La heteróclisis en hetita

Abstract

Hittite presents two types of alternance: The type -r/n-, which is inherited and relatively productive, forms nouns within well-defined semantic fields: temporal designations: meh̬ur meh̬unaš; body-parts: kuttar kuttanaš; fluids: watar wetenaš, and basic natural elements: pah̬h̬ur pah̬h̬uenaš. The type -r/ø appears only in the suffix -war/-waš which forms abstract nouns like taruppuwar taruppuwaš ‘meeting’. It is a development exclusive of Hittite. There are three suffixes inflected by the alternance -r/n-; -(a)tar / -(a)nnaš < -(a)tnaš; -eššar/-ešnaš; -war/-unaš. The great development of these suffixes —an exclusive feature of Hittite— seems to be a peculiar innovation of this language, destined to integrate certain stems in its flexion: The suffix -tar/-nnaš, supposedly the inheritor of an I.E. suffix *-ter/-tn-, is used again in order to integrate the *-eH₂/-H₂ stems, which formed abstract nouns already from the l.E. and did not present any other productive type in Hittite. This would be the suffix -atar/-annaš. The suffix -eššar/-ešnaš integrates the *-es/-os I.E. nouns in the Hittite nominal system, which formed abstract nouns already in I.E.; this suffix does not appear in other inflected type in Hittite. The suffix -war/-unaš, on the contrary, is not productive and can create designations of parts of animal bodies and abstract nouns as well.