The grammar

Grammar

In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...

 of the Hittite language

Hittite language

Hittite is the extinct language once spoken by the Hittites, a people who created an empire centred on Hattusa in north-central Anatolia...

has a highly conservative verbal system and rich nominal

Nominal (linguistics)

In linguistics, a nominal is a part of speech in some languages that shares features with nouns and adjectives.- Examples :Nominals are a common feature of Indigenous Australian languages, many of which do not categorically differentiate nouns from adjectives.Some features of nominals in some...

 declension

Declension

In linguistics, declension is the inflection of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and articles to indicate number , case , and gender...

. The language is attested in cuneiform

Hittite cuneiform

Hittite cuneiform is the implementation of cuneiform script used in writing the Hittite language. The surviving corpus of Hittite texts is preserved in cuneiform on clay tablets dates to the 2nd millennium BC ....

, and is one of the earliest attested Indo-European

Indo-European

Indo-European may refer to:* Indo-European languages** Aryan race, a 19th century and early 20th century term for those peoples who are the native speakers of Indo-European languages...

 languages apart from Vedic Sanskrit

Vedic Sanskrit

Vedic Sanskrit is an old Indo-Aryan language. It is an archaic form of Sanskrit, an early descendant of Proto-Indo-Iranian. It is closely related to Avestan, the oldest preserved Iranian language...

.

Basic noun and adjective declension

The Hittite nominal system consists of the following cases: nominative, accusative, dative-locative, genitive, allative, ablative, and instrumental, and distinguishes between two numbers (singular and plural) and two genders, common (animate) and neuter (inanimate).[5] The distinction between genders is fairly rudimentary, with a distinction generally being made only in the nominative case, and the same noun is sometimes attested in both genders.

The basic scheme of suffixation is given in the table below—valid for almost all nouns and adjectives. The example word shown is 'antuhsa' meaning 'man'.

	antuhsa man c.
	Singular		Plural
Nominative	antuhsas	–s	antuhses	–es
Vocative	antuhse	–e	antuhse	–e
Accusative	antuhsas	–n	antuhsus	–us
Genitive	antuhsas	–as	antuhsas	–as
Dative-Locative	antuhsi	–i	antuhsas	–as
Ablative	antuhsaz(a)	–az(a)	antuhsaz(a)	–az(a)
Ergative	antuhsanza	–anza	antuhsantēs	–antēs
Allative	antuhsa	–a	antuhsa	–as
Instrumental	antuhsit	–it	antuhsit	–it

Verb Conjugation

When compared with other early-attested Indo-European languages, such as Ancient Greek and Sanskrit, the verb system in Hittite is relatively morphologically uncomplicated. There are two general verbal classes according to which verbs are inflected, the mi-conjugation and the hi-conjugation. There are two voices (active and medio-passive), two moods (indicative and imperative), and two tenses (present and preterite). Additionally, the verbal system displays two infinitive forms, one verbal substantive, a supine, and a participle. Rose (2006) lists 132 hi-verbs and interprets the hi/mi oppositions as vestiges of a system of grammatical voice ("centripetal voice" vs. "centrifugal voice").

Basic conjugational endings are as follows:

	mi-conj.	hi-conj.	mi-conj.	hi-conj.
	-mi	-hi (-ahhi)	-hahari (-hari, -ha)	-hahari (-hari)
	-si	-ti	-tati (-ta)	-tati (-ta)
	-zi	-i	-tari (-ta)	-ari (-a)
	-weni	-weni	-wastati (-wasta)	-wastati (-wasta)
	-teni	-teni	-duma (-dumari)	-duma
	-anzi	-anzi	-antari (-anta)	-antari (-anta)

	-un (-nun)	-hun	-hahat(i) (-hat(i))	-hahat(i) (-hat(i))
	-s (-t, -ta)	-s (-ta, -sta)	-tat(i) (-ta)	-at(i) (-tat)
	-t (-ta)	-s (-ta, -sta)	-tat(i) (-ta)	-at(i)
	-wen	-wen	-wastat	-
	-ten (-tin)	-ten (-tin)	-dumat	-dumat
	-er (-ir)	-er (-ir)	-antat(i)	-antat(i)

	-(a)llu	-allu	-haharu (-haru)	-haharu (-haru)
	- (-i, -t)	- (-i)	-hut(i)	-hut(i)
	-du	-u	-taru	-aru
	-weni	-weni	-	-
	-ten (-tin)	-ten (-tin)	-dumat(i)	-dumat(i)
	-andu	-andu	-antaru	-antaru

Verbal substantive	Infinitive	Supine	Participle
-war	I. -wanzi	-wan	-ant-
	II. -anna

Literature

Introductions and overviews

Dictionaries

• Goetze, Albrecht (1954). Review of: Johannes Friedrich, Hethitisches Wörterbuch (Heidelberg: Winter). Language 30.401-405.http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0097-8507(195407%2F09)30%3A3%3C401%3AHWKKSD%3E2.0.CO%3B2-J
• Sturtevant, Edgar H. (1931). Hittite glossary: words of known or conjectured meaning, with Sumerian ideograms and Accadian words common in Hittite texts. Language, Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 3–82., Language Monograph No. 9.
• Puhvel, Jaan (1984-). Hittite Etymological Dictionary. Berlin: Mouton.

Grammar

• Sturtevant, Edgar H. A. (1933, 1951). Comparative Grammar of the Hittite Language. Rev. ed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1951. First edition: 1933.
• Sturtevant, Edgar H. A. (1940). The Indo-Hittite laryngeals. Baltimore: Linguistic Society of America.
• Yakubovich, Ilya (2010). Sociolinguistics of the Luwian Language. Leiden: Brill.

Text editions

• Goetze, Albrecht & Edgar H. Sturtevant (1938). The Hittite Ritual of Tunnawi. New Haven: American Oriental Society.
• Sturtevant, Edgar H. A., & George Bechtel (1935). A Hittite Chrestomathy. Baltimore: Linguistic Society of America.

Journal articleshttp://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0097-8507(194004%2F06)16%3A2%3C81%3AEFVIIG%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Mhttp://homepage.mac.com/noula/ling/1964b-hittUDU.pdfhttp://homepage.mac.com/noula/ling/1964d-SHE1.pdfhttp://homepage.mac.com/noula/ling/1973d-SHE2.pdfhttp://homepage.mac.com/noula/ling/1969c-hittiteK.pdfhttp://homepage.mac.com/noula/ling/1969a-lexstatHitt.pdfhttp://homepage.mac.com/noula/ling/1969d-ied.pdf