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Maurice Bloomfield

1855-1928

Elsewhere will be written of his greatness; this page is but a token of the affection of his pupils and fellow workers.

ORIGINAL h IN HITTITE AND THE MEDIO-PASSIVE IN T

E. H. STURTEVANT

YALE UNIVERSITY

I have tried to show (LANGUAGE 3. 109-22) that Hittite h occurs where the Indo-European languages have bh initial, and I can now make two or three additions to the material there presented. In LANGUAGE 4. 122 f. I have connected halanta 'head' with Greek paλós ·λeukós, ❤aλaκpós 'bald', and Sanskrit bhālam 'forehead', on the assumption that the original meaning of the Hittite word was 'bald'. Hittite haš-, hašk- 'open',1 must be identified with IE *bhosos 'naked', whence Lithuanian basas 'bare-foot', Old English bær, etc. The verb pihiš-, which, accompanied by the adverb arha, means 'strike off, cut off, take off' or the like,2 contains the verbal prefix pe-, while hiš- is an extension in s of the root which appears in IE *bhei- 'strike' (Old High German bihal 'axe', etc.), and whose extended form *bheid- means 'split' (Sanskrit bhinadmi, Latin findo, etc). Another instance of h = bh after the verbal prefix pe- is pehar(k)- 'hold towards' (Keilschrifttexte aus Boghazköi 4. 2. 2. 25, Keilschrift-Urkunden aus Boghazköi 13. 4. 4. 37) beside har (k)- 'have' on which see LANGUAGE 3. 117 f.

The only Hittite word in which I can find IE bh medial is nepiš 'sky', which must be Greek véços, Skt. nabhas 'cloud'. This alone would be too narrow a basis upon which to erect a phonetic law; but there is some further reason for thinking that Pre-Indo-European medial bh did in fact yield the Hittite sound which is written either b or p. For that would harmonize with the development of the other aspirates into the corresponding Hittite stops (dh>t/d, ĝh and gh>k/g, g1⁄4h>ku/gu). Examples of these changes were given in LANGUAGE 3. 121, except for the development of ĝh. This last is illustrated by gimmanza 'winter',' beside Gk. xeiμa, Skt. hemantas 'winter', etc.

1 See Ehelolf, Kleinasiatische Forschungen, 1. 1412, (1927).

* See Sturtevant, Transactions of the American Philological Association 58. 19 (1927).

'See Walde-Pokorny, Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der Indogermanischen Sprachen 2. 137 f.

• See Sommer, Boghazköi-Studien 4. 18–23.

Nevertheless medial h is very common in Hittite words, a considerable number of which have obvious IE etymologies. Since, however, there is nothing in the IE cognates to correspond to the Hittite h, we must conclude either that the h is a Hittite innovation or that the IE languages have here lost a sound which Hittite has preserved. The second alternative is certainly to be preferred, since Hittite medial h stands in such various surroundings that it would be impossible to define any conditions under which it could have been developed.

Medial h follows a consonant in ešhar 'blood', which is the same word as Gk. čap, Skt. asṛk 'blood'. The genitive ešnaš indicates that h was lost between consonants in Hittite.

Parallel with the pair ešhar: čap stands tešhaš 'dream': 0eós 'god'. That the Gk. word has lost intervocalic s is shown by léoparos 'spoken by a god' and several other compounds. Some scholars connect @eós with MHG getwas 'ghost', Lith. dvěsti 'breathe', etc.; but Bartholomae (Wochenschrift für Klassische Philologie 17. 677-1900) was right in maintaining that some trace of an original 0f would surely have survived. Even those who assume that @cós is from *0feσos may be willing to connect our Hittite word with Lat. fānum (<*fas-nom), Oscan fíísnú 'temple' (*fēs-no-), Lat. feriae 'festival', and Armenian dikh 'gods' (IE *dhēses).

The verb ishuwa- 'throw, scatter, shoot (an arrow)" stands in a parallel relationship with Gk. lós 'arrow', except that the Gk. word has gone over to the o-declension. The original u-stem survives in Skt. işuş 'arrow'. We shall presently (163) find another Hittite word which preserves original h after s.

The group lh appears in walh- 'strike', which I have connected (LANGUAGE 3. 220) with Gk. ßáλλw 'hit, throw' (Arcadian éσdéλλovtes) on the basis of PIE **gelh-, **gh-. The Hittite word is almost identical in meaning with ẞáλλw in its most primitive force, as in Il. 16. 806 f.: ὅπιθεν δὲ μετάφρενον ὀξέι δουρί

ὤμων μεσσηγύς σχεδόθεν βάλε Δάρδανος ἀνήρ, 'and from the rear a Dardanian hero hit his back between the shoulders with his sharp spear'.

See Sommer and Ehelolf, BoSt. 10. 18. The etymology was proposed by Ehelolf, Ebert's Reallexikon der Vorgeschichte 1. 131.

"See Friedrich, Indogermanische Forschungen 43. 258, (1926).

7 See Sommer and Ehelolf, BoSt. 10. 53; Götze, Hattušiliš 103 f. The etymology was suggested by Kretschmer, KF 1. 10 (1927), but with hesitation that I cannot understand. At the same time Kretschmer identified išhiya- 'bind with Skt. syati, sināti ‘bind.' In this he may well be right, but I am not yet ready to give up my (LANGUAGE 3. 221) connection of the Skt. word with Hittite šai 'he puts on, seals.'

Hittite tarh- (tar-ah-zi, tar-hu-du, etc.) 'conquer's belongs to PIE **ter- 'tremble, cause to tremble, flee, put to flight'. In the IE languages the root usually shows a final s, as in Lat. terreo 'frighten' (<*terseiō), Gk. Tрéw 'flee' (<*tresō); but s is lacking in Skt. taralas 'trembling', and with a different root-determinative we have Gk. тpéμw, Lat. tremo 'tremble', etc. Approximately the Hittite meaning appears in Umbrian tusetu 'fugato'. The other meaning of the Hittite verb. 'be able', must have grown out of the meaning 'conquer'."

As tarh- is to IE *ter-, so is parh- 'drive out, banish; drive hard, speed'10 to IE *per- 'pass through, carry through', whence Gk. Teiρw 'pierce', Lat. porto 'carry', Goth. faran, OE ferian ‘travel'.

Medial h appears before s in tuhš- 'separate, part, end'," which I would connect with Gk. déoμal, devoμaι 'be lacking' (<*devσoμai), Skt. dosas 'defect', duşyati 'he spoils', etc.

Hittite pahs- 'protect'2 must be somehow related to IE *pō(i)'protect' (Skt. pā), on which see Walde-Pokorny, VWIS 2. 72. The s is no doubt the same formative element which appears in many IE and Hittite verb stems and tense stems.

Hittite weh- 'turn' (intransitive),13 is identical in meaning with the IE roots *ver- (Lat. verto, Skt. vṛṇakti, Lith. verpti 'spin', etc.), *uel(Lat. volvo, Skt. vrņoti 'cover', etc.), *uei- (Skt. vayati 'weave', Lith. výti, Lat. vieo 'plait', etc.).14 One must suppose, then, either that PIE had such forms as **uehrt-, **uehrneg-, **uehrp-, etc., or that h in this word is a root-determinative analogous to r, l, and i of the corresponding IE roots. The second alternative is certainly the more attractive. Similarly I am inclined to consider the h of pahš- 'protect'

8 See Zimmern ap. Lehmann-Haas, Textbuch zur Religionsgeschichte2 340; Götze, Hatt. 77.

'The formal parallelism of this etymology and the next might suggest rather IE *ter- 'cross;' but the semantic development would be difficult.

10 See Friedrich, Zeitschrift für Assyriologie NF 2. 277 (1925), Staatsverträge des Hatti-Reiches in Hethitischer Sprache 164 f.

11 See Friedrich, ZA NF 3. 200 (1927).

12 See Hrozný, BoSt. 5. 285; Friedrich, Staatsvert. 26 f.

13 See Sommer, BoSt. 7. 401. Hrozný's (BoSt. 3. 1455) connection of the word with Lat. veho 'carry' is impossible in view of the development of gh in Hittite; and in any case the meaning of veho is not very close to that of the Hittite verb.

14 On these roots and their numerous extensions, see Persson, Beiträge zur Indogermanischen Wortforschung 321 ff., 497, ff., 538 ff.

15 A common verbal suffix in Hittite is -ahh, which produces causatives from adjectives; see Friedrich, ZA NF 1. 16 f. (1924).

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