sturtevant - stems of the hittite hi-conjugation

7/27/2019 Sturtevant - Stems of the Hittite Hi-conjugation

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Linguistic Society of America

Stems of the Hittite hi-ConjugationAuthor(s): Edgar H. SturtevantReviewed work(s):Source: Language, Vol. 3, No. 4 (Dec., 1927), pp. 215-225Published by: Linguistic Society of AmericaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/409255 .Accessed: 29/12/2011 05:18

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STEMS OF THE HITTITE hi-CONJUGATION

EDGAR H. STURTEVANT

YALE UNIVERSITY

The verbs of the Hittite hi-conjugation fall into three classes accordingto the final sound of the stem. In spite of more or less irregularityin each class, the following paradigms will represent the usual types ofconjugation.

I have shown' that certain verbs of the first class (?akki 'he knows',aki 'he dies', ari 'he arrives, has arrived') correspond rather closely toIE perfects with stems ending in a consonant. Most of the other verbsof the same type are etymologically unclear, but from the Hittite pointof view they are, with one exception, consonantal stems. We must,however, include in this class the irregular verb au- 'see', whose conjuga-tion is as follows:

Present Preterit Imperative1 u-hhi u-hhun uw-allu2 au-tti au3 au -zi2 aug-ta aug-du

1 au-mmeni au-mmen2 au-tteni aug-ten3 uw-anzi aw-er

Our second class may be described, from the Hittite point of view, asthe a-class. If we assume that these verbs also correspond to IE per-fects, we must conclude that a represents an original long vowel, atleast in the forms of the singular, since the IE perfect has no stemsending in a short vowel in the first and second persons singular of theactive voice. Such orthography as da-a-i 'he takes' and da-a-dg 'hetook' is very frequent; but repetition of a vowel sign need not indicatea long vowel. My belief that we have to do with original long vowels inthis instance is based solely upon IE grammar.

1Language 3. 161-8 (1927).2 This form obviously belongs to the mi-conjugation.

215


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216 EDGAR H. STURTEVANT

Hittite a as stem-final of our second class may correspond either withIE & or with IE 5. The latter is to be assumed in the case of da- 'take'.

Incompatible as the meanings 'take' and 'give' seem to be, I am con-

TABLE I

I II III

ar-hiPresent 1 ar-hi da-hhi te-hhiAagg-ahhi

2 ak-ti da-tti dai-tti3 akk-i da-i da-i

1 ekk-weni mema-weni tiya-weni2 ek-teni ig?a-teni3 akk-anzi da-nzi tiy-anzi

Preterit 1 ar-hun da-hhun te-hhungagg-ahhun

hatrae-S2 ?ak-ta pai-g-ta

pe-g-tadai-43 ek-ta da-dai- pe-?-ta

1 ekk-wen piya-wen2 ek-ten tarna-ttin pe-A-ten

3 ekk-ir da-ir tiy-ermem-ir

6akda

Imperative 2pah-i

mema-i da-imem-i

3 ak-du da-u pa-u

dai-4-ten2 ageg-ten da-ttin

pe-3-ten3 da-ndu tiy-andu

vinced that Hittite da- is the same word as Gk.tboa6t,

Lat. d5, etc.

Although Skt. dadami usually has the same force as the Greek and Latincognates, it means 'take' when used with the prefix a, and it has neverbeen clear how that prefix could reverse the meaning of the verb. If,


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STEMS OF HITTITE hi-CONJUGATION 217

however, we start with the meaning 'take', the development of the mean-ing 'give' is easy; 'take' becomes 'choose', and 'choose for so-and-so'

is virtually 'give to so-and-so'. A slightly different development ispossible from the attenuated meaning 'take (in order to perform someoperation)'. The Hittite word, with prefixed sara, often has this force;e.g. Keilschrifttexte aus Boghazkci 4. 12. 1. 20-21 = G6tze, Hattusilis42: GIM-an-ma-za SES.YA DINGIR.LIM-is DII-at IUr-hi-DU-up-an-ma DUMU SES.YA d-ra-a da-ah-hu-un na-an LUGAL-iz-na-an-ni ti-it-ta-nu-nu-un, 'When, however, my brother had become a god,then I took Urhi-Tesupas, my nephew, and established him in thekingship.' More important for our purpose is Hattusilis' inauguraladdress 1. 17f. (p. 8 G6tze): nu-mu A.BU.YA TUR-an ~d-ra-a da-a-d?nu-mu A.NA DINGIR.LIM IR-an-ni pd-es-ta, 'And my father tookme, a child, and gave me to the goddess for (her) service.' It wouldbe easy to omit the second verb, and thereby make da- mean 'give'.In one of these two ways, I imagine, IE *d5- got its familiar meaning,while Skt. d-dd- and Hittite da- retain the original meaning 'take'.

Very likely some of the verbs in our second class have a from originald, but I do not feel sure of any such etymology. Possibly mema- 'say'is to be connected with Lith.

moju,m6ti

'beckon', OS1. na-maja,, -majati'nod to', Skt. maya 'deception', etc., on the basis of IE *mj(i)-.3 It isat least equally possible, however, that we should think of IE *me-'measure'4; note especially Skt. mcti? 'Maas, richtige Erkenntniss',and Gk. TLns wisdom, skill, counsel'. In the latter case Hittitemema- is a reduplicated perfect with o-grade.

In the third column of Table I we quite obviously have various stem-forms, and the inconsistency is really much greater than our normalizedscheme indicates. The conjugation given in Table I is the most common

one-in most respects byfar the most common; but all of the stem-formsare sometimes found outside the categories there assigned to them.Table II, although incomplete, will give some idea of the variety actuallyfound.

We must certainly assume a composite origin for the third type ofthe hi-conjugation. A complete and final solution of the problemsinvolved is impossible at present, but certain facts can be establishedwith the means already at hand.

In some respects the most distinctive forms in Table II are the first

3 Cf. Walde-Pokorny, ergleichendes arterbuch er ndogermanischen prachen2. 219-20.

1 Cf. ib. 2. 237-8.


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only rivals are huwiyami 'I flee', huwiyannun 'I fled', etc., which belongproperly to the mi-conjugation.

In one case the assumption of an original stem ending in e is supportedby a sure etymology. The stem te- 'place' must be identified withIE *dhj-. Orthography gives no hint of a long vowel in tehhi andtehhun, although such forms as da-a-i and da-a-is are common; but,as already suggested, it is hardly possible to interpret the double writingof a vowel as a mark of length, and it is quite certain- hat lack of such adoubling does not indicate original short quantity. The contrast betweendahhi 'I take': IE *d5- and tehhi 'I place': IE *dhj- proves that originali-stems form one source of our third class.

A second source is to be recognized in Pre-Indo-European bases end-ing in ei. Since these roots yield in the IE languages both a-stems(e.g. eipvrnv) and io/yo-stems (e.g. malivorat rom *mnyo-), the fact thatthe first column of Table II shows e-stems and the fifth iya-stems sug-gests the presence of the root-final ti.6 Possibly some of the forms inai(Q) in our third and fourth columns come directly from PIE ei; but weshall see that the forms of the third and fourth columns may be explainedby analogy.

Several etymologies prove that ji-stems are included in our material.A few months ago I suggested' the connection of huwa-, huwiya- 'flee'with Lat. fugio, etc. At that time I had to assume that the Hittiteword came from **bheu-, whereas fugio, Gk. bpeyw, etc. represented abase with root-determinative (*bheu-g-). I am now able to trace boththe Hittite and the IE words to an original **bheug"- Brugmann8 as-sumed a final labio-velar in this root to account for OEng. b7le 'swelling,boil' and OHG b~lla 'blister', and Hirt' connected pebyw and

c0ooaton the basis of **bheweg"-. Whether we accept their premises or not,

they were right about the final sound of the root. For our point it doesnot matter whether the g of Lat. fugio is due to loss of labialization afteru (so Brugmann) or before y (*bhug"y5), as Persson'o would have it.There is no doubt that in Greek the labialization was regularly lost afteru". Elsewhere a labio-velar is as satisfactory as a pure velar in this root.

6 The IE languages show fewer io-stems from bases in di and 5i, and basesof these types would not account for the forms in the first and second columnsof Table II.

SLanguage 3. 114 (1927).

8 Grundriss der Vergleichenden Grammatik 12. 596.1 Der Indogermanische Ablaut 135.10 Beitrdge zur Indogermanischen Wortforschung 571.11 See Brugmann-Thumb, Griechische Grammatik4 137.


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Hittite huwa-, huwiya-, then, shows w for original g". That this isthe regular development is indicated by wemiya- 'find, get beside Lat.

venio, Gk. Pfaic , from *g'myo- 'come'. The two meanings are tiedtogether by Lat. invenio 'find' and Hittite appan wemiya- 'come uponunexpectedly, surprise' (in the military sense). Furthermore wemiya-is most naturally translated 'come' in Keilschrift-Urkunden aus Bog-hazkdi 14. 3. 1. 53. The Hittite king has invited Tawagalawas to comeinto the city of Mellawanda to meet him, and Tawagalawas has politelyrefused. The king continues: GIM-an-ma-mu [1. UL .... SAGU]RU an-da zi-e-mi-ya-at .... 'As he did [not] come into the cityto me . .. .' Either the Hittite verb contains the full grade of theroot or we must assume that syllabic m before i yielded em, althoughit became am before other vowels and um before consonants"2.

Another instance of Hittite w beside IE g" is presented by walh-'strike'3, which is cognate with Gk. aXXcothrow'. That the latterword has an initial labio-velar is shown by Arcadian &7~kXXov-res

KOdfXXovrET, hether or not we identify it with Skt. galati 'drips, falls'.For the loss in IE of medial h, which is preserved in Hittite, see myremarks in Language 3. 121 f. (1927).

So then, huwiyami is the exact equivalent of Lat. fugio, except for thepersonal ending, and huwai 'he flees' represents the correspondinga-stem (**bhugW'-), ust as dai 'he places' represents an original stem**dhe-. It is no longer necessary to describe the relationship of thesetwo stems as G6tzel' recently did: ". ... huwiyami und huwai,durch ein noch nicht genau fassbares Lautgesetz einander entfremdet.

" They were unlike from the first, and their welding into asingle conjugational system was a secondary development.

A parallel to this word is presented by huwai 'grows', hui-, hui'-

(i.e. huwi-, huwe?-) 'live'1s. The IE io-stem appearsin Lat.

Jio 'become'and elsewhere, and the ji-stem is evidenced by Skt. bhavi-tvas future',etc.16

In the above mentioned discussion of Hittite ari7 I pointed out thegeneral equivalence in form and meaning between arnuzi 'he brings'and Skt. Troti, Gk. 6pvvvat, etween artat 'he took his stand' and Gk.

copro, between arklizzi 'he comes' and OP arasam 'I came', and between12 See Sturtevant, American Journal of Philology 48. 251-4 (1927).13 See Sommer and Ehelolf, BoSt. 10. 76 f. and references.

14Zeitschrift fiir Assyriologie Neue Folge 2. 15 (1925).15 See Sturtevant, Language 3. 110-2 (1927).16 See Brugmann, Grundriss 22. 3. 153.17 Language 3. 161-8 (1927).


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ari 'he (has) arrived' and Skt. dritha 'thou art sprung'. I noted alsothe parallelism in meaning between Hittite arai 'he rises (against)'and Lat. adoritur. We are now prepared to see the connection in formalso between these two; it happens that no forms in iya from this par-ticular verb have come to light, but it is safe to say that the first personplural was *ariyaweni or, less probably, a middle form, *ariyawa~tati.

The ai-stem of the metaplastic forms warraizzi and warrait indi-cates that the equivalent warrai should be assigned to the third class ofthe hi-conjugation. If Hroznfis8 is right in interpreting anda warraias 'he shuts in', he is also right in comparing Lith. veri. 'open' or 'close'< and Lat. operio 'cover' >.

Hittite sai, pl. iyanzi 'put on; seal'"9 s to be connected with Skt.syati, sindti 'binds' (perfect sasau). If the Skt. word is related to Lat.saeta 'bristle', OEng. sdda 'rope, snare', etc.20, we must assume an IEroot *sai-. Our Hittite verb suggests that there may have been a bye-form *sei- (cf. *bhewei- beside *bhewd-). It is possible, however, thata'i was conjugated according to the second or a-class, as would be natural

for a verb with original &i; there would be nothing strange in a mi-

conjugation verb ?iyami from PIE **sdi-; in fact, that is virtually whatwe have in Skt.

syati.A preterit *as' or an imperative, *?a would set-

tle the question in favor of the second class, while a preterit *jai? or*sesta would indicate the third class. Even if we should find a preterit*?ai?, we should have to reckon with the possibility of a transfer fromthe second to the third class in Hittite itself.

Such a transfer must apparently be assumed in the case of peddai'he flies, flees', peddais 'he fled'21, which betrays the original vocalism ofDoric i'rrav 'I flew, fled' in the imperative pe-e-da22. No doubt thetransfer to the third class was due to the influence of huwai 'he flees'.

Beside nai 'he turns, sends'23 we have a third pl. neyanziand middle

is BoSt. 3, 2163.

19 See Sommer and-Ehelolf, BoSt. 10. 36 f.; Ehelolf, Orientalistische Litera-turzeitung 29. 987 f. (1926).

~OSee Walde, Lateinisches Etymologisches W6rterbuch2 69.21 See G6tze, Hatt. 85; Friedrich, Staatsvertrage des Hatti-Reiches in Hethitischer

Sprache 81, 156.22 KBo. 5. 4. 2. 48 = Friedrich, Staatsvert. 68. Friedrich, op. cit. 156, cites

also a preterit pid-da-a-db, but pid-da-a-il stands in the passage to which herefers.

23 See Weidner, Archiv. fiir Keilschriftforschung 1. 62 f. (1923); G6tze, Hatt. 76;Friedrich, ZA NF. 3. 199 (1927). Friedrich, ib. 2. 52 f. (1925), discusses the com-pounds pennai and unnai 'he drives'; but I doubt his interpretation of the pre-fixes. More convincing on the prefix pe is G6tze, Hatt. 83 f.


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forms neya, neyari, etc. While this stem does not harmonize withthe iya-stems of other verbs of our third class, it agrees perfectly with

Skt. nayati 'he leads'. The Skt. participle nitas requires a dissyllabicbase **neya&-24, nd Hittite nehhi, nehhun, nai', etc. indicate that itwas **ney&-. Occasional forms of the second class (na, pennahhi, pennah-hun, etc.) are due to the influence of uta- 'bring', peda- 'bring', and weda-'take', all of which are regularly conjugated according to that class.

One of the commonest verbs of the third class is pai 'he gives' (pl.piyanzi). If the word has an 1E etymology at all, we must connect itwith Skt. pydyate 'be exuberant, swell, overflow'. Other words fromthe base **poy.-25 are fairly common in the IE languages, and they indi-cate that the Skt. verb has preserved the original meaning pretty closely.A semantic development: 'be exuberant, overflow' > 'be generous' >'give' is not improbable. The IE languages do not disclose the qualityof the final vowel of the base; but there is nothing to interfere withone's assuming that it was E, as I have done on the Hittite evidence.The proposed etymology involves the assumption that initial py be-comes p in Hittite, and until some further evidence to this effect can beadduced, it must remain somewhat doubtful.

In view of theapproximation

of Latin eo'go'

to the form of the verbsof the fourth conjugation, both in the present and in the perfect, it isnot surprising to find in our third class a compound verb whose secondmember is cognate with eo. Friedrich26 has shown that appai (pl.appiyanzi) means 'is finished, is over', e.g. sal-li a-se-es-sar a-ap-pa-a-i,'der grosse Gottesdienst ist aus'. In this phrase appai is equivalent toLat. abiit, and so -ai corresponds to iit. The inflection of the perfect of*ei- 'go' in IE presents a difficult problem, and I shall not now attemptto fit the Hittite material into so doubtful a structure; but I feel sure

that it belongs there.We may have another compound of *ei- 'go' in Hittite zai 'he crosses'27(preterit zaiv). If so the prefix is probably the same as in zenna-'bring to an end, complete'28, rom *ze 'through' (?) and na- 'send'. Onenaturally thinks of a connection with Gk. &A 'through'.

The second and fourth columns of Table II differ from the first andthird respectively in the insertion of I immediately before the personal

2i See Walde-Pokorny, VWIS 2. 321.21See Walde-Pokorny, VWIS 2. 73-75.28 ZA NF. 2. 2942 (1925).27 See G6tze, Hatt. 78 and references.28See Weidner, AKF 1. 64 (1923).


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endings. This must be the same element which in the IE languagesforms aorist stems. If some verbs prefer the stem in S and others the

simple stem, that merely reminds us that in the IE languages some verbshave the sigmatic aorist and others the root aorist, while others stillhave both.

Although the verbs of the third class belong to the hi-conjugation,which corresponds in general to the IE perfect system, it is now clearthat they include present and aorist stems as well. It is, however,impossible to trace the three categories in detail. The stem of tehhi'I place' may be more closely akin to that of the Skt. perfect dadhauor to that of the Skt. aorist adhdt. The preterit nailta, probably pro-nounced [naist], 'he turned, sent' may be directly comparable with theSkt. aorist

anai.It'he led', or it may be an analogical creation, as sug-

gested below.We must furthermore beware of assuming that the Hittite verb ever

passed through a stage in which present and aorist were as sharplydistinguished as they are in some of the IE languages. Quite possiblythat distinction was in part of later growth than the separation of Hittitefrom the parent stock. Even in IE we have presents with aoristicformation. In

particulars is a familiar

presentsuffix in IE

justas it is

in Hittite, and in both it is the prior element of the conglomerate suffixsk29. In general Hittite stems in S which stand beside stems in e

may be compared with IE aorists; but halze's- 'call', the commonerstem beside halzai 'he calls', is not essentially different from stems like

igtamag- 'hear', mau's- 'fall', and punull- 'ask', which have no vowelstems beside them.

In Table II we entered in the third column several forms which donot really have a stem in ai, namely the third sing. pres. dai, the third

pl. pret. nair, and the imperative dai. In the first of these i is the in-variable third sing. pres. ending of the hi-conjugation. It probablyrepresents e, the IE perfect ending (e.g. Gk. oitE). The consistentHittite orthography indicates that final e had changed to i, and I do notknow of any conflicting evidence. Final e is comparatively rare in theHittite documents, and seems everywhere to represent an original diph-thong; ke 'haec', ape 'illaec', kue 'quae' show final ai of the neuter pluralof the pronominal declension, and udne 'countries' seems also to followthat declension. The anomalous a-vd-dg-he (Boghazgdi-Texte in Um-

schrift 2. 10 -y 23) is merely an erratic way of writing aga hi 'I sit'.

29 Cf. Brugmann, Grundriss 22. 3. 336-52, and, for the Hittite, see Sturtevant,Language 3. 112, 1133' (1927).


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A comparison of the imperatives da 'take' and dai 'place' suggests thatdai is here to be regarded as the bare stem. That, I imagine, is the

reason why it has become customary to cite verbs of the third class inthis form. When we observe, however, that verbs of the second classshow such imperatives as memai 'say' and tarnai 'leave', as well asda and tarna, and that we have from consonantal stems (the first class)not only sak 'know' and the like but also pahs, 'protect', it becomes clearthat i is a formative element in the imperative as well as in the indica-tive. In fact the imperatival i is not confined to the hi-conjugation, aswitness kuenni 'strike, kill' beside kuenzi 'he kills'.

Imperatival i, then, behaves in about the same way as the IE impera-tive ending dhi, of which Brugmann30 says: 'Der Ausgang dhi diirfteeine partikel sein, die mit dem als Imperativ fungierenden reinen Tem-pusstamm univerbiert worden war.' With this dhi we must certainlycombine the ending t of Hittite imperatives such as it 'go' and wahnut'turn'. Since there is no indication that Hittite lost final vowels, Isuggest that there were originally two independent elements, dh and i,which might be used to strengthen an imperative; Hittite has preservedthem both, and IE has amalgamated them to form dhi.

But what shall we say of the stem-final of dai 'he places', dai 'place',nair 'they turned', etc.? The obvious answer is that ? became a beforei; but of course we cannot derive dai 'he places' directly from PIE**dh~-e. That would have yielded Hittite *te or *ti. A plausible hy-pothesis is this: after the change of final e to i, the third personal endingof other hi-conjugation verbs was introduced in those of the third class,and then *de-i became dai. The history of the imperative would beparallel, except that the ending was i from the start. In the third pl.pret., however, the ending was er, as is shown by the frequent orthog-

raphy -e-ir, and it is unlikely that *ne-er would yield nair.Here

wemust apparently assume analogical influence of the second class uponthe stem vowel. This may be the correct explanation of the stem vowela in the third sing. pres. and in the imperative also.

The remaining forms also of the third column of Table II were prob-ably formed on the analogy of the second class, as follows:

da : datti = dai : daittida : dag = dai : dai'

The forms of the fourth column may result from a contaminationof the second and third columns. Given pe ti 'thou givest' and daitti

30 Grundriss 22. 3. 569.


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'thou placest', it is not strange to find also paisti 'thou givest'. It maybe, however, that we have here the suffix is' appended to the stem in e,with change of e to a before i. The possibility that we should find herestems in ai from original &i was mentioned above (p. 223). I see noway of deciding between the three explanations.

If we are to cite Hittite verbs by their stems, it is difficult to choosebetween the various stems of the third class of the hi-conjugation. Fromthe historical point of view the stem in e is most important, but for manyverbs no forms from this stem are quotable. Perhaps the best plan isto choose the stem or stems that seem most characteristic of eachverb;e.g. te- 'place', pe(?)- 'give', halzes's- 'call'. In doubtful cases it wouldbe better to cite an actual form, e.g. ?ai 'he puts on'. At any rate weshould no longer cite a secondary stem like dai- 'place'.

sturtevant - stems of the hittite hi-conjugation

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