Questions tagged [hittite]
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20 questions
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How do I find cuneiform signs that aren't in the dictionary?
Going through Beckman's edition of The Anatolian Myth of Illuyanka, there are some signs in the transcription that I can't find in standard references. For example, EZEN is used as a logogram for &...
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Does Hittite ever have "morphographemic writings"?
In Akkadian, we often see "morphographemic" spellings, where signs are divided up by morpheme boundaries instead of syllable boundaries. For example, išpur=am "he sent it to me" ...
- 69.5k
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How do we name a sign when we don't know any of its readings?
In the Hittite text CTH 591, we see this curious passage:
9-an ŠI 9-an SIG₇-an 9-an GAŠAN-TI MU-ḪI.A-uš a-aš-šu-ša-aš
9-ACC eye 9-ACC yellow.green-ACC 9-ACC lady- ?? year-PL-ACC good....
- 69.5k
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Is there a systemic reason why some determinatives go after the corresponding substantive?
In Sumerian Cuneiform and its descendants, determinatives are used next to a sign to disambiguatr its meaning. Usually this comes before, like (Hittite examples to follow:) DINGIRIŠTAR, but apparently ...
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Questions about clusters of two dental stops in PIE
Beekes says a sibilant was inserted between two dental stops in PIE, therefore *-tt-, *-dt- > *-tst- and *-d(h)d(h)- > *-d(h)zd(h)- and the cluster is "retained as such in Hittite." ...
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Simplicity of the verb in Germanic languages
English and German have only two tenses (the present and the past) that are formed by inflection, all the others are formed using helping verbs, as is the conditional mood. In the Romance languages ...
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What is known about the Hurrian "wa" compound signs?
According to the classic Hethitisches Zeichenlexikon, Hurrian used a handful of special signs made by combining the WA (aka PI) sign with others: wa+ap, wa+i, wa+pí, wa+ú, wa+e, wa+u, wa+pu, wa+ip, wa+...
- 69.5k
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Is there a consensus on plene spellings in Anatolian?
"Plene" spellings (with extra vowel glyphs, like ma-a-an instead of ma-an or e-es-zi instead of es-zi) are common in Anatolian cuneiform. Sometimes they disambiguate between signs with ...
- 69.5k
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What is "=" in transcriptions of Hittite
I have not yet seen this double-hyphen explained, which is written eg. in An Etymological Dictionary Of The Hittite Inherited Lexicon (Kloekhorsts 2007)
-a (3rd.sg.pres.midd.-ending): see -a(ri)
=a '...
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Was the "a" glyph ever used for ajV in Hittite?
As fdb mentioned in a comment:
The sequence a-a is a scribal convention for ajV [in Akkadian]. Some Assyriologists treat it as a single sign with the “Lautwert” aju, aji, aja
In Hittite, ...
- 69.5k
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Is there good evidence for five vowel phonemes in Hittite?
The Hittite writing system generally distinguishes three, sometimes four vowels: /a i u/ and sometimes /e/.
However, I've seen it suggested that the language actually had five vowel phonemes, ...
- 69.5k
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What happened to "accented velars" in Anatolian?
One of the oldest splits within Indo-European was between the Centum and Satem languages; they differ in what they did to the "accented velar" phonemes (like *ḱ and *ǵ).
However, if I understand ...
- 69.5k
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How can I find the word "behind" a cuneiform logogram?
Suppose I'm looking at a clay tablet, when come across an unfamiliar sign.
Looking up that second glyph in a sign list, I see that it's called GAR; putting that into the ePSD, I'm told it can be read ...
- 69.5k
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Were long vowels distinguished in cuneiform?
Hittite cuneiform occasionally shows "plene" spellings, with extra vowel signs that might indicate vowel length, or show the height of back vowels, or distinguish homophones (like the French grave ...
- 69.5k
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Are there non-binary or gender-neutral cuneiform determinatives?
There seems to be a decent amount of historical evidence for categories of people in ancient Mesopotamia who were considered neither male nor female. However, the standard cuneiform determinatives I'...
- 69.5k
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How can I tell if a vowel is "empty"?
In Hittite cuneiform, every glyph with a phonetic meaning is either V (a vowel), CV (a consonant followed by a vowel), VC, or CVC. As a result, there's no way to represent three consonants in a row ...
- 69.5k
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How do I know if a cuneiform character is a logogram or determinative?
When I'm looking at a Hittite text, occasionally I'll come across a glyph that has no phonetic meaning. This generally means one of two things: either it's a logogram, or it's a determinative. Either ...
- 69.5k
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What is known about the voicing of Hittite consonants?
Most consonants in Hittite appear in two variants, conventionally called "voiced" and "voiceless": "voiceless" consonants are written twice in a row, while "voiced" consonants are written only once. ...
- 69.5k
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Why are the Egyptian and Hittite versions of Tutankhamun's name different?
The sacred writing of Egyptian king Tutankhamun's throne name is shown belong aside the same name as it appears in a letter written in cuneiform to his majesty from the king of the Hittites.
The four ...
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(How) did Hittite borrow words from Sumerian?
It was always my understanding that Hittite borrowed the cuneiform script from the Sumerians via Akkadian. This would prevent Hittite from borrowing lexemes from Sumerian unless Akkadian borrowed them ...
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