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Hittite Etymologies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2026

Edgar H. Sturtevant
Edgar H. Sturtevant*
Affiliation:
Yale University
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Abstract

[1. Hittite u-, we-, wa- ‘hither’ and awan ‘down’ are cognate with Latin au- ‘away’, Sanskrit ava ‘down’, and related words. 2. Hitt. pe-har(k)-‘carry’ is cognate with Indo-European ∗bher-; pe- ‘secum’ is from Indo-Hittite ∗∗bh: Greek φή ‘as’, IE ∗bho- ‘both’, and the case-endings in bh. 3. Hitt. paimi ‘I go’ is from IH ∗∗bh-eimi, while we-, wo- ‘come’ is cognate with Gk. ἔβŋν, Skt. agām, etc.]

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 7 , Issue 1-Part1 , March 1931 , pp. 1 - 13
Copyright
Copyright © 1931 Linguistic Society of America

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References

1 Zeitschrift für Assyriologie NF 2. 53, Staatsverträge des Hatti-Reiches in Hethitischer Sprache 2. 146.

2 For the meaning ‘lead’, see below, p. 7.

3 Cf. Sommer, ZA 33. 86 ff. In this paper cuneiform signs are accented according to Thureau-Dangin's Le Syllabaire Accadien (Paris, 1926). Straight capitals are used for Sumerian ideograms and slanting capitals for Assyrian words and phonetic complements. Roman characters and italics are used for Hittite words and phonetic complements.

4 Cf. Hrozný, Boghazköi-Studien 3. 172.

5 Cf. Götze, Hattušiliš 50 f.

6 Cf. Friedrich, Der Alte Orient 24. 3. 13.

7 Supplemented from the duplicate, Keilschrift-Urkunden aus Boghazköi 21. 15. Cf. Götze, Neue Bruchstücke zum Grossen Text des Hattušsiliš (Hatt. 2) 46 f.

8 Cf. Friedrich, Der Alte Orient 25. 2. 10.

9 Staatsvertr. 1. 423, 180.

10 See Hrozný, BoSt. 3. 1144; Sommer, BoSt. 4. 102; and the indexes to various editions.

11 For the orthography uwa = wa, see American Journal of Philology 50. 363 ff., and cf. pp. 9 ff., below.

12 On the IE evidence, see Walde-Pokorny, Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der Indogermanischen Sprachen 1. 13–15, and references.

13 See especially Götze, Madduwattaš 135 f.

14 See Language 6. 226 f.

15 See especially Sommer, BoSt. 7. 7 and footnote 2; Sommer and Ehelolf, BoSt. 10. 30.

16 I should consider pe harzi parallel to pedai rather than to šara dai, as Götze does.

17 For the interpretation, see Ehelolf, K1F 1. 1394.

18 The passage is important also for establishing the meaning ‘lead’ for the verb nai-, whose identity with Skt. nayati ‘leads, guides’ I have noted in Lang. 3. 221 f. and 6. 33 f. To the formal coincidences previously discussed should be added Hitt. nai = Skt. nināya < IH ∗∗(ni)nēi.

19 See Götze, Hatt. 83.

20 For the initial p from bh, see Journal of the American Oriental Society 50. 125–8.

21 On IH h, see Lang. 4. 159–70, 6. 149–58, JAOS 50. 125–8.

22 See Walde-Pokorny, VWIS 2. 136.

23 JAOS 50. 127.

24 Götze (l.c.) classes pai- with the verbs in ai/e, and the other he calls irregular.

25 I suggest that this verb be indentified with Gk. ΐŋμι, of course without the reduplication, The nil grade ∗∗ may be found in the first sing, pret., but elsewhere I should assume ∗∗iē-. Cf. Marstrander, Caractère Indo-européen de la langue Hittite 120, 125.

26 Cf. Götze, Madd. 96; Delaporte, Éléments de la Grammaire Hittite 59 §208.

27 See especially KUB 15. 32. 1. 50 ff., where we have in the space of three lines hu-u-it-ti-ya-an-ni-eš-ki-u-wa-ni, tal-li-eš-ki-u-wa-ni, mu-ki-iš-ga-u-e-ni, and pé-eš-ga-u-e-ni, all belonging to the iterative-durative conjugation.

28 See Hrozný, SH 172; Götze, Madd. 56.

29 See Götze, Hatt. 2. 32.

30 Memoires de la Société de Linguistique de Paris 23. 258.