The Source of the Hittite hi-Conjugation

Abstract

Hittite verbs fall into two conjugations, one of which shows in the first person singular active an ending -mi and the other an ending -6i; it is customary to speak of the mi-conjugation and the 6i-conjugation. Now Greek verbs are commonly classified as pF-verbs and wverbs. Consequently it naturally occurred to Hrozn?, Sprache der Hethiter 101, that, as the Hittite ending -mi is identical with Gk. -$L, so Hitt. -hi ought to be identical with Gk. -w. The first attempt to carry through this suggestion in detail has just been published by Couvreur, Annuaire de l'Institut de Philologie et d'Histoire Orientales et Slaves 4.551-73 (1936). Since the author is one of those who accept the laryngeal hypothesis,j he must identify the consonant of the ending -hi with an IE laryngeal. He has some doubt as to whether he should see in it the voiceless spirant, which he writes h and I shall write x, or the voiced spirant, which he writes ' and I shall write y. Since x is held to induce a-color of a neighboring vowel, the former hypothesis requires the assumption that IE bher5 comes from *bhero-ax or *bhero-xa; but the Stosston of Lith. velN, etc., is against such a development (cf. Hirt, Handbuch der griechischen Lautund Formenlehre2 468). Consequently he prefers to start with *bhero-y. This, however, causes difficulty; for Couvreur, Hett. h2 140-94, holds that original y yields Hittite 6, as against hh from x, while the first person singular of the hi-conjugation ends in -hhi when a vowel precedes the ending (e.g. da-ah-4i). He tries to get around the difficulty by citing such orthographies as da-a-ah-i in three or four passages (all still unpublished) beside hundreds of occurrences of da-a6-ki,