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Grammar

41 Iteratives

Virtually every Hittite verb may make a formation called the iterative through the addition of a suffix to the verb stem. By far the most common suffix for forming iteratives was the suffix -ske-, -ska-, but a handful of verbs makes iteratives using the suffixes -anna- or -ssa-. These suffixes seem to be synonymous with the more frequent -ske-, -ska-. The general function of the iterative suffixes is to mark the action of the verb as extending over a noticeable period of time or as repeated. This general sense, however, is modified by the basic meaning of the verb and by context, in particular by accompanying adverbs. Iteratives may often be translated into English by "keeps on (doing something)" or, in the past tense, "kept on (doing something)," or "would (do something)" as in a sentence that describes a habitual action in the past like "He would eat pancakes for breakfast every Sunday."

41.1 Habitual activity

One use of the iterative is, indeed, to indicate that a particular activity is habitual. For example, in this passage from an Old Hittite text, the implication of the iterative hatreskezzi, iterative of hatrāi- 'write', is that one of the king's customary activities is to send written instructions to his noblemen, the ^LÚ.MEŠDUGUD. The iterative may be contrasted with the perfect hazzian harzi, which concerns a particular tablet that the king has had inscribed:

		mān-smas		ABI		parnas-ma		tarna
		when-you		father		to houses-but		lets go
		nu-smas		mānhhanda		hatreskezzi
		and-to		you		just as		he writes (iter.)
		natta-smas		LÚ.ME^SDUGUD-as		tuppi		hazzian harzi
		not-for you		dignitaries		tablet		written has
		"When (my) father lets you go to (your) houses, just as he customarily writes to you, has he not inscribed a tablet for you dignitaries?"

In the "Law Code" and other texts, the adverb karū 'previously' is used with the iterative in the past tense to strengthen the idea that a particular penalty used to be the customary one:

		takku		LÚ.U19.LU-as		SÀG.DU-ZU		kuiski		hūnikzi
		if		of a person		head-his		someone		injures
		karū		6		GÍN		KÙ.BABBAR		pisker
		previously		six		shekels		silver		they used to give (iter.)
		"Previously... they used to give six shekels of silver."

The following, from a spell recited by the ritual practitioner, Tunnawi, presents the action of a spring bubbling up mud as customary, or eternal:

		zik-kan		mahhan		sakunis		GE6-az		KI-az		purut		EGIR
		you-locatival		as		spring		from dark		from earth		mud		back
		sarā sakuneskesi
		keep bubbling up (iter.)
		"Just as you, O spring, keep bubbling up mud from the dark earth..."

41.2 Extensive action

The iterative may be used for an action that is marked as extending over a continuous period of time. The action may be continuous, or it may be on-going but interrupted. Adverbs may be used to delimit the period of time during which the action is occurring, or to specify a particular time during which an action continues. An endpoint for the action may be specified or implied:

		kī-ma-kan		tuppi		DUB.SAR		ANA		DINGIRLIM
		this-but-locatival		tablet		scribe		before		deity
		anda		UD-at UD-at		memiskezzi
		to		daily		will read (iter.)
		"This tablet the scribe shall read daily before the deity."

		nu-us-kan		ishanas		DUTU		DIM-ni		paranta
		and-them-locatival		of blood		Sungod		Stormgod		across
		idalu		memisket		n-us		alwanzahhisket
		unfavorably		kept speaking (iter.)		and-them		kept bewitching (iter.)
		"He kept mentioning them unfavorably to the Sungod of Blood and the Stormgod, and he kept bewitching them."

The action of raising a child may be viewed as an ongoing one:

		n-an		annisan-pat		ABU-YA		sallanusket
		and-him		already-indeed		father-my		raised (iter.)
		"And indeed, my father had already raised him."

Similarly, calling out "like a wolf" in a ritual is viewed as an on-going action, and the iterative of halzai- 'call out', which takes the suffix -ssa-, is used:

		nu		UR.BAR.RA-ili		halzissai
		and		in wolf fashion		calls out (iter.)
		"He keeps calling out like a wolf."

In this passage from the "Law Code," the period of time during which a substitute keeps working in the house of someone who has been injured is limited by the phrase kuitmān-as lāzziatta 'until he (the victim) recovers'.

		nu		Éri-ssi		anniskezzi		kuitmān-as		lāzziatta
		and		in house-his		he keeps working (iter.)		until-he		recovers
		"He (a substitute worker provide by the offender) keeps working in his (the victim's) house until he recovers."

41.3 Repeated action

The iterative may mark action performed on a series of objects. In other words, the action is viewed as repeated. The repeated actions may follow closely upon each other in time and space, or they may be separated temporally, spatially, or both.

In this passage, giving birth to a litter of piglets is viewed as a series of actions. Naturally, each birth follows relatively closely after the previous one:

		nu-za		1		SAH		mahhan		SAH.TURHI.A		mekkus		haskezzi
		and-reflexive		one		sow		just as		piglets		many		gives birth (iter.)
		"Just as one sow gives birth to many piglets..."

		MUNUS.ŠU.GI		DUGhupuwa-ya		hassi		anda		lahuskezzi
		old woman		vessels-and		hearth		into		keeps pouring (iter.)
		"And the old woman keeps emptying the vessels onto the hearth."

In the following, from a report to the king from a provincial outpost, the enemy's harvesting Hittite grain is viewed as a continuous action, though one that is necessarily distributed over time and space:

		LÚKÚR-wa		pangarit		ispandaz		kuwapi		VI ME		LÚKÚR
		enemy-quotative		in force		by night		in place		600		enemy
		kuwapi-ma		IV ME		LÚKÚR		yattari		nu-wa-kan
		in place-but		400		enemy		is marching		and-quotative-locatival
		halkius		arha waraskezzi
		grain		lit. up-harvests (iter.)
		"The enemy is marching in force in the night -- in one place 600 enemy, in another 400 enemy, and they keep on harvesting the grain."

It has been claimed too that iteratives are used to mark actions performed by multiple subjects. The following sentence can be interpreted in this fashion:

		1 LIM		MULHI.A		hukkuskanzi
		1,000		stars		recite a spell (iter)
		"The thousand stars are reciting a spell."

In this sentence, akkisk- the iterative of āk-, akk- 'die' is used impersonally of an action that was necessarily performed by many subjects during a plague:

		nu-wa		PAN		ABI-YA		PAN		SEŠ-YA		akkisketat
		and-quotative		under		father-my		under		brother-my		was repeated dying(iter.)
		"Under my father (and) under my brother (i.e. during their reigns), there was repeated dying."

41.4 Inhibitive sense

When used in commands with the emphatic particle lē the iterative may have an inhibitive sense; in other words, the sense is "stop doing something that one has been continuously doing." In these two passages from letters written by scribes to other scribes, this use of the iterative lahlahhiske- 'keep on worrying' may be contrasted with the non-iterative form of the verb lahlahhiya- 'worry, be agitated'. In the first passage, the writer is telling his correspondent not to worry about the state of affairs in his household in Hattusas, an on-going situation. ŠEŠ.DÚG.GA-YA 'my dear brother' is a courtesy title, used by officials of equal rank:

		kā-ya		INA		É-KA		hūman		SIG5-in
		here-and		in		household		all		well
		n-asta		ŠEŠ.DÚG.GA-YA		lē		kuwatqa		lahlahhiskesi
		and-locatival		dear brother-my		not		in anyway		you keep worying (iter.)
		"And here in your household everything is well. My dear brother, stop worrying in any way."

In this passage from the same letter, by contrast, the scribe is advised not to worry about another official who has been attacked by the enemy but is apparently unharmed. The use of the non-iterative form suggests that worrying is viewed here as an action that is not to be considered on-going:

		MTahazzilinn-a		kuit		walhan harker
		Tahhazili-and		because		he has been attacked
		n-ssi		kāsa		LÚTEMI		awan arha wet
		and-to-him		look		messenger		came away
		SIG5-anza-war-ssi-kan		lē		kuwatqa		lahlahiyasi
		well-quotative-to him-locatival		not		in any way		you worry
		"And Tahazzili -- because they have attacked him -- look, (his) messenger came away (with the news) 'It is well with him.' Don't worry in any way."

41.5 The supine

Hittite has a construction with the so-called supine form in -wan plus a form of dāi- 'put' (or, less frequently, tiya- 'step', harpp- 'take to', or karpp- 'lift, undertake'). It is used to focus attention on an action's initiation and can usually be translated with "begin to..." Although the supine need not be made from the iterative stem, the iterative stem is used far more frequently in such constructions than the non-iterative stem:

		nu-mu		ÉRINMEŠ		peskewan dāer
		and-to me		troops		to give they began
		"And they (a conquered city) started to give me troops."

		mahhan-ma		LÚMEŠ		URUAzzi		auer		URUDIDLI.HI.A		BÀD-kan
		when-but		people		of Azzi		saw		cities		fortified
		kuit		zahhiyaz		katta daskeuwan tehhun
		that		in battle		I had begun to take
		"But when the people of Azzi saw that I had started taking fortified cities in battle..."

In the following, the expression meaning "become a god" is used of a king's dying:

		LÚ.ŠU.GI		kisat		n-as		DINGIRLIM-is		kikkiskewan dais
		old man		became		and-he		god		began to become
		"He became an old man and began to become a god (i.e. 'started dying')."

The use of the supine construction in this sentence implies that the dream began to recur:

		nu-mu		asi		memiyas		teshaniskewan tiyat
		and-to-me		the aforementioned		mattter		began to appear in a dream
		"And the aforementioned matter began to appear to me in a dream."

41b Questions

The scribes who wrote the Hittite documents did not use punctuation or any other special means to indicate questions. Questions that demand and answer "yes" or "no" are of the same syntactic form as statements. Presumably they were distinguished from statements in speech by intonation. The lack of punctuation means that the modern reader often has to infer that a sentence is a question from the context. Doing so is especially difficult, not only because of the lack of punctuation, which makes it difficult to determine whether a sentence is intended as a yes/no question, but also because the interrogative and relative pronouns and adverbs were identical.

41b.1 Yes/No and Rhetorical Questions

On the one hand, determining whether a sentence is intended as a yes/no question is complicated by the fact that the Hittites were especially fond of rhetorical questions. On the other hand, the fact that a sentence seems to express a sentiment that might seem redundant, out of place, or peculiar in context may be a clue that it is to be interpreted as a rhetorical question.

This sentence, for example, if interpreted as a statement, would indicate that the speaker is condoning murder:

		ēshar		INA		KUR		URUKÙ.BABBAR-ti		āra
		bloodshed		in		country		Hatti		right
		"Is bloodshed in Hatti right?"

This question comes from a letter from a Hittite king to an Assyrian king. Since there are no historical grounds for assuming that the two kings were brothers, the intent is presumably sarcastic:

		zik-za-kan		ammuk-a		1-edani		AMA-ni		hassantes
		you-reflexive-locatival		I-and		to one		to mother		born
		"Were you and I born of one mother?"

This rhetorical question from "The Apology of Hattusilis III" comes at a point in the document when Hattusilis has been complaining about how he has been treated by Urhi-Teshup, the king he installed after the death of Muwatallis, and just before he describes the battle in which he deposes Urhi-Teshup. The tone can be interpreted as self-justifying:

		n-an-kan		ANA		GIŠGIGIR		waggariyanun
		and-him-locatival		in		chariot		I rebelled
		nasma-an-kan		ŠA		É-TI		waggariyanun
		or-him-locatival		of		house		I rebelled
		"Did I rebel against him in the chariot (i.e. 'as a military commander'), or did I rebel against him in the house (i.e. in a palace conspiracy)?"

The rhetorical question may provide its own grounds in the form of a conditional, temporal, or contrary-to-fact clause. The following is a quotation from a letter from the widow of the Egyptian pharoah Tuthankamen, who has been corresponding with Suppiluliuma I asking him to send one of his sons to be her new husband:

		DUMU.LUGAL-man-wa		kuwapi		ēsta
		prince-irrealis-quotative		anywhere		was
		anzas-man-wa		damedani		KUR-e		uwawen
		we-irrealis-quotative		to another		to country		we came
		mān-wa-nas		anzel		BELI		wesiskewen
		if-quotative-to us		of us		lord		we kept requesting
		"If we had a prince (suitable for marriage) anywhere, would we have come to a foreign land and kept requesting a lord for ourselves?"

Questions that are negated are often rhetorical questions that demand "yes" as an answer. In such questions, the negation is often, though not inevitably, the first word in its clause. The following is from a text sent by a Hittite prince to noblemen reminding them of their duty to protect the people:

		mān-smas		ABI		parnas-ma		tarna
		when-you		father		to houses-but		lets go
		nu-smas		mānhhanda		hatreskezzi
		and-to you		just as		he writes (iter.)
		natta-smas		LÚ.ME^SDUGUD-as		tuppi		hazzian harzi
		not-for you		dignitaries		tablet		written has
		"When (my) father lets you go to (your) houses, just as he customarily writes to you, has he not inscribed a tablet for you dignitaries?"

In the following question, however, the negation comes within the clause:

		man		zik		ŪL		arsaniese
		irrealis		you		not		be upset
		"Wouldn't you be upset?"

In questions, negatives reinforced by kuiski 'someone, anyone' or the adverb imma 'indeed, surely' are not normally clause initial:

		nu-wa-ta		ŪL		imma		pehhi		pehhi-ta
		and-quotative-to you		not		indeed		I give		I give-to you
		"Won't I indeed give (it) to you? I (surely) will give (it) to you!"

In order to determine the causes of troubles or to make decisions about future actions, the Hittites routinely employed various kinds of oracles, many of which contain an exacting series of yes/no questions. Therefore, oracle texts, of which many are preserved, are good places to find such questions. The following is from an oracle about the possible causes of a god's anger:

		DINGIR-LUM-za		kidas		waskuwas		ser		TUKU.TUKU-wanza
		deity-reflexive		these		sins		over		angered
		"Is the god angry on account of these sins?"

42 Questions with Interrogative Pronouns, Adjectives, and Adverbs

As in English, questions that demand information rather than a yes/no answer are made with interrogative pronouns, adjectives, and adverbs. The interrogatives from the stem kui- have the same forms as the relative pronouns. Similarly, the rarer stem masi- is shared by relatives and interrogatives. Often, the interrogative word is the first word in the question:

		kuis-war-as-kan		kuenta
		who-quotative-them-locatival		killed
		"Who killed them?"

		kuit		iyanun		kuit
		what		I did		what
		"What have I done? What?"

		kuit-wa		wastul-tit
		what-quotative		sin-your
		"What is your sin?"

		kuedani-wa-za		menahhanda		ishamiskesi
		whom-quotative-reflexive		before		you are singing
		"Before whom are you singing?"

		kuwat-war-an		parā ŪL pesti
		why-quotative-him		over not you give
		"Why didn't you hand him over?"

		kuwapit		armenun
		where		we have come
		"To where have we come?"

		DIM-as		DNIN.TU-ni		tet		mahhan		iyaweni
		Stormgod		to Hanannana		said		how		we act
		"The Stormgod said to Hannahanna, 'How shall we act?' (i.e., 'What shall we do?')"

The interrogative word does not always come at the front of the question clause, however. Certain elements, such as verbs or adverbial phrases, may be moved to the front for emphasis.

		nu-wa-mu		iwaru		kuit		pāi
		and-quotative-to me		dowry		what		he gives
		"What dowry will he give me?"

Questions in the form of nominal sentences with the interrogative kuit 'what' following the demonstrative pronoun kī are quite common:

		kī		kuit
		this		what
		"What is this?"

		zik-wa-kan		apūn		anda		kuwat		austa
		you-quotative-locatival		that (woman)		at		why		you looked
		"Why did you look at that (woman)?"

		nu-wa		wattaru		māhhan		iyan
		and-quotative		fountain		how		is made
		"How is the fountain made?"

In the following exchange from the "Ritual of Tuwanni," the scribe who is taking the ritual from dictation questions the ritual practitioner about the location of the tent that is built for the ritual. The fact that the sentence is followed by a statement specifying a type of location indicates that it is a question.

Scribe:

		iyanzi-ma		kuwapi
		they make-but		where
		"Where do they make (the tent?)"

Tunnawi:

		nu		kuwapi		harsauwar		maninkuwan		NU.GÁL		GIŠAPIN		UL		aranza
		and		where		cultivation		nearby		there is not		plow		not		arrived
		nu		GIŠZA.LAM.GAR		apiya		iyanzi
		and		tent		there		they make
		"Where there is no cultivation nearby, (where) the plow has not come; they make the hut there."

Like kui-, the pronoun masi- is used in questions. The following, for example, is a rhetorical question, asked by King Hattusilis I, who is is recounting the aftermath of a rebellion:

		nu		masiēs		MUHI.A		pāer		masiess-a-kan		huwāer
		and		how many		years		have gone		how many-and-locatival		ran
		"How many years have passed, and how many (of the offenders) have escaped (retribution)?"

43 Infinitives

Hittite has two infinitive forms, both of which may be active or passive in sense. One, in -ānna, is made from athematic verbs of the mi-conjugation that show an alternation, called ablaut, in the vowels of their roots, e.g. adānna 'to eat' from ēd-, ad- 'eat', or huganna 'to recite a spell' from hwēk-, huk- 'strike'. The verb aus- 'see', which is mostly inflected as a hi-conjugation verb, but which makes the mi-conjugation third person singular present, preterite, and imperatives auszi, austa, and ausdu also make an infinitive in -ānna, uwanna. All other verbs, whether mi-conjugation or hi-conjugation, make an infinitive in -wanzi. The infinitives of verbs in stem final u- have the shape -manzi (or -mannzi), since a sequence u plus w regularly becomes um, for example the infinitive of wahnu- 'make turn' is wahnumanzi, and the infinitive of sallanu- 'raise, make big' is sallanummanzi. Both types of infinitive have the same functions.

43.1 Purpose or goal

As in English, the Hittite infinitive may express a purpose or goal:

		INA		KUR		URULawzantiya		ANA		DINGIRLIM		BAL-uwanzi		iyahhahat
		to		country		Lawanzantiyas		to		deity		to sacrifice (inf.)		I went
		"I went to the country of Lawanzantiyas to sacrifice to the deity."

		nu		EN.SISKUR		warpuwanzi		paizzi
		and		patient		to wash (inf.)		goes
		"The patient goes to wash."

		n-as		ÍD-i		arrumanzi		pehudanzi
		and-them		to the river		to be washed (inf.)		they take
		"They take them to the river to be washed."

		annissan-pat-an		MNIR.GÁL-is		LUGAL-us		ANA		ABU-YA
		before-already-him		Muwattallis		king		to		father-my
		MHattusli		sallanummanzi		piyan harta
		Hattusilis		to raise (inf.)		given had
		"Already before, the king, Muwattalli, had given him to Hattusili to raise."

43.2 Infinitive as object

The infinitive may be the object of some verbs. For example, wek- 'ask for, demand' often takes the infinitive akuwanna 'to drink' in ritual texts:

		LÚSANGA		akuwanna		wekzi
		priest		to drink (inf.)		asks
		"The priest asks to drink"

An infinitive is often the object of sanh- 'seek' in the sense 'try'.

		1-as 1-an		kunanna		lē		sanhanzi
		one another		to kill (inf.)		not		seek
		"One should not seek to kill another."

Mazz-, which otherwise means 'endure, withstand', means 'dare' with the infinitive:

		mān		apās-ma		memiyauwanzi		ŪL		mazzazzi
		if		he-but		to tell (inf.)		not		dare
		"But if he doesn't dare to tell..."

		uwanna		ŪL		mazatti
		to look (inf.)		not		you dare
		"You don't dare to look."

43.3 Infinitive with object

The infinitive itself may take a direct object:

		apās-ma-mu		harkanna		sanhta
		he-but-me		to destroy (inf.)		he sought
		"He sought to destroy me."

43.4 Adverbial infinitives

Infinitives may also be used adverbially. In the following, liliwahhnuwani is the infinitive of the verb liliwahh- 'move swiftly':

		mahhan-ta		kās		tuppianza		anda wemiyazzi
		as soon as-you		this		tablet		reaches
		nu		MAHAR		DUTUŠI		liliwannuwanzi		ūnni
		and		before		my majesty		in a hurry		drive
		"As soon as this tablet reaches you, travel to my majesty in a hurry ."

44 N-stem and S-stem Nouns

Hittite preserves a number of nouns with archaic inflection and stems in -n- or -s-. Both sorts of declension, though inherited from Indo-European, are quite rare.

44.1 N-stems

The neuter nouns lāman 'name' and tēkan 'earth' preserve an archaic inflection in which both the shape of the root and the shape of the suffix change according to case form. In lāman a stem lām-an in the nominative-accusative alternates with a stem lam-n- in the other cases, and in the word for 'earth' the nominative-accusative tēk-an alternates with a stem tag-ān in the locative and a stem tak-n- in the other cases:

Singular
nom/acc.		lāman		tēkan
gen.		lam-n-as		tak-n-ās
dat.		lam-n-i		tak-n-ī
loc.				tagān
abl.		*lam-n-az		tak-n-āz
inst.		lam-n-it
all.				tak-n-ā
Plural
nom/acc.
nom.
acc.
gen.
dat/loc.		lam-n-as

Animate n-stems, for example kutruwa-, kutruwen- 'witness' and ishimā-, ishimān- 'cord, rope', are inflected partially as a-stems and partially as n-stems. The suffix of the former noun is wen- and the suffix of the latter noun is -mān-. The a-stem forms of these animate nouns were probably formed on the model of the nominatives, in which earlier forms of the suffixes were *-wan-s and *-man-s and the original *n was lost before the animate ending -s by regular sound change. The neuter n-stem sahhan 'feudal service', by contrast, is of a type in which neither the root sahh- nor the suffix -an- changes shape according to case.

Singular
nom.		kutr-uwa-s		ishi-mā-s		sahhan
acc.				ishi-man-an		sahhan
gen.						sahhan-as
dat/loc.		kutr-u-i				sahhan-i
abl.				ishi-man-az		sahhan-az
inst.				ishi-man-da		sahhan-it
all.
Plural
nom.		kutr-uwen-es		ishi-mān-es
acc.		kutrūs		ishi-mān-us
gen.
dat/loc.

44.2 S-stems

A handful of Hittite nouns have stems that end in vowel plus -s. Perhaps the most common of these is the neuter noun nēpis 'heaven'. This noun shows an invariant stem nēpis throughout its paradigm. In the paradigm of the neuter s-stem āis 'mouth', however, the stem āis- in the nominative-accusative singular, alternates with a stem iss- elsewhere in the paradigm. Both nouns are attested only in the singular.

Singular
nom/acc.		nēpis		āis
gen.		nēpis-as		*iss-ās
dat-loc.		nēpis-i		iss-ī
abl.		nēpis-az		iss-āz
inst.				*iss-it
all.		nēpis-a		iss-ā

45 Postpositions

In Hittite the function words that are the equivalent of English, Latin, or Greek prepositions normally come after the nouns which they govern. The technical term for such a function word that follows its noun is postposition. Like prepositions, postpositions generally specify spatial or temporal relations, though they may also take on less concrete meanings. Many postpositions also function as adverbs or as preverbs. We find a comparable situation in English, for example in the use of the English function word 'down' in "down the river" (preposition); "she tossed the ball down" (adverb); and "she lived her reputation down" (verbal particle). As in Latin and Greek, Hittite postpositions cause the nouns they govern to take specific case forms, and many postpositions may take more than one case form.

For example, mēnahhanda 'facing, against, opposite' usually takes a dative-locative:

		na-as-kan		LUGAL-i		menahhanda		tiyazi
		and-he-locatival		the king (dat-loc)		opposite		steps
		"He takes a position opposite the king."

The postpositions istarna 'in the midst of, among', tapusza 'alongside (of)', and andurza 'inside (of)' may take a noun in the dative-locative. Since many actions in rituals involve the hearth, one finds these postpositions with the word for 'hearth'.

		hassi		istarna		pēdi
		hearth (dat-loc.)		in the midst of		in place
		"in a place in the midst of the hearth"

		hassī		tapusza
		hearth (dat-loc.)		alongside
		"alongside the hearth"

This phrase uses the Sumerogram GUNNI plus phonetic complement for dative-locative hassī 'hearth':

		GUNNI-si		andurza
		hearth (dat-loc.)		inside
		"inside the hearth"

Tapusza may also take a noun in the genitive:

		parsulli		hassās		tapusza
		bread crumbs		of the hearth (gen.)		alongside
		"bread crumbs alongside of the hearth"

The postposition pēran 'before' may take the accusative:

		hāssan		pēran		dāi
		the hearth (acc.)		before		he places
		"He places (it) before the hearth."

It may also take the genitive, however:

		t-an		hassās		pēran		tiyanzi
		and-it		hearth (gen.)		before		they place
		"They place it before the hearth."

The postpositions hānda and handas 'for the sake of, because of, out of regard for' are normally followed by a noun in the dative:

		āssiyanni		handas
		of love (dat.-loc)		for the sake
		"for the sake of love"

		ŠA		ŠEŠ-YA		nakkiyanni		handas
		of		brother-my		importance (dat-loc.)		out of regard for
		"out of regard for my brother's importance"

In this phrase, the Akkadian preposition ANA signals that the following noun is to be understood as a dative:

		ANA		ŠEŠ-YA		handas
		dative		my brother (dat.-loc)		out of consideration
		"out of consideration for my brother"

With many postpositions, differences in the case of the preceding noun may contribute to subtle differences in meaning. The preverbs āppa and āppan, 'following, after, behind', for example, often take the genitive:

		attas-mas		āppan
		father-my (gen.)		after
		"after my father"

		kuis		ammel		āppan		LUGAL-us		kīsari
		who		me (gen.)		after		king		becomes
		"who becomes king after me..."

But āppa may also take the ablative, the case of separation, as in:

		tuzziyaz		āppa
		army (abl.)		behind
		"behind the army"

katta, and kattan, meaning 'down, below, under' can take the genitive:

		hassās		katta		edi		parsanān harzi
		hearth (gen.)		down by		there		squatted he has
		"He has squatted there down by the hearth."

But with the dative-locative, the meaning is 'located under':

		GIŠBANŠUR-i		katta
		table (dat.-loc)		under
		"under the table"

With the ablative, the meaning is 'down from' as in:

		URU-az		katta
		from the city (abl.)		down
		"down from the city"

With the dative-locative anda and andan mean 'into', for example:

		É-ri		anda
		the house (dat.)		into
		"into the house"

Used with the genitive, however, they mean 'in' or 'at':

		istananas		anda		DINGIRMEŠ		wisūriyanantati
		altars (gen.)		at		gods		were stifled
		"At (their) altars the gods were stifled."

The postposition iwar 'like' is used with the genitive in similies:

		nu-za		LÚMEŠ		huelpi		GA.RASSAR		iwar		arha karapta
		and-reflexive		men		fresh		leek (gen.)		like		you eat up
		"You eat up men like (one would eat up) a fresh leek."

The word mān, which has a number of other functions, may be used as a postposition following a genitive with the sense 'like' in similies:

		suminzan-a		ÌRMEŠ-am-man		UR.BAR.RA-as		mān		pangur		I-EN		ēstu
		your-but		servants-my		of the wolf (gen.)		like		clan		one		let be
		"Let your clan, my servants, be united like (that) of the wolf."

The closely related māhhan may also be used as a postposition meaning 'like':

		nu-war-as		arha		dannarus		DUGUTÚLHI.A		mahhan
		and-quotative-them		away		empty		vessels		like
		duwarniskesi
		you will keep breaking
		"You will keep breaking them up like empty vessels."

45.1 Frozen case forms

Etymologically, many postpositions are frozen case forms of nouns; tapusza and andurza, for example, are from ablatives. Postpositions formed from different case forms may have somewhat different meanings. For example, katta and kattan normally mean 'down', but the related katti means 'with'. The postposition sēr, formed from the endingless locative of an old noun, retains its locatival sense and means 'upon' or 'up upon' as in:

		HUR.SAG-i		sēr
		mountain (loc.)		upon
		"upon the mountain"

		suhhi		sēr
		roof (loc.)		up upon
		"up upon the roof"

The related sarā 'up', which is formed from an old allative, and is used with both the dative-locative and the allative, however, often has the sense of 'up to':

		HUR.SAG-i		sarā
		mountain (dat.-loc)		up to
		"Up to the mountain"

		suhha		sarā
		roof (all.)		up to
		"up to the roof"

45.2 With enclitic pronouns

When used with enclitic pronouns, the postpositions, as independently accented words, naturally precede the pronouns they govern:

• katti-mmi 'with me'
• katti-tti 'with you'
• sēr-smet 'over them' (spelled se-e-er-sa-me-et)
• pēan-ttit 'in front of you'

In early texts, the final -n- of pēran may become m before the initial m of the first person singular enclitic pronoun (i.e. pēram-mit for pēram-mit) or it may be lost before the initial s of the third person singular and second and third person plural pronouns (i.e. pērasset for pēran-sset).

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