Vowel Assimilation in Hittite

Abstract

A NUMBER of vowel variations Hittite which at times have been taken for ablaut variations with bizarre distribution of ablaut forms, must rather be referred to the principle of vowel assimilation (vowel harmony or Germ. ;Umlaut 1), i.e. the vowel of a preceding syllable is changed so as to conform to that of the following, e to a before a, a to e before e, and e to i before i. The correctness of this assumption is borne out by the following considerations: In the first place, every instance thus explained the ablaut grade which it would be necessary to assume either does not occur elsewhere at all or only poorly attested instances, or, if it does occur, it does not do so the same place as Hittite, and cannot be explained convincingly by Systemszwang or other analogies. In the second place the supposed ablaut grade occurs regularly before an identical vowel of the following syllable, and elsewhere comparatively rarely and when it is easy to account for it by analogical spreading. The most convincing examples necessarily occur the conjugation of the verb, where the vowel assimilation defies the expected regularity of closely knit systems; but the same thing must have occurred other parts of speech, phonetic change as it is, only it is usually much harder than the verb to demarcate it from inherited vowel gradation. A practically certain instance is the adverb andan within = Gr. ZvSov within. The assumption of a grade *on 2 in beside the common *en Gr. Ev is dubious enough anyway, but even if we grant the existence of the former it would be improbable that the peculiar and obviously identical Hittite and Greek words should have been formed from different root grades. Another probable example which affects a substantive as such is Hitt. kalma-s fuel, which is probably identical with