Hittite Online

Although the Hittite political texts may be of greatest interest to us today, as indicated by the selections included in these lessons, religious texts like those in Lessons 8 through 10 make up far more of the materials left to us. Among these are recordings of the rituals. In contrast with the festivals, which are elaborate celebrations involving the gods, the rituals deal with individual problems, such as the one represented here. They have been referred to as examples of sympathetic magic. They are carried out by qualified persons, who are referred to as Old Women when they are females, as in the Tunnawi ritual. Among their topics, specific rituals deal with birth and development of individuals, removal of deficiencies or evils like the uncleanness that has supposedly brought about the inability of the ritualist to have children. As in this ritual, which involves activity next to a river, there are specific steps that need to be taken to overcome the deficiency. These are elaborated in great detail in the remainder of the ritual, and presumably at the end have succeeded in "purifying the twelve parts of the body of the ritualist and also reestablished his or her generative faculty."

Reading and Textual Analysis

The first passage given here identifies the problem of the ritualist as experiencing uncleanness and then states items of the specific ritual that will lead to a cure. The second passage specifies the animals involved, and then the clothing of a female ritualist. The following paragraph does the same for a male, followed by a list of the ingredients that the Old Woman must take along to the river bank which should remove the "evil uncleanness". Some of these must be given to the spirit of the river, such as part of a thin loaf of bread and a jug of wine, as she collects clay for fashioning objects involved in the cleansing. In the morning the ritualist comes to the river bank, puts on the black clothes, and is subjected to various actions by the Old Woman, such as having objects made from the clay of the river bank passed over him or her, all with appropriate statements by the Old Woman. These are listed in thirty further sections, the last of which provides the assurance of purification as given above.

6 - na-as ma-ah-ha-an wa-ap-pu-i a-ri nu 1 NINDA.SIG wa-ap-pu-wa-as DINGIR.MAH par-si-ya na-at-sa-an wa-ap-pu-i da-a-i

• na-as -- sentence particle; <nu> and + enclitic pronoun; 3rd person singular nominative animate of <-as> he, she, it -- she
• ma-ah-ha-an -- conjunction; <mahhan> as, how, when -- when
• wa-ap-pu-i -- noun; dative singular of <wappu-> river bank -- at the river bank
• a-ri -- verb; 3rd person singular present of hi-conjugation <ar-> arrive -- arrives
• nu -- sentence particle; <nu> and -- ...
• 1 -- numeral; <1> one -- one
• NINDA.SIG -- noun; Sumerogram functioning here as accusative singular of <NINDA.SIG> thin bread -- thin bread
• wa-ap-pu-wa-as -- noun; genitive singular of <wappu-> river bank -- of the River Bank
• DINGIR.MAH -- proper noun; Sumerogram functioning here as dative singular <DINGIR.MAH> presiding deity, Mother Goddess -- for the Mother Goddess # The Hittite reading is Hannahanna.
• par-si-ya -- verb; 3rd person singular present middle of <pars-, parsiya-> break, crumble -- she crumbles
• na-at-sa-an -- sentence particle; <nu> and + enclitic pronoun; 3rd person singular accusative neuter of <-at> he, she, it + locatival particle <-ssan> (indicating upward motion) -- and... it
• wa-ap-pu-i -- noun; dative-locative singular of <wappu-> river bank -- on the river bank
• da-a-i -- verb; 3rd person singular present of hi-conjugation <dāi-, tiya-> place, put -- places

NINDA.IÀ.E.DÉ.A me-ma-al se-er is-hu-u-wa-i

• NINDA.IÀ.E.DÉ.A -- noun; Sumerogram functioning here as accusative singular of <NINDA.IÀ.E.DÉ.A> sweet oil cake -- sweet oil cake
• me-ma-al -- noun; accusative singular neuter of <mēmal> meal -- and meal
• se-er is-hu-u-wa-i -- verb; 3rd person singular present of hi-conjugation <sēr ishuwa-> scatter -- she scatters (... on it)

nu GEŠTIN si-pa-an-ti nu me-ma-i

• nu -- sentence particle; <nu> and -- ...
• GEŠTIN -- noun; Sumerogram functioning here as accusative singular animate of <GEŠTIN> wine -- wine # The Hittite reading is wiyanan.
• si-pa-an-ti -- verb; 3rd person singular present of hi-conjugation <sipānt-> make a libation, sacrifice -- she libates
• nu -- sentence particle; <nu> and -- and
• me-ma-i -- verb; 3rd person singular present of hi-conjugation <mēma-, mēmiya-> say, speak -- she says

7 - wa-ap-pu-wa-as DINGIR.MAH-as ka-a-sa EGIR-pa tu-uk ú-wa-nu-un

• wa-ap-pu-wa-as -- noun; genitive singular of <wappu-> river bank -- of the River Bank
• DINGIR.MAH-as -- proper noun; Sumerogram <DINGIR.MAH> presiding deity, Mother Goddess + Hittite phonetic complement <-as> (indicating nominative singular) -- O, Mother Goddess # Since the vocative was moribund, even in the earliest texts, the nominative is normally used as the case of direct address.
• ka-a-sa -- interjection; <kāsa> behold, lo -- behold
• EGIR-pa -- adverb Sumerogram <EGIR> back, again + Hittite phonetic complement <-pa>... -- back
• tu-uk -- tonic personal pronoun; 2nd person singular dative of <zik> you -- to you
• ú-wa-nu-un -- verb; 1st person singular preterite of mi-conjugation <uwa-, we-> come -- I have come

nu-kan ka-a-sa IM-as ku-e-ez wa-ap-pu-wa-az da-an-za nu zi-ik wa-ap-pu-as DINGIR.MAH tu-e-el ŠU-TI-KA da-a nu ku-u-un EN.SISKUR a-pe-e-ez sa-pi-ya-i na-an 12 ^UZUÚR par-ku-nu-ut

• nu-kan -- sentence particle; <nu> and + locatival particle <-kan> (indicating downward motion) -- ...
• ka-a-sa -- interjection; <kāsa> behold, lo -- behold
• IM-as -- noun; Sumerogram <IM> clay + Hittite phonetic complement <-as> (indicating nominative singular animate) -- this clay
• ku-e-ez -- relative pronoun; ablative singular of <kui-> that, which, who -- from whatever
• wa-ap-pu-wa-az -- noun; ablative singular of <wappu-> river bank -- river bank
• da-an-za -- verb participle; nominative singular animate of hi-conjugation <dā-> take -- is taken
• nu -- sentence particle; <nu> and -- and
• zi-ik -- tonic personal pronoun; 2nd person singular nominative <zik> you -- you
• wa-ap-pu-as -- noun; genitive singular of <wappu-> river bank -- of the River Bank
• DINGIR.MAH -- proper noun; Sumerogram functioning here as vocative <DINGIR.MAH> presiding deity, Mother Goddess -- O, Mother Goddess
• tu-e-el -- tonic personal pronoun; 2nd person singular genitive of <zik> you -- your
• ŠU-TI-KA -- noun; Sumerogram functioning here as dative singular of <ŠU> hand + Akkadian phonetic complement <-TI> (indicating abstract noun) + Akkadian enclitic possessive pronoun; 2nd person singular of <-KA> your -- in your hand # The Akkadian phonetic complement is derived from Akkadian qatim, genitive singular of qatu 'hand'. The expression was, however, read in Hittite, and the Hittite word for 'hand' in the dative singular was kissrī
• da-a -- verb; 2nd person singular imperative of hi-conjugation <dā-> take -- take
• nu -- sentence particle; <nu> and -- and
• ku-u-un -- demonstrative pronoun; accusative singular animate of <kā-, kī-> this -- this
• EN.SISKUR -- noun; Sumerogram accusative singular animate of <EN.SISKUR> lord of the ritual -- the patient # This expresssion, literally 'lord' or 'master' of the ritual, the SISKUR, refers to the person on whose behalf the ritual is performed.
• a-pe-e-ez -- demonstrative pronoun; ablative singular of <apā-> that -- him or her # The opening lines state that the ritual may be performed on behalf of a man or a woman.
• sa-pi-ya-i -- verb; 2nd person singular imperative of mi-conjugation <sapiya-> cleanse, scrub, rub -- scrub
• na-an -- sentence particle; <nu> and + enclitic personal pronoun; 3rd person singular accusative animate of <-an> him, her, it -- him or her
• 12 -- numeral; <12> twelve -- twelve
• ^UZUÚR -- noun; Sumerogram; singular functioning here as accusative <ÚR> limb -- limbs # The noun probably lacks plural marking because the preceding numeral signals plurality. The determiner UZU 'meat' indicates things made of flesh.
• par-ku-nu-ut -- verb; 2nd person singular imperative of mi-conjugation <parkunu-> clean, purify -- purify

nam-ma wa-ap-pu-wa-as IM-an da-a-i

• nam-ma -- adverb; <namma> furthermore, moreover -- then
• wa-ap-pu-wa-as -- noun; genitive singular of <wappu-> river bank -- of the riverbank
• IM-an -- noun; Sumerogram <IM> clay + Hittite phonetic complement <-an> (indicating accusative singular animate) -- clay
• da-a-i -- verb; 3rd person singular present of hi-conjugation <dā-> take -- she takes

nam-ma-as sa-ku-ni-ya pa-iz-zi

• nam-ma-as -- adverb; <namma> furthermore, moreover + enclitic conjunction <-ma> but, and + enclitic personal pronoun; 3rd person singular nominative of <-as> he, she, it -- she
• sa-ku-ni-ya -- noun; allative singular of <sakuniya-> spring -- to the spring
• pa-iz-zi -- verb; 3rd person singular present of mi-conjugation <pāi-> go -- goes

nu 1 NINDA.SIG par-si-ya na-at sa-ku-ni-ya-as pu-ru-ut da-a-i

• nu -- sentence particle; <nu> and -- and
• 1 -- numeral; <1> one -- one
• NINDA.SIG -- noun; Sumerogram functioning here as accusative singular of <NINDA.SIG> thin bread -- thin bread
• par-si-ya -- verb; 3rd person singular present middle of <pars-, parsiya-> break, crumble -- crumbles
• na-at -- sentence particle; <nu> and + enclitic personal pronoun; 3rd person singular accusative neuter of <-at> he, she, it -- and it
• sa-ku-ni-ya-as -- noun; genitive singular of <sakuniya-> spring -- of the spring
• pu-ru-ut -- noun; accusative singular of <purut> mud, soil, earth -- namely the mud
• da-a-i -- verb; 3rd person singular present of hi-conjugation <dā-> take -- she takes

NINDA.IÀ.E.DÉ.A me-ma-al su-uh-ha-i

• NINDA.IÀ.E.DÉ.A -- noun; Sumerogram functioning here as accusative singular of <NINDA.IÀ.E.DÉ.A> sweet oil cake -- sweet oil cake
• me-ma-al -- noun; accusative singular neuter of <mēmal> meal -- and meal
• su-uh-ha-i -- verb; 3rd person singular present of hi-conjugation <suhha-> scatter -- she scatters

nu GEŠTIN si-pa-an-ti nu me-ma-i

• nu -- sentence particle; <nu> and -- and
• GEŠTIN -- noun; Sumerogram functioning here as accusative singular animate of <GEŠTIN> wine -- wine
• si-pa-an-ti -- verb; 3rd person singular present of hi-conjugation <sipānt-> make a libation, sacrifice -- she libates
• nu -- sentence particle; <nu> and -- and
• me-ma-i -- verb; 3rd person singular present of hi-conjugation <mēma-, mēmiya-> say, speak -- says

8 - zi-ik-kan ma-ah-ha-an sa-ku-ni-is GE₆-az KI-az pu-ru-ut EGIR sa-ra-a sa-ku-ni-es-ke-si nu e-da-ni an-tu-uh-si A-NA EN.SISKUR IŠ-TU ^UZUÚR^HI.A-ŠU i-da-lu pa-ap-ra-tar QA-TAM-MA arha mu-ta-a-i

• zi-ik-kan -- tonic personal pronoun; 2nd person singular nominative <zik> you + locatival particle <-kan> (indicating downward motion) -- you # This is a nominative used as a vocative.
• ma-ah-ha-an -- adverb; <mahhan> as, how, when -- just as
• sa-ku-ni-is -- noun; nominative singular of <sakuni-> spring -- O spring # The i-stem form is a variant of sakuniyas. The nominative is used as a vocative here.
• GE₆-az -- adjective; Sumerogram <GE₆> dark + Hittite phonetic complement <-az> (indicating ablative singular) -- dark # The Hittite reading is dankuiyaz.
• KI-az -- noun; Sumerogram <KI> earth, world + Hittite phonetic complement <-az> (indicating ablative singular) -- from the... earth # The Hittite reading is taknāz.
• pu-ru-ut -- noun; nominative singular of <purut> mud, soil, earth -- mud
• EGIR -- adverb; Sumerogram <EGIR> back, again -- back
• sa-ra-a sa-ku-ni-es-ke-si -- verb; 2nd person singular present iterative of <sarā sakuniya-> bubble up -- keep bubbling... up
• nu -- sentence particle; <nu> and -- in the same way
• e-da-ni -- demonstrative pronoun; dative singular of <e-> this -- to this
• an-tu-uh-si -- noun; dative singular of <antuwahhas> human being, person -- person
• A-NA -- preposition; Akkadogram <ANA> (functioning as graphic indicator of the dative-locative) -- for
• EN.SISKUR -- noun; Sumerogram functioning here as dative singular of <EN.SISKUR> lord of the ritual -- for the patient
• IŠ-TU -- preposition; Akkadogram <IŠTU> (functioning as graphic indicator of the ablative) -- from
• ^UZUÚR^HI.A-ŠU -- noun; Sumerogram <ÚR> limb + Sumerian plural marker <-HI.A>... + Akkadian enclitic possessive pronoun; 3rd person singular <-ŠU> his, her -- his limbs
• i-da-lu -- adjective; accusative singular neuter of <idālu-> evil, harm -- evil
• pa-ap-ra-tar -- noun; accusative singular neuter of <paprātar> impurity -- impurity
• QA-TAM-MA -- adverb; Akkadogram <QA-TAM-MA> just so -- in the same way # The Hittite reading is apenissan.
• arha mu-ta-a-i -- verb; 2nd person singular imperative of mi-conjugation <arha mutāi-> remove -- remove

nam-ma sa-ku-ni-ya-as IM-an da-a-i

• nam-ma -- adverb; <namma> furthermore, moreover -- then
• sa-ku-ni-ya-as -- noun; genitive singular of <sakuniya-> spring -- of the spring
• IM-an -- noun; Sumerogram <IM> clay + Hittite phonetic complement <-an> (indicating accusative singular animate) -- clay
• da-a-i -- verb; 3rd person singular present of hi-conjugation <dā-> take -- she takes

ku-e-et-ma-an-ma MUNUS.ŠU.GI ke-e da-as-ke-ez-zi EGIR-an-ma-as-sa-an ÍD-i pe-ra-an ^GIŠZA.LAM.GAR^HI.A ŠA GI ka-ru-ú i-ya-an-ta

• ku-e-et-ma-an-ma -- adverb; <kuitman> when, while + enclitic conjunction <-ma> but, and -- but while
• MUNUS.ŠU.GI -- noun; Sumerogram functioning here as nominative singular animate of <MUNUS.ŠU.GI> old woman, wise woman -- the wise woman
• ke-e -- demonstrative pronoun; accusative plural neuter of <kā-, kī-> this -- these things
• da-as-ke-ez-zi -- verb; 3rd person singular present iterative of <dā-> take -- is taking
• EGIR-an-ma-as-sa-an -- adverb; Sumerogram <EGIR> back, again + Hittite phonetic complement <-an>... + enclitic conjunction <-ma> but, and + locatival particle <-san> (indicating downward motion) -- meanwhile
• ÍD-i -- noun; Sumerogram <ÍD> river + Hittite phonetic complement <-i> (indicating dative singular) -- the river # The Hittite reading is hāpi.
• pe-ra-an -- postposition; <pēran> beside, in the presence of -- beside
• ^GIŠZA.LAM.GAR^HI.A -- noun; Sumerogram functioning here as accusative singular of <ZA.LAM.GAR> ceremonial tent + Sumerian plural marker <-HI.A>... -- tents
• ŠA -- preposition; Akkadogram <ŠA> (functioning as graphic indicator of the genitive) -- of
• GI -- noun; Sumerogram genitive singular or plural of <GI> reed -- of reeds # The Hittite word for 'reed' is n:ata-.
• ka-ru-ú -- adverb; <karū> before, previously -- previously
• i-ya-an-ta -- verb participle; accusative plural neuter of <iya-> do, make -- have been built

i-ya-an-zi-ma ku-wa-pi

• i-ya-an-zi-ma -- verb; 3rd person plural present of mi-conjugation <iya-> do, make + enclitic conjunction <-ma> but, and -- do they make it
• ku-wa-pi -- interrogative adverb; <kuwāpi> when, where -- where

nu ku-wa-pi har-sa-u-wa-ar ma-ni-in-ku-wa-an NU.GÁL ^GIŠAPIN Ú-UL a-ra-an-za nu ^GIŠZA.LAM.GAR^HI.A a-pi-ya i-ya-an-zi

• nu -- sentence particle; <nu> and -- ...
• ku-wa-pi -- adverb; <kuwāpi> when, where -- where
• har-sa-u-wa-ar -- noun; nominative singular of <harsauwar> cultivation -- cultivation
• ma-ni-in-ku-wa-an -- adverb; <maninkuwan> nearby, near -- nearby
• NU.GÁL -- verb; Sumerogram <NU.GÁL> there is not -- there is no
• ^GIŠAPIN -- noun; Sumerogram functioning here as nominative <^GIŠAPIN> plow -- the plow
• Ú-UL -- adverb; Akkadian negative <ŪL> no, not -- not
• a-ra-an-za -- verb participle; nominative singular animate of <ār-> arrive, reach -- has come
• nu -- sentence particle; <nu> and -- ...
• ^GIŠZA.LAM.GAR^HI.A -- noun; Sumerogram functioning here as accusative singular of <ZA.LAM.GAR> ceremonial tent + Sumerian plural marker <-HI.A>... -- the tents
• a-pi-ya -- adverb; <apiya> then, there -- there
• i-ya-an-zi -- verb; 3rd person singular present of mi-conjugation <iya-> do, make -- they build

Lesson Text

⁶ na-as ma-ah-ha-an wa-ap-pu-i a-ri nu 1 NINDA.SIG wa-ap-pu-wa-as DINGIR.MAH par-si-ya na-at-sa-an wa-ap-pu-i da-a-i
NINDA.IÀ.E.DÉ.A me-ma-al se-er is-hu-u-wa-i
nu GEŠTIN si-pa-an-ti nu me-ma-i

⁷ wa-ap-pu-wa-as DINGIR.MAH-as ka-a-sa EGIR-pa tu-uk ú-wa-nu-un
nu-kan ka-a-sa IM-as ku-e-ez wa-ap-pu-wa-az da-an-za nu zi-ik wa-ap-pu-as DINGIR.MAH tu-e-el ŠU-TI-KA da-a nu ku-u-un EN.SISKUR a-pe-e-ez sa-pi-ya-i na-an 12 ^UZUÚR par-ku-nu-ut
nam-ma wa-ap-pu-wa-as IM-an da-a-i
nam-ma-as sa-ku-ni-ya pa-iz-zi
nu 1 NINDA.SIG par-si-ya na-at sa-ku-ni-ya-as pu-ru-ut da-a-i
NINDA.IÀ.E.DÉ.A me-ma-al su-uh-ha-i
nu GEŠTIN si-pa-an-ti nu me-ma-i

⁸ zi-ik-kan ma-ah-ha-an sa-ku-ni-is GE₆-az KI-az pu-ru-ut EGIR sa-ra-a sa-ku-ni-es-ke-si nu e-da-ni an-tu-uh-si A-NA EN.SISKUR IŠ-TU ^UZUÚR^HI.A-ŠU i-da-lu pa-ap-ra-tar QA-TAM-MA arha mu-ta-a-i
nam-ma sa-ku-ni-ya-as IM-an da-a-i
ku-e-et-ma-an-ma MUNUS.ŠU.GI ke-e da-as-ke-ez-zi EGIR-an-ma-as-sa-an ÍD-i pe-ra-an ^GIŠZA.LAM.GAR^HI.A ŠA GI ka-ru-ú i-ya-an-ta
i-ya-an-zi-ma ku-wa-pi
nu ku-wa-pi har-sa-u-wa-ar ma-ni-in-ku-wa-an NU.GÁL ^GIŠAPIN Ú-UL a-ra-an-za nu ^GIŠZA.LAM.GAR^HI.A a-pi-ya i-ya-an-zi

Translation

⁶ When she arrives at the river bank, she crumbles one thin bread for the Mother Goddess of the River Bank and places it on the river bank. She scatters sweet oil cake and meal on it. She libates wine and she says:

⁷ "O, Mother Goddess of the River Bank, behold, I have come back to you." "From whatever river bank this clay is taken, take the clay in your hand, scrub the patient with it and purify him or her in his or her twelve body parts." Then she takes clay of the river bank. And, moreover, she goes to the spring. And she crumbles one thin bread, and she takes it -- (namely) the mud of the spring. She scatters sweet oil cake and meal. And she libates wine and says:

⁸ "Just as you, O, spring, keep bubbling back up from the dark earth, in the same way, for the patient, from his or her limbs remove evil impurity." Then she takes clay of the spring. But while the wise woman is taking these things, meanwhile reed tents have been built previously beside the river. (The scribe:) "Where do they build them?" (The wise woman:) "Where there is no cultivation nearby, where the plow has not come, they build the tents there."

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:

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:

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

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:

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

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:

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'.

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:

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:

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:

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:

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:

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:

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:

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

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

41. 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.

41.1. 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:

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:

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:

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:

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:

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

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

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:

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:

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.

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

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:

Tunnawi:

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:

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:

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:

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

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

43.3. Infinitive with object

The infinitive itself may take a direct object:

43.4. Adverbial infinitives

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

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:

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.

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.

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:

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'.

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

Tapusza may also take a noun in the genitive:

The postposition pēran 'before' may take the accusative:

It may also take the genitive, however:

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

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

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:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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:

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

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:

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':

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).