One of the questions concerning the reconstruction of IE forms which needs thorough reconsideration because of the new evidence from Hittite and Tocharian is the extent of the development of middle forms in the parent language; more particularly, whether IE possessed both of those sets of endings which are conventionally called ‘primary’ and ‘secondary’, and even special endings for the perfect, or whether there was only one, as in Latin and Gothic. As long as Aryan and Greek were the only language groups which had well developed middle paradigms, at least without the r-element, it was natural to base on them all conclusions concerning the IE status, and to assume that the parent language also had sets of both primary and secondary endings, but that Italic and Keltic were the innovators in showing no probable trace of the former. However, now that both Hittite and Tocharian are seen to have had complete middle paradigms with and without r, and these paradigms agree not with Aryan and Greek, but with the other IE languages in showing only one set of endings, the weight of evidence has shifted to the other side. It is therefore necessary to re-examine the various middle paradigms to determine which features can be traced to a common source, and whether those which are probably not IE can be plausibly explained as originating in the individual languages.

No satisfactory etymology has been given of Greek ἀτύζομαι ‘to be distraught (from fear), amazed, bewildered’, also 'to be distraught (with grief)' and, with accusative, 'to be amazed at (a thing)'. This verb is generally used in the passive voice; its rare active, ἀτύζω 'to strike with terror', may be considered an informal causative of the basic intransitive ‘to be distraught’, though the latter is naturally, from the strictly formal standpoint, merely a passive of the active. A derivative adjective is ἀτυζηλός ‘terrifying’. The future of the active, ἀτύξω, and the passive aorist participle, ἀτυχθϵίς, show clearly that ἀτύζομαι is a -yo- derivative from a basic *ἀτυγ-. There is no such Greek base quotable from forms lying outside the verb paradigm, apart from the secondary form ἀτυζηλόs. ἀτύζομαι may also conceivably be a simple thematic denominative from an archaic i-stem *atugi-: *atugy-o-mai, but there is no such stem available in Greek.

Friedrich and Goetze have recently shown that Hittite ša-ak-nu-(wa-)an-za means ‘ritually unclean’. The word is used of persons who engage in ritual acts or enter a temple when they are ritually impure. A distinction is sometimes drawn between ‘pure tables’ (GIŠBANŠUR. ḪI.A pár-ku-i-ya-aš) and ‘impure tables’ (GISBANŠUR.ḪI.A ša-ak-nu-wa-an-da-aš), both of which are used in the ritual.