Volume 100, Issue 2

A close examination of the Old Babylonian Sumerian song CT 58, 12, in terms of its graphic arrangement and its literary patterns, leads to a better understanding of its performance: male and female singers participate, soloists and choir alternate, and vocables feature prominently besides the Sumerian text. The song can be situated within the marriage ceremony.

In this article it is argued that in Hittite the members of the sign pairs ta vs. da , ka vs. ga and ke / i vs. ge / i represent phonologically distinct sounds in word-initial position. The signs ta and da represent a normal fortis and a glottalized fortis stop, respectively: ta = /ta/ vs. . The signs ka and ke / i , on the one hand, and ga and ge / i , on the other, represent a fortis and a lenis stop, respectively: ka and ke / i = /k-/ vs. ga and ge / i = /g-/. The distribution of the fortis and lenis stops in word-initial position in Hittite is then compared to the situation in the Luwic branch. Moreover, it is argued that the phonetic values of these signs directly reflect their value as attested in the Old Babylonian texts from Alala VII.

Zu verschiedenen Verträgen und Instruktionen in hethitischer Sprache werden neu erkannte Joins und Duplikate vorgestellt und kurz diskutiert.