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Initial sp and st in Hittite

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2026

E. H. Sturtevant
E. H. Sturtevant*
Affiliation:
Yale University
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Extract

One of Hrozný's Hittite etymologies which may fairly be called obvious is the connection of šipanti 'he pours a libation' with Gk. and Lat. spondeo. Hrozný, to be sure, translated the word ‘opfert’, and thus lost the most convincing item in the case. The precise meaning of the word was established by Sommer and Ehelolf, who, however, somewhat pedantically refused to recognize the IE etymology except by implication; they mentioned it only in a parenthesis, ‘ohne damit der Verbindung mit σπϵ́νδ∈ιν das Wort reden zu wollen’.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 4 , Issue 1 , March 1928 , pp. 1 - 6
Copyright
Copyright © 1928 Linguistic Society of America

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References

1 Die Sprache der Hethiter 41.

2 Boghazköi-Studien 10. 15 f.

3 Sturtevant, Language 3.161–168, 215–25 (1927).

4 See Ehelolf, Kleinasiatische Forschungen 1. 148 f. (1927).

5 See Tenner, Ein Hethitischer Annalentext des Königs Mursilis II 24.

6 Keilschrifttexte aus Boghazköi 2.1 = Hrozný. BoSt. 3. 1–27.

7 BoSt. 10. 74f.

8 KF 1. 137–42 (1927).

9 Language 3. 219f. (1927).

10 Zeitschrift für Assysiologie, Neue Folge 3. 187–8 (1927).

11 I do not understand Friedrich's hesitancy about the meaning of this word. The object so designated is covered with a cloth, and bread is put on it. It stands in much the same surroundings as the ideographic GIŠBANŠUR, although the phonetic compliment of GIŠBANŠUR-um (acc, Keilschrift-Urkunden aus Boghazköi 12. 65. 13) forbids us to identify the two.

12 See Barton, The Origin and Development of Cuneiform Writing 127.

13 See Bezold, Babylonisch-Assyrisches Glossar 183b. The Hittites often confused d and t in Accadian as well as in their own language.

14 References in Boisacq, Dictionnaire Étymologique de la Langue Grecque 894.

15 Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der Indogermanischen Sprachen 2. 668–72.

16 See Weidner, Studien z. Hethitischen Sprachwissenschaft 66; Tenner, HAT20.

17 See most recently Walde-Pokorny, VWIS 2. 603.

18 Sommer and Ehelolf BoSt. 10. 56f; Götze Hatt. 80f.

19 KBo. 3. 6. 2. 24–5 = Götze 18. 41–2.

20 KBo. 3. 6. 3. 66–7 = Götze 32. 25–6.

21 See Hrozný, Code Hittite 124. 8.

22 See Brugmann, Grundriss der Vergleichenden Grammatik der Idg. Sprachen 22. 3. 256.

23 See Friedrich ZA NF 3. 198 and fn. 2 (1927).

24 See references in Walde-Pokorny, VWIS 2. 620.

25 See Friedrich ZA NF 1. 140–4 (1924); Sommer and Ehelolf BoSt. 10. 42–3.

26 American Journal of Philology 48. 249–51 (1927).

27 See Götze, Hatt. 72.

28 This meaning was suggested by Hrozný, Die Sprache der Hethiter 96, on the basis solely of phonetic resemblance to Lat. septimus, etc. Kellogg, Hittite Numerals 60 ft., tries to prove its correctness by an analysis of the text.