and he
works in his house until he recovers" ;
3. Multiple clauses introduced by "until" are tied in asyndeton (310g) : nu-wa-ssi ks
LKARTAPPU pidi-si esaru kuitman-as uizzi kuitman-as apiya EIR-pa uizzi "and this stable
master must stay at his place until he comes (and) until he goes back" ;
4. nwi kuitman "not yet" also means "before" : nu ANA KUR
pun "before I leave against any enemy country".

LKR

nwi kuitman kudanikki

e) kuit sometimes means "on the occasion of, when" : nu-za KUR URUArzawa kuit hman
tar(a)hhun nu-za dUTUI kuin NAM.RA INA LUGAL uwatenun nas anda 1-etta 66.000
NAM.RA esta "the prisoners that I, the Sun, when I destroyed the whole land Arzawa, brought
away to the royal palace, were altogether 66,000 prisoners".

4. Conditional clause
327) a) The real conditional clause is usually introduced by mn "if" : mn-kan LMUNABTUM
ITU KUR-KA KUR URUHatti Lpittiyantili uizzi nan-ta EIR-pa UL piyanzi "if a refugee comes
into the country Hatti as a refugee, then he will not be expelled", mn-kan KURTI akkiskittari
nat mn kururas kuiski DINGIRLUM iyan harzi nu kissan iyami "if inside the country a great
mortality occurs and if any god of the enemy caused it, then I act as follows".
b) The ancient word takku "if" is especially used in legal texts, more rarely in other kinds of texts :
takku L-an ELLUM sullannaza kuiski dasuwahhi 1 MA.NA K.BABBAR pi "if someone blinds
a free man during a fight, he will give one mina of silver".
328) a) The conjunction is sometimes totally missing : INA ITI.12.KAM DUMU-as miyari aps
DUMU-as LU.GI-eszi "(if) a boy is born at the 12th month, (then) this boy will grow old",
wasdul kulqa autti ... nu-za pankun EIR-pa punuski "(if) you see a crime, ... then always ask to
the community", NINDA-an-za wemiyanun nanza AHTYA natta kuwapikki edun "(if) I have found
bread, then I did not eat it secretly".
b) 1. nasma mainly means "or if" : nasma ERIN2ME ANU.KUR.RAME ANA dUTUI wekti
nu-tta nassu dUTUI ERIN2ME ANU.KUR.RAME uppahhi nasma-tta KUR-eas ZAG-as EN-as
EIR-an uizzi "or if you want foot-soldiers (and) chariots from the Sun, either I, the Sun, will send
you foot-soldiers and chariots, or the lord of the borders of the country will help you (lit. : will come
behind you)".
2. But one also finds nasma mn : nasma mn KURTUM kuitki zahhiyaza LUGAL KUR
anda hatkisnuzzi "or if the king of the country Hatti attacks with a fight any country".

URUHatti

329) In the potential conditional clause, mn is found with the present, according to the only known
evidence. By analogy with the unreal conditional clauses built in the same way, this mn should
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probably be understood as the unreal particle man with omission of the conjunction mn "if".
Evidence : mn-wa-mu 1-an DUMU-KA paisti man-war-as-mu LMUTYA kisari "if you gave me
one of your sons, he could become my husband".
330) a) 1. In the unreal conditional clause, one usually finds mn "if" and the unreal particle man
(265ff.) in the expression man mn with the preterite : man-kan mn ANA dUTUI kuwapi
HUL-wanni kittat man-ta dUTUI arha pessiyanun "if this had been done with an evil intent
towards the Sun, I, the Sun, could have driven you away", man-kan mn ANA mAttarsiya
huiswetenn-a kastita-man akten "even if you were gone to A. alive, you would however have
starved to death".
2. With the spelling mn instead of man : mn-kan mn ANA mPittaggatalli-pat warpa tehhun
man-mu Lauriyalus kuit A mPittaggatalli auer mn-mu piran arha tarnas "since, if I had led the
march (?) directly towards P., the guards of P. would have seen me, he would have left in front of
me".
b) However, the conjunction can here again vanish, in such a way that the protasis only contains the
particle man, eventually written mn : EIR-an-man kuwapi apdas ANA NAM.RAME tiyanun
man dUTUI EIR-an tiyanun "if I had ever bothered about these prisoners, I, the Sun, would have
looked after them (i.e. I would have looked after them personally)", ammuk-man-wa kuwapi
DUMU-YA esta ammuk-man-wa amml RAMNYA ammll-a KUR-eas tepnumar tamtani
KUR-e hatrnun "would I have, (if) I already had a son, written to another country the humiliation
of myself and of my country ?".
331) a) An unreal or potential protasis can sometimes be followed by a real apodosis : man-ma-za
DAM-YA ANA MUNUS.LUGAL isiyahhiskattallas kisat nu idlu kuitki iyat "should my wife have
become an investigator against the queen if she did something wrong ?".
b) The apodosis can sometimes be understood in curses and oaths : nasma-kan mn dUTUI
kudani anda idlu istamasti nat-mu-kan mn sannatti nat-mu UL mematti apnn-a-mu antuhsan
UL tekkussanusi nan anda imma munnsi "or if you hear evil from someone against the Sun, (then
woe betide you) if you conceal it from me and you do not tell it to me, if you do not either show me
these men and you hide them from me", mn-ma-wa IKARA2 iskallahhun nasma-wa NA4KIIB
duwarnahhun nasma-wa-za dahhun kuitki "(I be cursed) if I cut the lace or if I broke the seal or if I
took something for myself".

5. Concessive clause
332) a) The concessive clause is generally introduced by mn-a "although" : mUrhi-dU-upas-ma-mu
mn HUL-luss-a esta ammuk-ma UL karussiyanun "but although Urhi-Tessup was ill-disposed
towards me, I did not stay quietly watching him", nu-za mn irmalanza-sa (25b) esta
dUTUI-ma-tta ANA AAR ABKA tittanunun-pat "and although you were ill, I nevertheless (293e)
installed you at the place of your father".
b) mn "if" alone can also be used as a concessive conjunction : zik-ma-za mKupanta-dKAL-as ANA
mP.TUR-wa kuit DUMU-U esta mn-za UL manga wasdulas esta man-ta-kkan ABKA
KUR-KA-ya UL arha dir "since you, K., were however the son of Mashuiluwa, could not someone
take from you, although you were absolutely not guilty, the house of your father and your country?".

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6. Indirect interrogative clause

333) The indirect interrogative clause which is not introduced by an interrogative pronoun (kuis
"who ?", masiwant- "what size ?", etc...) or by an interrogative adverb (kuwapi "where ? when ?",
kuwat "why ?", etc...) starts with mn "if" (also for the double interrogation mn - mn "if - or
else") : nu mUrhi-dU-upas kuit apiya nan punus mn kisan mn UL kisan "since Urhi-Tessub (is)
there now, then ask him if it is like this (or) if it is not like this".

7. Relative clause
334) a) Hittite does not build the relative clause the same way as English does, e.g. "the man whom
you have seen is my father", but instead "you have seen this man, this is my father". The relative
clause also stands before the main clause in most cases. The relative pronoun is often, though not
necessarily, at the second place in the clause it belongs to. Hittite pulls the noun that the relative
clause depends on (that would stand in the main clause in English) into the relative clause, and
usually mentions it again in the following main clause : nu-za dUTUI kuin NAM.RA INA
LUGAL uwatenun nas 15.500 NAM.RA esta "and the prisoners whom I, the Sun, drove to the royal
palace, were 15,500 prisoners", nasma-tta URUK.BABBAR-sas ZAG-as kuis BLU maninkuwan
nu ERIN2ME ANU.KUR.RAME apdani wekti "or the lord of the borders of Hattusa who (is)
near you, (if) you ask him for foot-soldiers (and) chariots", pdi-ma-kan ku KUR.KURME
daliyanun nu-smas ZAGHI.A-us tehhun "but the countries that I left in place, I set their borders", nu
kuis tn pdas DUMURU nu LUGAL-us aps kisaru "the one who is a second-rank son, that one
must become king", nu-mu arahzenas KUR.KUR LKR kus kururiyahhir nu ANA KUR LKR
nwi kuitman kudanikki pun "these neighboring countries that had started to attack me, before I
went into one of these countries".
b) Example of nested relative clauses : dU-as kudani UD-ti hatuga tethiskit ... TGNG.LMME
ku apdani UD-ti wassan harkun ANA IGIGIR-ya-kan kudani apdani UD-ti arhahat nu k
TGNG.LMME ... IGIGIR-ya triyan aptt-a dir "that day when the storm-god had terribly
thundered several times ... these clothes that I had worn that day, and the chariot I stood on that day,
they have taken (for themselves) these clothes ... and this harnessed chariot".
c) Other examples of relative clauses : RME-YA-wa-za kus ds nu-war-as-kan kattanta pehutet
nu-war-as-mu arha uppi "my subjects that you have taken and brought away, bring them back to
me !", NAM.RAHI.A kus ABYA arnut ammuqq-at arnunun nu-mu-kan mn apl kuiski A
NAM.RAME huwizzi "these prisoners whom my father drove away and whom I drove away, if
one of these prisoners runs away from me".

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