Hittite grammar


The grammar of the Hittite language has a highly conservative verbal system and rich nominal declension. The language is attested in cuneiform, and is the earliest attested Indo-European language.

Basic noun and adjective declension

The nominal system consists of the following cases: nominative, vocative, accusative, genitive, dative-locative, ablative, ergative, allative, and instrumental, and distinguishes between two numbers and two genders, common and neuter. 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, which is valid for almost all nouns and adjectives. The sample word shown is antuhsa meaning "man".

Verb conjugation

When compared with other early-attested Indo-European languages, such as Ancient Greek and Sanskrit, the verb system in Hittite is morphologically relatively uncomplicated. There are two general verbal classes according to which verbs are inflected, the mi-conjugation and the hi-conjugation. There are two voices, two moods and two tenses.
Additionally, the verbal system displays two infinitive forms, one verbal substantive, a supine and a participle. Rose lists 132 hi-verbs and interprets the hi/mi oppositions as vestiges of a system of grammatical voice.
The basic conjugational endings are as follows:

Literature

Dictionaries

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