Hittite Online

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Grammar

6 Basic Word Order

Hittite sentences are normally verb-final, for example:

		DTelepenus-a		arha		iyannis
		but-Telepenus		away		stomped
		"But Telepenus stomped away."

		SA		DIŠTAR		parā		handandatar		memahhi
		of		Ishtar's		divine		predestination		I will tell
		"I will tell of Ishtar's divine predestination."

6.1 Form of the Subject

Since person is marked by the verb endings, explicit pronominal subjects are not obligatory except with certain intransitive verbs (see below). Explicit tonic, or stressed, pronominal subjects may be used for emphasis or to clarify pronominal reference, as in:

• ^LÚA.ZU-ya kussanapās-pat pāi
• "The physician's fee he-himself provides."

In this sentence the subject, someone who has injured another person, appears as the stressed pronoun apās and it is strengthened with the emphasizing particle -pat.

Sometimes the subject's proper name is used for emphasis:

• nu^MTelepenus ^URUHattusi tuliyan halzihhun
• "I,Telepenus, called the council in Hattusas."

Some intransitive verbs normally occur with enclitic subject pronouns if the sentence has no explicit subject. These include verbs of motion and certain verbs that indicate a change in the subject's state. The following are a few examples:

		n-as		mahhan		wappui		ari
		and-she		when		at the riverbank		arrives
		"And when she arrives at the river bank..."

		n-at-mu		GÌRMEŠ-as		kattan		hāliyēr
		they-to-me		the feet		down		bowed
		"They prostrated themselves at my feet."

		mān-as		lazziyatta-ma
		when-he		recovers-but
		"But when he recovers..."

6.2 Order of Elements

An explicit subject, whether it is a noun, a stressed pronoun, or an enclitic pronoun, normally heads the sentence, and direct and indirect objects that are not enclitic pronouns normally occur after it, as in the following:

		GU4-ma		AMAR-ŠU		mimmas
		the cow-but (subject)		calf-her (direct object)		rejected
		"The cow rejected her calf."

		LÚSAGI-as		1		NINDA		GUR4-RA		GAL		LUGAL-i		pāi
		the cupbearer (subject)		one		bread (direct object)		thick		large		to the king (indirect object)		gives.
		"The cupbearer gives one large thick bread to the king."

For emphasis, other constituents, such as indirect objects, adverbial phrases, and direct objects may be moved to the front of the sentence:

		ANA		MUhha-LÚ-ma		LÚTE4		MU		uwiyanun
		to		Uhhaziti-moreover (indirect object)		a messenger (direct object)		I		sent
		"Moreover, to Uhhaziti, I sent a messenger."

		ANA		É.GAL		3		GÍN		KÙBABBAR		daskēr
		for		the palace (indirect object)		three		shekels		of silver (direct object)		they used to take
		"They used to take three shekels of silver for the palace."

		takku		pahhur		ANA A.SÀ-ŠU		kuiski		pēdai
		if		fire (direct object)		into his field (adverbial)		someone (subject)		brings
		"If someone brings fire into his barn..."

		1		NINDA		SIG		wappuwas		DMAH		parsiya
		one		loaf (direct object)		thin		of the river bank		for the Mother Goddess (indirect object)		I crumble
		"I crumble one thin loaf for the Mother Goddess of the river bank."

7 Use of the Nominative, Accusative, and Ergative

As in other IE languages, the nominative is the case in which the subject of a sentence appears, while the accusative is the case regularly used to indicate the direct objects of most verbs. Both the nominative and accusative, however, also have a few other functions in Hittite. For the use of the nominative as vocative, the case of direct address, see section 8.

7.1 The Nominative

In animate nouns, the singular subject is normally marked by the ending -s, which is spelled with the sign ZA (= [ts]) after stems ending in dental stops. The regular ending of the animate plural is -ēs, although archaic texts attest a few animate nominative plurals in -as from Indo-European *-ōs. Neuter nominatives and accusatives have the same form in both singular and plural. The animate nominative may be the subject of both intransitive and transitive verbs:

		LÚkītas		halzāi
		reciter (nominative)		calls out
		"The reciter calls out..."

		GIŠluttaus		kammaras		IŠ-BAT
		the windows		mist (nominative)		seized
		"Mist seized the windows."

		nu-za		LUGAL		MUNUS.LUGAL		esanda
		and-themselves		king (nominative)		queen (nominative)		sit
		"The king and queen seat themselves."

Predicate nominatives appear in the nominative case:

		LUGAL-us-san		hantezziyas-pat		DUMU.LUGAL		DUMURU		kikkistaru
		king (predicate nominative)		of-the-first-rank-only		a prince		a son		let become
		"Let only a son, a prince of the first rank, become king."

The nominative is also the case form of the grammatical subject of passive sentences:

		INA		GUNNI-ma		kalmisanis		wisuriyantati
		in		the hearth		logs (nominative)		were stifled
		"In the hearth, the logs were stifled."

Verbs indicating sickness may be used intransitively with a nominative subject (cf. English She sickened or He took sick).

		nu MUhha-LÚ-is		kuit		GIG-at
		Uhhaziti (nominative)		because		had sickened
		"Because Uhhaziti had sickened..."

7.2 The Accusative

The accusative is the case in which the direct objects of most verbs appear:

		nu GIŠkalmisanan		siyāit
		a thunderbolt (accusative)		he hurled
		"He hurled a thunderbolt."

		nu antuhsan		wiyanun
		man (accusative)		I sent
		"I sent a man."

		nu LUGAL-us		GAD-an		arha		pissiazi
		the king		the towel (accusative)		away		throws
		"The king throws the towel away."

		DUTU-us		liliwandan		haranan		piyēt
		Sungod		swift (accusative)		eagle (accusative)		sent
		"The Sungod sent a swift eagle."

Some verbs take two accusatives, a direct object and an objective complement:

		n-us		arunas		erhus		yēt
		and-them (direct object)		of the sea		borders (objective complement)		he made
		"And he made them borders of the sea."

Hittite, like Greek and Latin, occasionally attests figura etymologica, or constructions in which the direct object, in the accusative, is a noun etymologically related to the verb or a noun with close semantic affinity to the verb:

		hullanzan		hullanun
		fight		I fought
		"I fought a fight."

		memiyann-a-si		lē		mematti
		word-and-to-him		don't		speak
		"And don't speak a word to him."

With verbs indicating sickness, the word for the illness may occur in the nominative as subject of the sentence, while the noun referring to the person afflicted is the direct object and in the accusative case:

		kappin DUMU-an		HUL-lu		GIG		GIG-at
		little boy (accusative)		evil		sickness		was sick with
		"The little boy experienced an evil sickness."

		tuk-ma		istarkkit
		you (accusative)-but		took sick
		"But you took sick."

7.3 Neo-Hittite Confusion of Animate Nominative and Accusative Endings

In late texts, the endings for the animate nominative and accusative plural are sporadically confused. A noun, personal pronoun, or adjective with nominative plural endings may be found in accusative function. For example, in this phrase from the treaty of Tudhaliya IV with Karunta (section 10), the animate nominative plural ending -is, (for -ēs) marks the direct object ZAG, a Sumerogram meaning "border," The relative pronoun which agrees with it is also nominative plural animate in form:

		ZAGHI.A-is-si		kuyēs		tehhun
		borders-for him		that		I have established
		"The borders that I have established for him..."

7.4 The Ergative

Neuter nouns can be direct objects of transitive verbs:

		takku		pahhur		ANA		A.SÀ-ŠU		kuiski		pēdai
		if		fire (neuter)		into		barn-his		someone		brings
		"If someone brings fire into his barn..."

They can also be subjects of intransitive verbs, as in the following:

		nu		uttar		isduwati
		plot(neuter)		became		known
		"The plot became known."

		pahhur		kistari
		fire (neuter)		goes out
		"The fire goes out."

Neuter nouns do not, however, function as subjects of transitive verbs. Instead, when a noun that is neuter is the subject of a transitive verb it takes special endings, called ergative endings, -anza in the singular and -antēs in the plural. The function of these endings is to transfer the original neuter to the animate gender, for example:

		mahhan-ta		kās tuppianza		anda wemiyazzi
		when-you		this tablet (ergative)		finds
		"As soon as this tablet reaches you..."

For the form of the ergative here, compare the neuter nominative-accusative singular tuppi 'tablet'. Note also that the demonstrative pronoun kās is animate nominative singular.

The ergative of pahhur 'fire' is made from the stem pahhuen- as in the genitive singular pahhuenas:

		IGI-zin		pahhuenanza		karapi
		first rank		fire (ergative)		consumes
		"Fire consumes (those of) the first rank."

Compare the ergative plural ishisnantes (from ishessn-, stem of ishessar 'binding, strap') in:

		SAG.DU-ann-a		ishisnantes		appanzi
		head-and		bindings		seize
		"And the bindings clasp the head."

8 U-Stem Adjectives and Nouns

U-stem nouns and adjectives are formed by adding a suffix containing -u-, which becomes [w] before vowels, to noun and adjective endings. The endings -s and -n are affixed to the suffix in the nominative and accusative singular animate. Nominative-accusative singular neuters end in the suffix -u. The nominative-accusative plural neuter may end in -u, which is probably to be read [-ū] with a lengthened vowel, although vowel length was indicated only sporadically. Plurals with a suffix and ending -uw-a are also found. The plural with lengthened stem vowel is an archaism, reflecting Indo-European *-u plus collective ending *-h₂, while the ending -a was adopted from other nouns and adjectives. Both endings occur in early texts, though the ending -a spread at the expense of -u.

8.1 Paradigms of u-stem adjectives

Forms other than the nominative and accusative singular have a suffix -au- (-aw- before vowels), at least in early texts. A prehistoric sound change in which sequences of *wu became mu changed the original animate accusative plural ending *-aw-us to -am-us. (For the vocative, see section 10).

The following paradigms illustrate forms of the u-stem adjectives āssu- 'good', and tēpu 'little'. Reconstructions are made on the basis of forms of similar adjectives that are attested.

		anim				neut
Singular
nom.		āss-u-s, tēp-u-s				āss-u, tēp-u
acc.		āss-u-n, tēp-u-n				āss-u, tēp-u
gen.				āss-aw-as, tēp-aw-as
dloc				āss-aw-i, tāss-aw-i
abl.				āss-aw-az, tēp-aw-az
inst.				āss-aw-it, tēp-aw-it
Plural
nom.		āss-aw-ēs, tēp-aw-ēs				āss-ū
acc.		as:s-am-us
gen.dat.				āss-aw-as, tēp-aw-as
abl.inst.				*ass-aw-az

8.2 Paradigms of u-stem nouns

In many u-stem nouns, the suffix was apparently originally -u- (prevocalic -w-) throughout the paradigm. Before endings beginning with vowels, it is often spelled -uw-. Some u-stem nouns attest both animate and neuter forms. A few u-stem nouns attest the archaic genitive plural in -an from Indo-European *-ōm, for example *hāss-uw-an as shown by the phonetic complement accompanying the the Sumerogram LUGAL-wa-an. This ending, however, was eventually replaced by -as. The following are paradigms for wappu- 'river bank', which is animate, and wēllu- 'meadow', which has animate and neuter forms:

		anim
Singular
nom.		wēll-u-s
acc.		wapp-u-n, wēll-u-n
gen.				wapp-uw-as, wēll-uw-as
dloc				wapp-u-i, wēll-u-i
abl.				wapp-uw-az, wēll-uw-az
inst.				wēll-u-it
all.				wēll-uw-a
Plural
nom.		*wapp-uw-ēs
acc.		wapp-am-us
gen.dat.				wapp-uw-as, wēllu-uw-as
ab.inst.

The word for "knee" is especially interesting, since other IE languages preserve a neuter u-stem with an invariant root (in Indo-European terms, *gen-u-). Hittite, however, shows an alternation between a stem gēn-u- and forms with a stem kan-u- or gan-u- (pronounced with initial [g]) that probably reflect an Indo-European version of the root *gn-. The word for "knee" in Hittite also shows some forms with animate inflection, although cognates in the other Indo-European languages are neuter. Because knees come in pairs, and because singular and plural forms appear identical in several case forms, it is often impossible to tell whether one is dealing with a singular or plural form in the absence of other grammatical information (e.g., modifiers that are singular or plural). The word for "knee" also seems to have made an archaic endingless locative.

Paradigm of gēnu- (neut. and anim) 'knee'

		neuter				animate
Singular
nom.		gēn-u
acc.		gēn-u				gen-u-un
gen.				gēn-uw-as
dloc				gēnu?
abl.				gēnu-uw-az
inst				gan-u-t, gēnu-t
all.				gēnu-wa
Plural
nom		gēn-ū, gēn-uw-a
acc.		gēn-ū? gēn-uw-a				gēn-u-us
gen.dat.				kan-uw-as, gēn-uw-an, gēn-u-wa-as
abl.inst.				gēnu-wa-az, gēnu-wa-za

8.3 Paradigms of au-stem nouns

A few nouns show a suffix -āu- in the nominative and accusative, and, at least originally, a suffix -u- (-w-) in the other cases. The suffix -āu- (-āw- before vowels), however, tended to spread throughout the paradigm. These nouns, which are the remnants of an archaic inflectional type, may be either animate or neuter. The following is a paradigm of singular forms of harnāu- (animate and neuter) 'birthstool', which, because a number of rituals designed to aid pregnancy and childbirth are preserved, is one of the best attested nouns of this type. Unambiguous forms of the plural do not, apparently, occur.

Paradigm of harnāu- 'birthstool'

Singular		anim				neut
nom.		harn-āu-s				harn-āu
acc.		harn-āu-n				harn-āu
gen.				harn-āw-as
dlocl				harn-u-i, harn-āw-i

The paradigms above represent a considerable simplification of the material found in the texts. We know, for example, that both nouns and adjectives were subject to analogical changes, for example the replacement of lengthening of the suffix vowel by the ending -a in the neuter plural, or the generalization of the suffix -āu- throughout the paradigms of nouns like harnāu-. Nominal and adjectival paradigms also influenced each other. In part, this was because some words could originally function either as nouns or adjectives, taking the appropriate inflection. For example, beside the adjective āssu- 'good' there is a corresponding neuter noun meaning "wares" (cf. English goods as a synonym for wares), and beside its antonym idālu- 'evil' there is a corresponding neuter noun idālu 'an evil'. One does find nominal forms in adjectival function and adjectival forms in nominal function; note, for example the accusative plural wapp-am-us 'river banks' with the adjectival suffix -am-.

9 Nominal sentences

Sentences in the present tense with a nominal or adjectival subjective complement may be made without a form of the verb "to be." The subjective complement is in the nominative case. In Hittite grammar, such sentences are traditionally called "nominal sentences," and in English they are translated with the appropriate form of the present of "be":

		Labarnas		LUGAL-us		inarawanza
		Labarna		the king		strong
		"Labarna, the king, is strong."

		ūk-wa		atti-mi		natta		āssus
		I-quotative		to father-to my		not		dear
		"I am not dear to my father."

		URUHattusi-ma-at		ŪL		āra
		in Hattusas-but-it		not		right
		"In Hattusas it is taboo."

		ŪL		harātar
		no		sin
		"It is no sin."

The verb may not be left out if it is in the past tense or in the imperative. For example, we find a nominal sentence followed by a sentence with the third person singular imperative of the verb ēs- 'be', ēsdu in in the following passage:

		mān-ma-as		ANA		DUTUŠI		kūrur		tugg-as
		if-and-he		to		my majesty		enemy		to you-he
		kūrur		ēsdu
		enemy		let be
		"If he is an enemy to my majesty, let him (also) be an enemy to you."

10 Adjectives

Like English, Hittite has both attributive adjectives, adjectives that modify nouns, and predicative adjectives, adjectives in the predicates of sentences with "be" or similar verbs that establish a relationship of equality between the subject and predicate. Compare, for example, the English sentence "A strong king rules wisely," which uses the adjective "strong" as an attributive adjective, with the sentences "Mursilis was strong," and "The king became strong," which use "strong" as a predicative adjective. In Hittite, of course, adjectives are declined for case and number. An attributive adjective agrees in number and case with the noun it modifies. A predicative adjective is, like the subject of the sentence, in the nominative case, and it agrees with the subject in number.

10.1 Attributive adjectives

Attributive adjectives normally precede the nouns they modify.

nominative animate singular:

		sallis		ārrunas
		great		sea
		"the great sea"

accusative animate singular:

		āssun		halukan
		good		message
		"a good message"

nominative-accusative neuter:

		idālu		paprātar
		evil		impurity
		"evil impurity"

dative-locative singular:

		ekuni		IM-anti
		cold		wind
		"in the cold wind"

ablative singular:

		dankuwaz		taknāz
		dark		earth
		"from the dark earth"

nominative plural animate:

		āssawēs		EMEMEŠ
		good		tongues
		"good tongues"

accusative plural animate:

		pargamus		HUR.SAG.MEŠ
		high		mountains
		"the high mountains"

nominative-accusative neuter:

		harga		GIŠhahhal
		bright		greenery
		"bright greenery"

dative-locative plural:

		pargauwas		auriyas
		high		watch towers
		"to the high watch towers"

10.2 Adjectives used as predicate nominatives.

In sentences with adjectives as predicate nominatives, the verb may be a form of "be," or it can be a verb such as kīs 'become' or āss- 'remain'. More commonly, the sentence may be a nominal sentence:

		sumēll-a		ARADMEŠ		DINGIRLIM		meggaēs		eser
		you-and		servants		gods		numerous		were
		"And your servants of the gods were numerous."

		DUTU-us		DIM-as		mān		uktūres
		the Sungod		The Stormgod		just as		eternal
		LUGAL-us		MUNUS.LUGAL-ass-a		QĀTAMMA		uktūres		asantu
		king		queen-and		likewise		eternal		let them be
		"Just as the Sungod and the Stormgod are eternal, so likewise let the king and queen be eternal."

		Labarnas		LUGAL-us		inarawanza
		Labarna		king		strong
		"Labarna, the king, is strong."

		mān		hargaēs		mān		dankuwaēs
		whether		white		whether		black
		ŪL kuitki		duqqāri
		no way		is important
		"Whether (the rams) are white or (whether they are) black it doesn't matter in any way."

		ANA		MHattusili-wa		MU.KAMHI.A		maninkuwantes
		to		Hattusilis-quotative		years		short
		"Hattusilis' years are short."

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