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Per Una Grammatica Ittita/ Towards A Hittite Grammar-Studies in The Hittite Particles II
Per Una Grammatica Ittita/ Towards A Hittite Grammar-Studies in The Hittite Particles II
Per Una Grammatica Ittita/ Towards A Hittite Grammar-Studies in The Hittite Particles II
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3. The [mal rank in the enclitic chain is occupied by five particles: -an, -
(a)pa. -(a )sta, -kan and -san, which are usually called "local particles" (Gennan
Ortsbezugspartikeln), a tenn introduced by Goetze,) but often criticized. 4
Carruba, through his etymological proposals' for these particles, as well as by
his philological observations, has kept the local or relational aspect in clear
view.
4. On the other hand, Josephson 6 in palticular has built an elaborate case that
these particles express verbal aspects. While everyone (including Goetze)
agrees that the "local" theory cannot explain all uses of these particles, neither
can the aspectual theory. If Josephson's rival theory convinced many, no
treatments of Hittite texts made since the appearance of Josephson's book have
made conspicuous use of the alleged aspectual nuances of the particles in their
translations.
5. What seems to have happened is that all the big theoretical guns have been
fired off without damaging the target at all. And Hittitologists have gone right
on with their translations, uncommitted in practice to anyone comprehensive
solution to the problem. In a certain sense this is not a good sign. One should,
after all. come to grips with the issues at stake in a systematic fashion. But
insofar as silence on the theoretical side only means that we have all returned
to the drawing board to seek more light from the specifics of the texts, it is a
healthy sign.
6. In this spil'it I would like to offer here tv/O small studies. both concerned
with "local particle" usages. one which tends to argue for a "local" nuance, and
139
the other which points to an "aspectual".
7. In 1988 the staff of the CHD was seeking to understand the verb sanh-.
My role in the discussion included the focussing of attention on the role of the
particles in marking various uses and translations. It is well known that,
although one can seek a "root" translation in "seek", the idiomatic translations
must include at least "search through, search for, require, attempt (with
infinitive), remove, clean (scour, sweep off, rim.;e of)". and "avenge". Some of
these translations are admittedly required only in idiomatic comhinations such
as idalu sanh- and eshar sanh-, but it is still clear that some pattern must be
identified which makes sense of this diversity.
8. Ehelolf maintained that the two semanti.c fields "seek" and "clean/rinse"
could be accommodated within the same word, while Kronasser argued that
the two words were homographs with different etymologies. Puhvel 9 followed
Kronasser's view.
Adducing evidence from many passages, he argued against the translation "to
sweep" and for translations like "rinse", i.e., a "wet procedure" of cleansing.
Having "proved" the "wet" meaning", he adduced cognates from other IE
languages to establish an etymology for sanh- B "to rinse" distinct from that of
sanh- A "to seek".
It seems to me that, once one recognizes iI simple distrihution of usages with
and without the particles -(a)sta and -kan, Ehelolfs theory can be strongly
supported, which in tum casts serious douht on Kronasser's and Puhve1's
theories.
Whether or not sanh- B's operation is wet or dry cleaning becomes irrelevant
to the question of a single or dual origin of the verbs. if it C..U1 he shown that the
distinction within Hittite is achieved hy the addition of the palticle.
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unattended by a "local" pattic1e, its grammatical direct object is something or
someone sought or searched/or.
I J. An extension ofthe translation "to seek, search for" is "to demand, request,
desi.re". Exx. calling for this translation likewise do 110t show the local particle.
SA Eduppas=ma=ssi KARASt!I A Ie namma san1la1lZi "They shall no longer
demand from him troops of the duppas store house" KBo 4.10 obv. 44-45
(treaty ofTud. IV w. Kurwlta ofTaruntassa); nil man andan amnzeIDUMU.SAL-
fA sanhiskisi nu=tta UL imma pehhi "And if you are realJy seeking/requesting
my daughter (in marriage), will I perhaps not give (her) to you?" VBoT 2:7-8
(letter to Egyptian pharaoh), ed. Rost, MIO 4':329, cf. Melchert, KZ 98: 185.
141
With Accusative eshar
15. A special case is the idiom with accus. eshar, since here there is a use with
and without local particle, with apparently no difference.
16. Simplex with a local particle (in this ease -apa) (exx. OH/NS): n=apa
DINGIRMES at[tas=sas mZidantas] eshar=set sanhh' "Then the gods sought
(from him) the blood of his father Zidanta" (i.e., held him accountable for the
murder of his own father) KUB 11.1 + KBo 19.96 ii 4-5 (Tel.pr., OH/NS).
17. Complex (preverb appan) with -z(a) hut no local particle (ef. below in
25).
18. Simplex with neither -za nor local particle (ex. OH/NS): ziga SA
SAG.GEME.l:RMES eshar=semit sanha "Avenge their blood, (namely that) of
(your) servants" KBo 3.23 i 9, ed. Arehi in FsLarvche 41 f.
20. namma kuisa LUGAL-us kisari nil. SES-as NIN -as idalu sanhzi"Whoever
next becomes king and seeks the harm of brother (or) sister" KBo 3.1 obv. 46
(Tel.pr., OH/NS), ed. THeth 11 :34f.
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indicates that the accus. object (mankind) is what is searched for in order to
hann it.
22. When sanh- takes as its object a verbal noun, we translate it "to seek (the
doing of such-and-such)", or more idiomatically in Engl ish "to seek (to do such-
and-such)". A construction of this type occurs several times in the late Hittite
treaty CTH 123: It reads: zik=ma :allalla paliwal' I-eda tiyauwar pedi=kan
wasdumar Ie san(a)hti '~You must not seek to desert, to stand alone, (or) to rebel
(lit. 'sin') at (your) post" KBo 4.14 ii 59-fi I, fi3-fi5, 70-71, ed. Stefanini, AANL
20:42f. Now all three of these expressions are unusual and difficult, and we will
not attempt here to defend our precise tnU1s1ation of any of them. What is
impOitant is the constmction with sanh-. Regarding the use or non-use of the
local particle, we see that -kall indeed occurs in this sentence, but only on the
third of the correlative verbal nouns, not at the head of the sentence, where one
would expect it to occur if it was intended to relate to sanh- and all three of the
verbal nouns. It is tme that on rare occasions a local pmticle can appear not on
the first word of the clause but on a subsequent word, and that occasionally this
subsequent word is a locative. But although in the sequence of three verbal noun
phrases :allalla, l-eda, and pedi are in some sense "local" expressions, -kan
occurs only on the third.
Furthermore, as we have seen,-kan (and -asta) in their normal co-occurrences
with sanh- express the idea of"searching through" something or some place for
something. Such a conception in no way fits paUlml", riyallwar and wasdumar.
It is my understanding therefore that the -kan on pedi applies only to the third
of the verbal noun phrases and is there to accompany the verb wa.f3ta. One can
see this already in the MH Ismerika treaty: man=kan KUR-ya=ma istarna 1
URU LUM wasd[ai] man=kan ANA URUI.IM=ma istarna I fTUM w[asdai] KUB
23.68 + ABoT 58 obv. 25, 27.
appan sanh-
23. From a transla60nal standpoint there are three subsets of appan sanh-
usages: one meaning "to seek". a second memling: "to seek vengeance, avenge",
and the third an idiom meaning "to look after, take cm'e of'. Exx. from the three
subsets are formally identical. None employs a particle.
l43
24. The set which we translate as "to seek (a deity)" conforms to the pattern
which we established, according to which sanlt- without local particle takes as
its acc. object the person or thinig searched/or.
An example of this is: ("But now he has come to you on his knees for
help") nu=tta DING1RLUM DING1R uM allni EG1R-an sanhiskiz;;i"and is seeking
you,O goddess, for the sake of your divinity" KUB 9.27 + 7.8 i 39-40 (rit. of
Paskuwatti), ed. Hoffner,Allla Orientalis 5:271-287; cf. also KUB 7.8 ii 15-17.
25. The second subset, "to seek (the blood ofPN. i.e., avenge r' is represented
by: nu=za SAAB/-SU [eshar EGI]R-ansanhta ''(Mursili I) sought (i.e., avenged)
[the blood] of his father" KBo 3.57 ii JO-IL (hist., OH/NS), ed. Kernpinski,
AAT 4:50f.
26. The third subset, the idiom "to take care of', is an extension of the
meaning "to seek out, single out (for care)" and therefore I ikewise follows the
rule that without the local particle the acc. object is the person or thing searched
/01'. An example of the idiom is: ("Now, if Azira had not given the NAM.RA's
back to My Majesty,") mlin=as EGIR-an kuwapi san(a)hhun mlin=as dUTU~T
EGIR-an sanhun mlin=as=za dUTU ST dahhlln "I would have taken care ofthem
anyway, I, My Majesty would have taken care of them, I would have taken them
for myself' KBo 3.3 iii 20-25, ed. Klengel, Or NS 32:38, 43f.
27. In several passages allda sanh- construed with nouns in the accusative
and dative must be translated "to exact punishment for a misdeed (accus.) upon
the culprit (dat.)".
This construction always takes -kol/. It may be that the local particle is
required here, as in the case of -kon + accus. + SOI/It- to indicate that the person
or place where the subject seeks is being expressed. The difference here would
be that the "where" is not expressed with an accusative hut a dative. An example
is: nu=kan uwatten DINGIRM[E.<; E:l'rr-1T-:S_YA] opun AWATmTlldltaliya DUMU-
RI ANA ABlYA kinlln appez:::! iya::.] onda son!tcJtten "0 gods. my lords, you
came and exacted punishment for the affair ofTudaliya the Younger upon my
father" KUB 14.14 + 19.2 obv. 32-34, ed. Goetze, KIF 1: 168f.; cf. also KUB
13.4 i 35-37, ii 66-67, KBo ILl obv. 38-39.
144
J
28. A problematic passage, which offers a chance to test our theory, is: E-
ri=kan anda assu paiddu n=asta HUL-Iu sakuwas (var. sakuwa) sahdu
n=at=kan parii pessiyaddu "let goodness enter the house, and let it search for
evil in the eyes and cast it out" KUB 41.8 ii 12- L3 (A) (rit. for purification of
a house) w. dupl. (B) KBo 10.45 ii48-49 and (C) KUB 12.56 lii 2-3, ed. Otten,
ZA 54: 125. If one reads sakuwa with the variant, we have a double accusative
construction with the local particle. If one reads sakul1'as with copy A, we
probably have alocative plural. I would prefer the douhle accusative and would
explain the local particle as referring to the sak/lwa ("to search the eyes for
evil"). The locative may have been a secondary change: "to search for evil in
the eyes". This double accusative construction in which hoth the object
searched through and the object searched for co-occur shows that in such cases
the local particle was required.
29. Finally, we can return to the question with which we opened the study of
sanh: Does the construction -kan sanh- "to clean" derive from a separate PIE
verb from sanh "to seek"? The ex anlples assembled above show clearly that the
"local" particles -asta and -ka" are employed with sanh- in order to distinguish
cases in which the place or person where one seeks for something is prominent,
sometimes as a dative (especially withanda 27), but more often as an accusative
( 13-14,28). It is from this latter usage of -kan sanh- that the usage requiring
the translation "to clean, clear, unclog, etc." develops. It is unimportant whether
or not the procedure involved is a "wet" or "dry" one. The grammatical object
of the verb is the place where the actor seaTches for the refuse or blockage. The
latter is usually not explicitly mentioned in these clauses. 28 may be a rare
exception in which both are mentioned. n=at=kan sanhal/ hanl/(wan esdu "Let
(the baker's house) be cleaned out and sprinkled" KUB .13.4 i 18-19; EGIR-
anda=ma=kan EdZA.BA 4 .BA4 sanhallZi"Afterwards they clean outthetemple
ofZababa" KBo 4.9 i J 1-12; [n=a]sta sal/hanzi [11= lasta SAljARt!LA_ US para
ishuwanzi"they clean it (a building) and throwaway the dust/dirt"KUB 7.49:2-
3. kan para sanh has the same meaning: EMFS DINGJR MT;s-kal1l'ara sal1hanzi
KUB 41.30 iii 8-9.
145
III An Example Illustrating the Aspectuallnterpretation
A. The Particles and kuen-
30. One of the parade examples of an aspectual force for -kon is the case of
kuen- Josephson's evidence shows six examples in Middle Hittite of -asto
1o
31. Because Josephson's study was carried out before the refinements in
dating texts by ductus were complete, he dates texts as merely "Old Hittite" or
"Middle Hittite" without regard to the date of the copy. As we now know, this
is an unreliable procedure, because a late copyist can inject features of syntax
from his own time. Since few ofhis examples of kuen- are Old Script, we cannot
from his corpus decide what the pattern was in the Old Hittite period. Among
the examples without particle is "Laws 5", which although it is cited from KBo
6.3 (NS), is preserved also in KBo 6.2 i 3 (OS) showing that no local particle
was present. TheNS copies ofthe laws show kucn- both with and without particle,
but my impression is that the use with the particle is a result of the NH scribe.
This might suggest thatthe addition of -kon to "te.1ic" verbs 1ike kuen- and hornink-
began after Old Hittite (OS!).
1
J
B. The Particles and hornink-
I
I
32. When we turn our attention to horn-ink, we observe that, as with kuen-, we II
can fmd no evidence that it was construed with the "local" particles in its true
1
Old Hittite (OS) use. Actually, I have been unable to locate a single OS example t
of harnink-. The many o<;currences in MS and NS are sometimes with and
sometimes without the particles. When aparticleis used. it is nonmllly kan, but
I
there is one example each of -son (CTH 76B ii 9-10) and -osto I
(kuis=wa=nnos=sto [hor/nik{zij "Who will destroy the Stormgod for us?"
KUB 33.120 iii 10-11).
,1
146
The Grammatical Subject
33. The only pattem which emerges from these post-OS examples concerns
the status of the grammatical subject. Without particl e the subject can be either
deities or mortals or even inanimate objects. With the particle -kon once the
subject is idalawes UNMES-sis "evil men" KUB 13.9 + KUB 40.62 i 9-10, in a
late and sloppy copy of a MH archetype, "md once (in a myth) a cow who by
grazing destroys a meadow (KUB 24.7 ii 59). In all other instances the subject
is deity.
What this suggests is that the truly tel ic force of harnink- ("to really destroy
permanently") was proper only to divine actions, and that nuance was
accompanied (at least in post-OS texts) by -kan.
A Diachronic Perspective
34. I have not established the criteriafor the use ornon-use of -kan with harnink-
when the subject is a deity. But I have the impression that the particle is much
more likely to occur in New Hittite Script than in the earlier periods. In other
words, the particle was first introduced selectively in MH texts when the subject
was a deity and one wished to stress the fmality of the destruction. As time
passed, it became customary to use the partic1e in aU cases where the subject was
a deity.
147
verb in mind which he eventually replaced with harnink, forgetting then to also
add -kan.
That verb might have been harganu, which likewise construes with arha, is a
late synonym of harnink-, but never is construed with -kan.
Relationship to ar/IO
37. Josephson correctly observed that the occurrence of the particles was not
couellated with the occurrence of the preverb arha. That preverb occurs with
harnink- both with and without the local particle.
38. Although sometinles statistics are misleading, let us see what they reveal
here. When -kan is absent, 74% ofthe passages have the simplex harnink, and
26% have arha harnink-.
When -kan is present, 70% have arha harnink and 30% have the s.implex. The
preverb arha occurs less frequently when the particle i.s absent than it does with
the particle is present.
So while there is no one-to-one correspondence. it appears that ':kan and arha
reinforce one' another with harnink-.
Conclusion
39. The two cases selected for examination here show the polyvalence of the
particles of the class -kan.
In the case of sanh- the function of the particle is to focus attention upon a
location through which the search takes place. In the case ofharnink- the particle
occurs with or without the preverb arha to intensify the "telic" force of the verb
and stress the finality of the resu It.
This seems to have occurred principally when the grammatical subject was a
deity. In the case ofsanll- the meaningful contrast ofoccunence/non-occurrence
of the particle already existed in the OH/MS Telepinu myth.
In the case of harnink- (and possibly also kuen-) the addition of the particle
seems to have begun in post-OH times and only hecame common in NH.
This might mean that the local izing function ex isted before the intensifying one.
148
________--~l
oles
') Hoffner (l973).
2) Friedrich (1960) 288, repeated in tabular foml by Hoffner (J 97:'). esp. 520f., and modified
by Hoffner (1986) 93ff.
3) Goetze (1933).
S) Carruba (1964), (1969), (1983). These proposals, of course, built upon Pedersen (1938), ce.
summary in Josephson (1972), p.5.
6) (1972).
8) (1966) p. 423.
10) Hrozny (1917) 73 note 8; Friedrich (1926) 152: Goetze (1928) 13 L; Friedrich (1952) 112f.;
Josephson (1972) 130-138.
149
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s.
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5:1-38.
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