Hittite Online

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Grammar

11 Enclitics

In Hittite a number of forms corresponding to grammatical function words appear as enclitics. An enclitic is a word with no independent stress of its own that is attached to a preceding word with which it forms a single accentual unit. A comparable example from English would be the reduced form of "not," "n't," used in negative contractions (e.g., "didn't" or "shouldn't"). We will look at specific uses of enclitics in more detail in later sections; these are a few basics.

Special forms of the personal and possessive pronouns and certain conjunctions are enclitic. The particle -wa- (-war- before vowels), which signals that a sentence is quoted speech, the particle -za- (called a reflexive particle, which modifies both nouns and verbs), the so-called locational particles (-kkan, -ssan, -asta, and -apa, which also affect the meanings of verbs) and the so- called emphasizing particle -pat are also enclitics.

The enclitics (except for the emphasizing particle -pat, which modifies individual words), and the conjunctions when they connect elements within the sentence, are attached to the first fully stressed word of a sentence or clause; for example:

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

		pēdi-iss-ma		LÚ.U19.LU-an		pāi
		In-place-his-but		a person		he gives
		"But in his place, he gives a man."

		ug-a-war-us		HUL		ŪL		iyami
		I-but-quotative particle-them		harm		not		will do
		"But I will not do them harm."

The Akkadian prepositions ANA 'on', INA 'in', 'into', and ŠA 'of', since they were merely markers of grammatical relations and not parts of the Hittite sentence, do not count as the sentence's first word:

		INA		GUNNI-ma		kalmīsanis		wisūriyantati
		In		the hearth-and		the logs		were stifled
		"And in the hearth, the logs were stifled."

When a Sumerogram or Akkadogram stands for a Hittite word, however, the Hittite word is part of the sentence, and enclitics may be attached to it:

		UDU-us-za		SILA4-ZU		mimmas
		The ewe-reflexive particle		her lamb		rejected
		"The ewe rejected her lamb."

11.1 Sentence particles and enclitics

Often, the enclitics are attached to a sentence particle. This may be nu, which is found in texts from all periods, or su or ta, which only occur in early texts and copies of early texts. The sentence particles may themselves indicate relationships between clauses, and are sometimes to be translated as "and," "but," or "then," although nu in particular sometimes functions as a semantically empty word that serves as a prop for enclitics.

		nu-wa-za		azzikkandu
		nu-quotative particle-reflexive particle		let (them) eat
		"Let them eat (for themselves)."

		nu-ssi		hatrānuun
		nu-to him		I wrote
		"I wrote to him."

		nu-wa-mu-za		tepnusket
		nu-quotative particle-me-reflexive particle		he has belittled
		"He has belittled me."

When the enclitic begins in a vowel, the sentence particle loses its final vowel:

		n-at		DUMU		NAM.LÚ.U19.LU-as istmasdu
		nu-it		mankind		let them hear
		"And let mankind hear it."

		n-at-san		wappui		dāi
		nu-it-locatival particle "over"		on the river bank		she places
		"And she places it on the river bank."

		s-an		dālahhun
		su-it		I abandoned
		I abandoned it (the city).

		t-an		istarnikzi
		ta-him		makes sick
		"...makes him sick."

12 Personal Pronouns

Hittite has two types of personal pronoun. One is a series of pronouns that function as independent words with their own accents (tonic pronouns), while the other series consists of pronouns that have no independent accent of their own but are instead, enclitic. The pronouns of the first and second persons are descended from Indo-European pronominal precursors, but in the third person the demonstrative pronoun apā-, "that (one)" generally serves also as a personal pronoun. A few forms from a stem siyē-, which is probably to be derived from a demonstrative stem, are also found in pronominal function in early texts. The following is a paradigm of the earliest forms of the first and second person tonic pronouns:

Tonic pronouns, first and second persons

		1 sg.		1 pl.		2 sg.		2 pl.
		"I, me"		"we, us"		"you"		"you"
nom.		u:k		we:s		zik		sume:s
acc.		ammuk		anza:s		tuk		suma:s
gen.		amme:l		anze:l		tue:l		sume:l
dloc		ammuk		anza:s		tuk		sume:s
abl		amme:daz		anze:daz		tue:daz		sume:daz

This system shows a number of analogical changes over the five hundred years during which the Hittite texts were attested. The original first person singular nominative ūk was eventually replaced by ammuk, the original accusative and dative-locative. The first person plural nominative wēs is archaic and was replaced by anzās, the original accusative. The original second person plural nominative sumēs was partially replaced by sumās from the accusative and dative-locative. In Neo-Hittite texts, the opposite development, replacement of the original accusative sumās by the nominative sumēs, is also sporadically attested. For the second person plural genitive, an archaic form, sumenzan, is found in early texts. Its replacement, sumēl, was modeled after the genitive in -:el of other personal and demonstrative pronouns.

The following forms from the stem siye- are found. Although the complete paradigm is not attested, forms that occur include an endingless locative distinct from the dative-locative.

Forms of third person siyē-

gen.		siy:el
dloc.		syēdani
loc		syēt
abl		siyēz

The tonic pronouns and apā- are occasionally strenghened with the suffix -ila or -il, giving them a meaning something like that of the emphatic use of English reflexive pronouns in sentences like She, herself, doesn't agree; for example:

		nasma-at		zik-ma		zikila		istamasti
		Moreover-it		you-but		you, yourself		hear
		"Moreover, if you--you yourself--hear it (something against the Hittite king)..."

Although the tonic pronouns are used for emphasis, for clarification of pronominal reference, and the second person is used for direct address, enclitic pronouns are more frequent, and two enclitic pronouns may occur within a single sentence. There are two sets of enclitic pronouns. One set functions as datives or accusatives in the first and second persons and as datives only in the third person. This set is clearly related to the corresponding tonic pronouns:

Dative and accusative pronouns

		Singular		Plural
1.		-mu		-nnas
2.		-tta, -ttu		-smas
3.		-ssi		-smas

Consonants are only be doubled after vowels in the cuneiform syllabary. Further, because of the limitations of the cuneiform syllabary, second and third person pronouns have to be spelled with a "dead" vowel, normally as -su-ma-as The second person singular pronoun shows up as -ttu (-ddu) before the reflexive particle -za and as -tta, -dda in other environments.

The second set of pronouns is third person only. These pronouns, which have an alternating stem in early texts, function as nominatives and accusatives and are marked for gender:

Third person pronouns

		Singular		Plural
Nominative Animate		-as		-at
Accusative Animate		-an		-us
Nominative-Accusative Plural		-at		-e

The plural forms of this set of pronouns underwent analogical change. After the earliest period, the third person plural nominative animate -e and nominative- accusative neuter were replaced by -at, the original form of the nominative- accusative neuter singular and the accusative animate plural was sporadically replaced by -as.

13 The Middle Voice

Verbs taking middle inflection may be stative, passive, medio-passive, or transitive. For more on the use of the middle see Grammar Point 11. The middle shows two sets of synchronically unrelated endings in the third person singular present and imperative, and attested paradigms may represent a blend of conjugations that were originally distinct in Indo-European, though a number of Hittite verbs may take both sets of endings. Traditionally, the third person singular present endings -a and -ari and the third person singular imperative ending -aru, have been termed "hi-conjugation," while the fuller set has been termed "mi-conjugation." There is, however, no hard and fast correlation between these endings and active mi- and hi-conjugation forms. One view regards the "hi-conjugation" endings (called here "middle two") as reflecting an Indo-European stative conjugation; that is a special set of endings for verbs that express states of affairs.

In Hittite, however, these endings occur with verbs that are not stative as well as with statives. By contrast, the "mi-conjugation" middle (or middle one), is characterized by variation in the form of the endings. The r-less endings of the present singular resemble the endings of the hi-conjugation, prompting some scholars to argue for various theories connecting the two in early Indo-European. The endings with -r- of the middle present have parallels in Italic, Celtic, and Tocharian. The middle preterit is characterized by endings with a dental stop, which was apparently voiced, since it was written as a single stop between vowels (e.g., first person singular preterit -VH-HA-TI = [-hhadi]). In the third person of the preterit, the final -i is original. It spread, however, to the first and second persons, while new third person singular and plural forms lacking the -i were, conversely, created on the model of the earlier first and second person endings. The reduplicated first person singular endings, present -hhahari, preterit -hhahhati, and imperative -hhaharu are found in Neo-Hittite texts.

13.1 Middle Endings

Present		Middle 1				Middle 2
1 sg.		-hha, -hhari, -hhahari
2 sg.		-tta, -ttati
3 sg.		-ttati, -tta				-a, -ari
1 pl.		-wasta, -wastari
2 pl.		-ttuma, -ttumari
3 pl.		-anta, -antari
Preterit
1 sg.		-hhat, -hhati, -hhahhati
2 sg.		-tta, -ttati
3 sg.		-tta, -ttati
1 pl.		-wastat
2 pl.		-ttumat, -ttumadi
3 pl.		-antati, -antat
Imperative
1 sg.		-hharu, -hhaharu
2 sg.		-hhut, -hhuti
3 sg.		-ttaru				-aru
2 pl.		-ttumat, -ttumati
3 pl.		-antaru

13.2 Middle Paradigms

The following are paradigms of several verbs that are well attested in the middle. The verbs kīs- 'become', and ar- 'stay', take only middle endings. Kīs- and ar- take the middle two endings -a, -ari and -aru, as well as the middle one endings.

Present
1 sg.		kīs-ha, kīs-hahri		ar-hari, ar-hahari
2 sg.		kīs-ta, kīs-tati		ar-tati, ar-tari
3 sg.		kīs-a, kīs-ari		art-a, ar-tari
1 pl.				ar-wasta
2 pl.
3 pl.		kīs-anta, kīs-antari		ar-anta, ar-andari
Preterit
1 sg.		kīs-hati, kīs-hat, kīs-hahari		ar-hati, ar-hahat
2 sg.		kīs-at, kīs-tat		ar-tat
3 sg.		kīs-ati, kīs-at		ar-tat
1 pl.				ar-wastat
2 pl.		kīs-dumat		ar-dumat
3 pl.		kīs-antati, kīs-antat		ar-antat, ar-andari
Imperative
2 sg.		kīs-hut		ar-hut
3 sg.		kīs-aru		ar-taru
2 pl.		kīs-dumat		ar-dumat
3 pl.		kīs-andaru		aran-taru

Iya- also takes only middle endings and does not take the stative endings, while pahhs-, which also forms an active, takes both stative endings and regular endings. It also may be used transitively in the middle.

Present
1 sg.		pahhas-ha		iya-hhari
2 sg.		pahs-a, pahhas-ta		iya-ttati
3 sg.		pahs-ari		iya-tta, iya-ttari
1 pl.		pahs-uwasta
2 pl.		pahhas-duma		iya-dduma
3 pl.		pahs-anta, pahhs-antari		iya-nta, iya-ntari
Preterit
1 sg.		pahhas-hat, pahhas-hahat		iya-hhat
2 sg.				iya-tti
3 sg.		pahhas-tat		iya-tat
1 pl.
2 pl.
3 pl.				iya-antat
Imperative
2 sg.				iya-hhut
3 sg.		pahs-aru		iya-ttaru
2 pl.		pahhas-dumat		iya-ddumat
3 pl.		pahhas-andaru		iya-ndaru

14 Uses of the Middle

Some verbs, deponents, are inflected only in the middle. Deponents are normally intransitive, (e.g., ki- 'lie', kīs- 'become, happen, turn out', iya- 'go', ēs- 'sit', or ar- 'stay'). Some deponents may act as suppletive medio-passive correspondents of normally active verbs (e.g., ki- 'lie' beside dāi- 'put, place'; kuēn- 'kill' beside ak^k- 'die'; or kīs- 'become, turn out, happen' beside the active mi-verb iya- 'do, make'); for example:

		ANA		TUPPI RIKALTI		ŠA ABI-YA-kan		kuyēs		URUDIDLI.HI.A		ŪL		kiyantari
		On		treaty tablet-his		of-my-father		that		cities		not		set down
		"The cities that are not set down on my father's treaty tablet..."

Compare the active dāi- 'put', meaning "set down" or "establish" (on a treaty tablet):

		ZAGMEŠ-is-si		mahhan		dais
		Boarders-for-him		how		he set down

The Hittite middle may be stative, for example:

		n-as		arha		kitta
		And-it		apart		lies
		"It lies apart."

		MU		2.KAM		hameshanza		SIG5-atta
		(For)		two years		spring		is good
		"For two years, the spring will be good."

The middle may have a sense akin to that of the Greek middle, indicating that the action in some way affects the subject: for example:

		DUTU-as		karpiyatta
		Sungod		is angry
		"The Sungod is angry."

The middle may also indicate that the subject undergoes a change of state; for example:

		LÚ-as		witti		meyanni		armiyatta		n-as		SIG5-atta
		The man		every		year		will become sick		and-he		will recover
		"The man will become sick every year and will recover."

		nu		DUMU		miyari
		And		a son		is born
		"And a son is born."

		mahahan-ma-za		ABU-YA		kuwa-pi		DINGIRLIM		kisat
		"But when my father became a god (i.e. 'died and was deified')..."

		nu		uttar		isduwāti
		and		plot		became known
		"The plot became known."

		nu		sallas-pat		hassanas		ēshar		pangariyattati
		But		among great-even		family		bloodshed		has become common
		"But now, bloodshed has become common even among the royal family."

		kuita		imma		mieshati
		Even		when		I grew up
		"Even when I grew up..."

The middle is also used to make sentences akin to the English passive in which the patient (the noun that would be the direct object of a corresponding active sentence) appears in the nominative, for example:

		INA		GUNNI-ma		kalmīsanis		wisūriyantati
		In		the-hearth-but		logs		were stifled
		"In the hearth, the logs were stifled."

		nu		EZEN4		DSIN		EZEN4		tēthuwas-a
		And		the festival		of the moon		(and) the festival		of thunder
		anda imiyattati		n-at		taksan		kisantari
		are mingled		and-they		together		take place
		"The festival of the moon and the festival of thunder are mingled, and they take place jointly."

Compare with the active:

		nu		kī		hūman		ANA		ZÍD.DA ŠE		isni		menahhanda		immiyami
		and		this		all		with		barley meal		into dough		against		I mix
		"All this I mix with barley meal into dough."

When the passive has an agent (the noun that would be the subject in a corresponding active sentence), the agent takes the dative case:

		DUTU-i-kan		kuis		āssiyattari
		By-the-Sungod		who		is loved
		"...who is loved by the Sungod."

The middles of some verbs may be transitive, for example:

		nu-mu		pahhasta
		And-me		he protected
		"He protected me."

		1		NINDA		SIG		wappuwaas		DMAH		parsiya
		One		thin-bread		of the river bank		for the goddess		I crumble
		"She crumbles one thin loaf for the mother-goddess of the river bank."

15 The Genitive

The genitive is the case of possession. Nouns in the genitive normally occur before the heads of the noun phrases they modify, but they may occur after the head, especially if the head is a Sumerogram or Akkaodogram:

		namma		wappuwas		IM-an		dāi
		moreover		of the river bank (gen.)		clay		she takes
		"Moreover, she takes clay of the riverbank."

		n-at		sakuniyas		purut		dāi
		And-it		of-the-spring (gen.)		mud		she takes
		"She takes it, the mud of the spring..."

		dankuwayas-at		taknas		KASKAL-an		paiddu
		dark (gen.)-it		of earth (gen.)		the road		let travel
		"Let it travel the road of the dark earth."

		n-us		arunas		erhus		yēt
		And-them		of-the-sea (gen.)		borders		he made
		"And he made them borders of the sea."

Genitives are especially apt to occur after the head of the noun phrase when the head is written ideographically, but this placement is not obligatory:

		takku		ANŠE.KU.RA		tūriyauwas		...		hālias		harapta
		if		donkey		of harnessing (gen.)		...		to folds		strays
		"If a donkey of harnassing (i.e. 'a trained donkey') ... strays to the folds..."

		EZEN		hameshandas-ma		ŪL		DÙ-anza
		festival		of spring (gen.)-but		not		(was) celebrated
		"But the festival of spring had not been celebrated."

		takkuw-as		attas-sas-a		É-ri		aki
		If-she		her-father's (gen.)-but		in house		dies
		"But if she dies in her father's house..."

		takku		LÚEL-LAM		MUŠ-an		kuenzi		tamell-a		ŠUM-an		tezzi
		if		free man		snake		kills		and-another's (gen.)		name		says
		"If a free man kills a snake and pronounces another's name..."

In archaic texts, an enclitic possessive pronoun may redundantly accompany a noun or pronoun in the genitive:

		attas-ttas-wa		SAG.DU-set		waggariya
		father's (gen.)-of your (gen.)-quotative		head-his		revolt
		"Revolt against your father, his head! (i.e. Revolt against your father's person!)"

15.1 Use of Akkadian to indicate possession

The Akkadian preposition ŠA is often used to indicate that a following noun is the genitive, especially with Sumerograms or Akkadograms. Proper names and place names in Hittite are normally uninflected following ŠA. Presumably the Hittite words that the Sumerograms and Akkadograms stood for were inflected as genitives when pronounced.

		ŠA		MUuhha-LÚ-ya		URUApāsan		URU-an		GUL-ahta
		of		Uhhaziti-and		Apasa		city		it struck
		And it struck Uhhaziti's city, Apasa."

		ŠA		DIŠTAR		parā handandatar		memahhi
		of		Ishtar		divine power		I will tell
		"I will tell of Ishtar's divine power."

Akkadian enclitic possessive pronouns are often attached to Sumerograms or Akkadograms to indicate possessiion. In the sentence below, the Akkadian first person enclitic possessive -YA is attached to the Akkadogram meaning "father."

		À.BU-YA-nnas-za		MMursiliis		4		DUMUMEŠ		...		hasta
		father-my-us-reflexive		Mursilis		four		children		...		fathered
		"My father, Mursilis, fathered us four children..."

The Akkadian possessive pronoun may be used redundantly alongside a noun in the genitive or a tonic (accented) personal pronoun in the genitive:

		nu		GIŠkalmisanan		ammel		KARAŠHI.A-YA		usket
		and		thunderbolt		my (gen.)		army-my		saw
		"And my army saw the thunderbolt."

		nu		LUGAL-was		ŠUM-ŠU		āssu		memisketten
		and		king's (gen.)		name-his		well		speak
		"And speak well of the king's name!"

15.2 Partitive apposition

Possession may also be indicated by so-called partitive apposition. In such constructions, composed of two nouns in the same case, the first noun is the equivalent in meaning to a genitive. For example, this phrase from the Law Code has two nouns in the accusative, A.ŠÀ-an 'field' and ZAG-an 'boundary', which are literally to be translated as "a field (its) boundary." A later copy of the Law Code replaces the first accusative by the genitive A.ŠÀ-as:

		takku		A.ŠÀ-an		ZAG-an		kuiski		parsiya
		if		field		border		someone		breaks
		"If someone breaks the border of a field..."

In the following sentence the two nouns in partitive apposition, aruni 'sea' and ZAG-si 'shore', are in the dative-locative:

		URULulluwayas-san		KUR-e		aruni		ZAG-si		ēszi
		Lulluwayas-locatival		country		at the sea		at its shore		is
		"The country Luluwaya is at the shore of the sea."

15.3 Predicative genitives

The genitives of the stressed personal pronouns are used as predicates to express possession. They may be used with forms of the verb "to be" or in nominal sentences:

		nu-war-at		ammel		asanzi
		and-quotative-they		of me		are
		"They are mine."

		KÚR		URUAlasiya-wa		ammel
		land		Alasiya-quotative		of me
		"The land of Alasiya is mine!"

		asi-man-wa		URU-as		ammel		kisari
		that-irrealis-quotative		city		mine		becomes
		"I wish that city were mine."

Genitives can also be used as quasi-adjectives in the predicates of sentences; for example, huiswannas, genitive of the verbal abstract huiswātar 'life' (spelled with the Sumerogram TI) is used in the following from the Apology of Hattusilis III:

		ŪL-war-as		TI-annas
		neg.-quotative-he		of life
		"He is not of life (i.e. He will not live)."

15.4 Genitive of material

The genitive may be used to indicate the material out of which something is made or composed:

		nu		isnas		pūrpuran		iyanzi
		and		of dough (gen.)		a lump		they make
		"They make a lump of dough."

		nu		UR.TUR.RA		appuzziyas		ienzi
		and		dog-small		of tallow (gen.)		they make
		"They make a small dog of tallow."

15.5 Partitive genitive

Like Greek and Latin, Hittite has a partitive genitive. That is, the genitive expresses the idea that something is a part of a larger whole:

		humandas-pat		EGIR-izzis		DUMU-as		esun
		of all-very		last		of the children		I was
		"I was the very last (i.e. the youngest) of all the children."

		NIM.LÀL		teriyas		UD-as		miuwas		UD-as
		bees		of three (gen.)		of days (gen.)		of four (gen.)		of days (gen.)
		KASKAL-an		pāndu
		journey		let them go
		"Let the bees go on a journey of three days, of four days!"

15.6 Nominal genitives

Genitive forms may be used nominally. For example, the genitive of tayazzil 'theft', tayazzilas, can be used in the sense "person of theft" (^LÚtayazzilas), in other words, "thief." Such nouns formed from genitives may come to be fully inflected. We find, for example, ^LÚkurura- 'enemy' from ^LÚkururas 'man of war', genitive of kūur 'war', ^LÚtaksula- 'friend, ally' from ^LÚtaksulas, genitive of taksul 'alliance, peace', and ^LÚwastula- 'sinner' from wastulas genitive of wastul 'sin, fault'.

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