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Department of the Classics, Harvard University
Selected Studies in Indo-European Phonology
Author(s): Gordon Myron Messing
Reviewed work(s):
Source:
Harvard Studies in Classical Philology,
Vol. 56/57 (1947), pp. 161-232
Published by:
Department of the Classics, Harvard University
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SELECTED
STUDIES
IN INDO-EUROPEAN PHONOLOGY
MESSING
By
GORDON
MYRON
Introduction
In
1917,
after virtual
the
1
by
deciphering F. Hrozny of theHittite
cuneiform
scholarswere
materialfromBoghazkii, Indo-European
to
confronted a wealthof linguistic
factswhichhad somehow be
by
with the generalpictureof Indo-European.Here were
reconciled
textswhosegeneralIndo-European
and
character
(morphology sig-
nificantitems of vocabulary) shone clear through
the confusing
mediumof the cuneiform
and
writing whichcould be dated several
centuries
earlierthan the date usuallyassignedto the oldestVedic
so
from
hymns.Yet thelanguagediffered markedly
Indo-European,
in the separateIndo-
as we know the latterfrom
correspondences
as to raisethequestion:does Hittite
show
Europeanlanguages,
really
us an earlierstage of Indo-European preserving
archaisms
else-
by
where
withtheother
lost,or is it on an equal footing
Indo-European
extensive
innovation?
The first
alternative,
though
showing
tongues,
the so-calledIndo-Hittite
as
hypothesis, suggested Kretschmer
by
2
and Forrer and stillmaintained E. H. Sturtevant, Hittite
sets
in
by
to
as
sharpcontrast otherIndo-European
languagesand recognizes
Hittitearchaisms
such itemsas the lack of feminine
loss of
gender,
a
inflexion thepluralin nouns,
of
lack of *to-in the
d-stems, curious
the
pronominal
stems,and, in particular, presenceof an h-sound
3
of independent
of
the
origin. But to moststudents Hittite, second
alternativeis more attractive;grantingthat Hittite may show
we
archaisms, mustnonethe less postulatea rapidand far-reaching
seriesof transformations recognize
and
indubitable
tracesof much
exertedby some or otherof the neighboring
influence
non-Indo-
Europeantongues.4
2
MDOG, LXI,
25.
Sprache der Hethiter,1917.
' For
I
simplicity shall use h for4 throughout.As thereis only one h-sound
in Hittite,eithertranscription possible; similarly, forS.
is
s
'Precise sources can only rarelybe known. Cf. Hitt. tarkumma(i) 'to inter-
our
pret' fromAccadian targuman'interpreter,' English dragoman.
1
Die
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162
Gordon Myron Messing
We have cited the h-soundof Hittiteas of independent
origin.
This statement
mustbe justified,
sinceit is of capitalimportance
for
whichis to follow.It can easilybe shownthat those
the discussion
have evolvedit
Indo-European
languageswhichpossessan h-sound
'h
as
from
some othersoundor sounds,5 Latin h from or Germanic
h fromk, or else have developedit as an intervocalic
glide as in
stahu
is
Umbrian
<*stlld, Lat. sto. The latterphenomenon usually,
not
confined thoselanguages
to
which notuse i
do
though invariably,
this
and u as glides.6As usuallyfoundin the separatelanguages,
as
h-soundmay be described the noise of friction
producedby a
of
current air insufficient vibratethe vocal chords;7a voiced
to
in
is
variety found Sanskrit.
In Hittite
cuneiform
are
there sometwelve
syllabicsignsto desig-
the
nate in various combinations h-sound,whichis commonand
detailsshouldbe noted: h is foundin the
stable. A fewimportant
relatedLuwian and in hieroglyphic
Hittite; the initialcombinations
-hh-is common inter-
in
hi- and he-are extremely
rare; thespelling
to
vocalicposition,
contrary the rule in Accadian. In two or three
withand without notablyin the
cases there
existvariantspellings
h,
case of eshar'blood,'eshanasor esnas,and in hannas'grand-
genitive
8
to
besideannas 'mother,' but theseruncounter thegeneral
mother'
esnas as indicating
of
stability the soundin Hittite;some interpret
of
The interchange h and k which
consonants.
theloss of h between
Weidner assumed seems confinedto foreignwords. G6tze and
of
an
Pedersen find interchange h and r in wahnumanzi/warnumanzi
9
of
adducesseveralotherspellings thisword
Couvreur
'burn,'though
If
this
to
in theendeavor showthatit is borrowed.10 authentic, sole
of
castssomelighton theHittite
pronunciation theh-sound,
example
vibra-
between velarr without
the
forit wouldpointto a confusion
and Sanskritloan-words.
is rare exceptin interjections
Umbrian uses all three,the h-glidebeing perhaps an Italic innovation.
6
7Leonce Roudet, Elementsde
phonit.
gen.,p.
133-
h to followthe analogy of attas 'father'(cf. Lat. anus, Gr. dvils).
9
Mur.
Sprach.,
pp.
28-32.
10
Couvreur,
Hett. H, pp. 54-5.
' E. H.
Sturtevant, Lang. 15.153
(I939),
SFull
discussionin Couvreur,Hett. H, pp. 29-47. Note that in Tocharian h
believes that annas has lost an initial
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Selected Studies in Indo-European Phonology
163
tion
and the voiced velar fricative(y). Just so, educated
(.) of
before back
a
willidentify
their
value of-y
Greek
speakers modern
vowel with the Parisian French (velar) r. But it may be that
is
is
Couvreur's
againsta
objection sound,sincethere someevidence
h,
singlevoicedHittite as willappearshortly.
were made to connectthe
Almostfromthe beginning,
attempts
on
Hittitehiwithsomesoundor soundsof Indo-European thebasis
of etymologies.11
Here let us make anothergeneralwarning.The
Hittitevocabulary a jungle. Few Hittiteetymologies entirely
is
are
of
and
satisfactory, I shall cite only thesefew. Earlierderivations
h from s, k, yh and so on wererefuted convincing
IE
by
agree-
,
Lat. septem; ki- 'lie,' Gr.
KEdat;
genu,Lat.
ments,
e.g. siptamiya-,
Gr.
Lat. hiems, xa)v, to mention
'winter,'
genu,Gr.-yvv;gimmant
and
only a fewout of many. Meanwhile,Cuny and Kurylowicz,
thath had no
had reachedthe conclusion
Couvreur,
independently
in
consonantal
languages
representatives the otherIndo-European
in
and was rather be identified
to
withthephonemes
postulated the
12
systemof de Saussure whichunitedwiththe normale-vowelto
form d or 6 on the analogyof the shortdiphthongs.
Cuny and
j,
H. Miller were not slow to connect these phonemeswith the
to
foundin the Semiticlanguages, raise anew the ques-
laryngeals
tion of a commonoriginfor Semiticand Indo-European.At all
the
to
events, Hittiteh.was foundin manycases to correspond an
a- or o-colored
vowel in the otherIndo-European
languages:Hitt.
hanti,Gr.
vrT';
Hitt. hastai,Gr.
arTE'ov.
Now it is a factwellknown
fromthe Semiticlanguagesthat the laryngeal
consonants
have the
the
vowel,but thequestion
powerto modify qualityof a contiguous
of
and
whatvariety laryngeal howmanyof them
immediately
arises,
mustwe consider.
A peculiarity the Hittitescriptmust be noted. Hittite,like
of
Accadian,
Elamite,and Mitannihas apparently
givenup thedistinc-
is
tion betweenvoiced and voicelessstops; the same phenomenon
observedin Tocharian,except that in this language the voiceless
them.
summarizes
n Couvreur,ibid., pp.
58-70
conveniently
sur le systemeprimitif
des voyelles dans les langues indo-euro-
called O and A by de Saussure.
peennes,1878;
12
Mmoire
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164
Gordon Myron Messing
whilein Hittitevoicelessand voiced stops
stops alone are written,
almostinterchangeably,
are written
WalterPetersen
though
guessed
that the voiced/voiceless
relationwas replacedby a distinction
of
lenesand fortes.13
Sturtevant suggested
has
voice-
thatthe original
less stopswerewritten
doublein the interior wordswhileoriginal
of
on
voiced stops were written
single.14StefanEinarssonsuggested
the basis of Icelandicand Finnishevidencethat the voicelessstops
a
are in general
the
longer, factwhichmight
justify Hittitewriting,
if it is true.15
bothsingleand double,some have as-
Since theh is also written
a
were so dis-
sumedthat originally voiced and voicelesslaryngeal
will come up later,it may be
Whileall theseproblems
tinguished.
here that most of the recentworkson Indo-European
remarked
schematic
withregard phonetic
to
ablaut theory highly
are
interpre-
assumedby
tation. On the face of it, the threeor fourlaryngeals
if
and Sturtevant
requiremuchjustification we
Cuny,Kurylowicz,
that two of them have admittedly
remember
disappeared from
Hittite,and all fourhave passed out of "Indo-European."In par-
ticularthe so-called"glottalstop of velarcolor,"assumedto fitthe
a
fewcases in whichHittitedoes not matchIndo-European withha
is
there onlyone glottal
but witha, willseema merestratagem:
stop
?)
(writtenphonetically as it exists today in Danish or Arabic
that the theoretical
It seems of great importance
(alif-hamza).16
should be groundedon phoneticpossibility.Such a
assumptions
which
formas Sturtevant's
reconstructed
*dkei'qxa is a formula
the
neither eye northe ear.
satisfies
and
showsan h as a frequent stable
Hittite
thusfar,
To summarize
with
to
demonstrated be unconnected
whichcan be readily
phoneme
or
as
such a consonant consonants those in Indo-Europeanfrom
has developed.At the same timea gen-
whicha secondary
h-sound
betweenthe singleand the
in
eral distinction Hittiteorthography
European archaismin Hittite. But Couvreur points to the constantconserva-
with g, and of kuis with k.
tive spellingof genu,gimmant
66 (I933).
4Comp. Gr., paragraph
to the Stops in Hittite" in Lang. 8.177-82
16
G. Noil-Armfield, General Phonetics, p.
107.
15"Parallels
(1932).
13
Lang.
9.12
ff. (I933).
To Cuny (RHA, II,
2o9-10,
1931) this was an Indo-
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