The problem of the -a ending in the Hittite dative/locative
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Dita Frantíková
Abstract
The allative is one of the three distinct spatial cases that Hittite is known to have used in the course of its written history, alongside the locative and the ablative. The allative ending was -a, and with the i-stems, we find the ending (-i)-ya. In some instances, it is known to have been used in dative-locative function. This feature is confirmed by the post-Old Hittite era, although the allative itself becomes moribund after the Old Hittite period. The traditional hypothesis for this syntactic peculiarity is that it is motivated phonologically: the dative-locative of the i-stems was rather “unmarked”, as the ending -i blended into the stem. This led speakers/writers to use the more overtly marked -iya even for the dative-locative, as -iya did not have any other grammatical function by that time. Whether this hypothesis can be proved or disproved by the textual evidence is the purpose of this paper. An important argument in the discussion is the fact that there are indications that this feature actually appears already in Old Hittite. The textual evidence shows that the case ending -a in its variant -iya in the i- and ai-stems is already used to mark location and beneficiary/recipient in OH/OS. It also refutes the standard view that the -iya ending spread in post-OH to disambiguate the multifunctional dative-locative singular ending -i, in those stem classes or elsewhere.
© 2016 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
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Articles in the same Issue
- Titelei
- Inhalt
- Repetition Analysis Function (ReAF) II
- Studies in Armenian historical phonology (II)
- Hittite kapart-/kapirt - ‘small rodent’ and Proto-Semitic *ˁkbr-t- ‘mouse, jerboa’
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- Latin crassus, grossus, classis
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- Phrygian mekas and the recently discovered New Phrygian inscription from Nacoleia
- The problem of the -a ending in the Hittite dative/locative
- On syncope of u-vocalism in Sabellic
- The Anatolian stop system and the Indo-Hittite hypothesis
- Beiträge zur Tagung. The Sound of Indo-European 3, Opava 2014
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- In defense of Narten roots
- Vowel weakening in the Sabellic languages as language contact
- Beiträge zum Workshop. Indo-European from within, Göttingen 2016
- Indo-European from within
- Zu einigen Perfektbildungen im Sabellischen
- Pronominierte Nominalformen im Altlitauischen
- The development of the Tocharian causative system – top-down or bottom-up?
- A partial tree of Central Iranian
- Induktive versus abduktive Rekonstruktion
