BMCR 2009.05.49: Probert on Hoffner, A Grammar of the Hittite Language. Part 1: Reference Grammar; Part 2: Tutorial. Languages of the Ancient Near East; 1

Harry A. Hoffner, Jr., H. Craig Melchert, A Grammar of the Hittite
Language. Part 1: Reference Grammar. Languages of the Ancient Near
East; 1.  Winona Lake, IN:  Eisenbrauns, 2008.  Pp. xxii, 468; CD-ROM.
ISBN 9781575061191.  $59.50.

Harry A. Hoffner, Jr., H. Craig Melchert, A Grammar of the Hittite
Language. Part 2: Tutorial. Languages of the Ancient Near East; 1.
Winona Lake, IN:  Eisenbrauns, 2008.  Pp. vi, 75.  ISBN 9781575061481.
$22.50.

Reviewed by Philomen Probert, Wolfson College, University of Oxford
([email protected])
-------------------------------
To read a print-formatted version of this review, see
http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2009/2009-05-49.html
To comment on this review, see
http://www.bmcreview.org/2009/05/20090549.html
-------------------------------

Tables of contents are given at the end of the review.[[1]]

This new Hittite grammar and accompanying teaching volume have long
been awaited and fully live up to expectations. Not only are the
authors outstanding scholars of the language, but they have taken great
care to present the grammar accurately and clearly and to organize the
teaching volume well.

The grammar begins with a very helpful introduction giving the most
essential background on the Hittites, the language and its
decipherment, the corpus of texts, and the most important modern
reference works. Although some of the information given here will
inevitably date fairly quickly (under Dictionaries one might already
add A. Kloekhorst's useful Etymological Dictionary of the Hittite
Inherited Lexicon, Leiden/Boston 2008), at the moment it is extremely
useful for beginners to be able to orient themselves in Hittite
studies, and for those with some background already to get themselves
up to date. One may also find out here the answers to questions
frequently asked of those who deal even slightly with Hittite, such as
how many Hittite tablets and fragments are currently known (the answer
is well over 30,000) and whether new texts continue to be found (the
answer is yes).

The grammar then helpfully follows the traditional arrangement
beginning with orthography and proceeding to phonology, declensions and
conjugations, uses of grammatical categories, and the structure of
clauses. The work concludes with an indispensable chapter giving the
reader the small amount of knowledge of Sumerian grammar and the larger
amount of Akkadian grammar needed to understand the Hittites' use of
'Sumerograms' (logograms ultimately of Sumerian origin), and of
'Akkadograms' (the spelling of some words, parts of words, and phrases
in Akkadian although they were pronounced in Hittite, as if English
texts included such forms as pays, pronounced 'country'). By applying
the term 'logogram' to both Sumerograms and Akkadograms, the authors
correctly insist on the fact that both are logographic writings;
Akkadograms are syllabic spellings from an Akkadian point of view, not
from a Hittite one.

As the authors say in the preface to the grammar (p. xv), 'Several
generations have learned Hittite with the help of the outstanding
Hethitisches Elementarbuch of Johannes Friedrich (second edition:
1960). However, the passage of more than 40 years has inevitably
rendered parts of Friedrich's grammar outdated or incomplete.' Those,
such as this reviewer, who were indeed brought up on Friedrich, but
nearer to 2009 than 1960, have found that, for all the virtues of the
grammar and reader constituting the Elementarbuch, rather a lot of
remedial work has had to be done as we have tried to catch up on the
developments of the last half century, as well as trying to keep up
with what is happening now. In addition to learning things by a
circuitous route, one almost inevitably ends up missing some things one
ought to know. For this reason, it is extremely pleasing that Hoffner
and Melchert have produced an entirely fresh new grammar of the
language in which facts such as the existence of two classes of
intransitive verbs (similar to those found in the Romance languages,
one class taking the verb 'to be' as an auxiliary and the other taking
the verb 'to have') are not only given the space they deserve in the
grammar but form part of the basic course in Hittite one gets by
working through the tutorial volume. Of course, readers will want to
follow up the scholarly literature on points that interest them;
Hoffner and Melchert make this much easier than it used to be by
referring the reader wherever appropriate to literature that is
important or recent or both. I have so far used the grammar as a
starting point for several reading lists for students as well as to
inform my own reading.

It is a particular virtue of the grammar that the authors manage to be
accessible to those without a background in linguistics, while also
including points that will interest linguists in particular. The
discussion of the two classes of intransitive verbs, for example (pp.
280-3 of the grammar; cf. pp. 13-14 of the tutorial volume), includes
in a footnote (p. 280 n. 7) the pertinent information for people
familiar with the terms 'unergative' and 'unaccusative' and the
concepts these terms refer to, but the main text is well designed not
to lose those not familiar with these concepts. (Later, however, on pp.
312, 325, and 409, the terms 'unergative' and 'unaccusative' do appear
in the main text.)

Another virtue is that the authors mention, albeit unobtrusively,
outdated views that some of us will have got from Friedrich or other
earlier literature, in order to avoid any confusion that might arise if
the up-to-date view were merely presented instead (for example, on p.
134 the authors correct an idea one learnt from Friedrich, that there
are personal pronoun forms with -a extensions, such as a nom. sg. *ziga
or *zigga 'you'; on pp. 325-6 they correct an incorrect account--still
found in some fairly recent literature--of the meaning of a verb of
motion, pai- 'go' or uwa- 'come', in series with another verb). On
points where there is currently debate, the authors succeed in making
clear their own position while pointing the reader to literature where
contrary views are expressed (so p. 43 with n. 80, on the reason for
occasional ablatives ending in -anza).

Where appropriate, the authors discuss the period of the language at
which particular grammatical phenomena appear or disappear; in paradigm
tables, those forms attested in Old Hittite are distinguished using
bold type. The authors make quite clear, however, that the book makes
no attempt to cover the prehistory of the language in any systematic
way: 'We have referred to prehistoric factors only where we feel that
they help elucidate features of attested Hittite or are of broad
interest. We expressly disavow any intent of systematic coverage in
this regard.' (grammar volume, p. xv) This work is thus not the place
to go for the latest on the origin of the hi-conjugation or any such
issue. Where some information on prehistory is given (e.g. on the
endings specific to the pronouns, p. 133 of the grammar) it does indeed
help to explain the Hittite facts and to make them easier to remember.

The grammar is full, well organized and satisfying. In preparing texts
for a reading class, I found that when I became uncertain on a
grammatical point the answer was invariably located swiftly in Hoffner
and Melchert. Inevitably, particular readers will find the occasional
thing confusing in a work of this size,[[2]] and will disagree with the
occasional point.[[3]] This reviewer was not surprised to find very
little to disagree with (given the authors' superior knowledge of
Hittite), but was pleasantly surprised to find very little confusing.

The tutorial volume contains fourteen lessons, each introducing some
Hittite paradigms and most also introducing one or more new grammatical
categories with their uses, and some syntax. The material to be learnt
is for the most part not presented in the tutorial volume itself, but
the user is guided through the parts of the grammar volume relating to
each lesson, being told which sections to read, what to read especially
carefully, and what to memorize. Each lesson finishes with some
(usually fifteen) sentences for translation from Hittite. Especially in
later lessons, many of the practice sentences are taken or adapted from
actual ancient texts. These sentences are marked with special symbols,
and the relevant references are given at the end of the volume. The
practice sentences in the first four lessons are given in so-called
'broad' or 'bound' transcription (an interpretative transcription
without hyphens, easier to use at first than a sign-by-sign
transliteration). The sentences in lessons 5-9 are given first in
sign-by-sign transliteration and then, to help readers make the
necessary transition, also in bound transcription. The sentences in
lessons 10-14 are given only in sign-by-sign transliteration. The
tutorial does not teach Hittite cuneiform signs (indeed, cuneiform
signs hardly appear in either volume, other than a few in the chapter
on orthography and phonology in the grammar volume). This decision will
be regretted by those who would like to be introduced to the signs as
they learn the language, but makes both volumes fully accessible to
those who do not wish to learn the script as well as those who do.[[4]]
Those in the latter category will, however, still need to go elsewhere
to learn the script; the best serious while relatively gentle
introduction I am aware of is still J. Friedrich's out-of-print
Hethitisches Keilschrift-Lesebuch (Heidelberg 1960).

At the end of the tutorial volume the user will have read about half of
the grammar. Although the course thus does not cover all the grammar
the authors lay out in the larger volume, it gives the user an
extremely good basic course and good foundation for picking up chapters
that have not yet been read in their entirety. The authors state
(grammar volume, p. xvi) that 'we have designed the tutorial primarily
for classroom use with an instructor who knows the language. Although
some readers may be able to use the tutorial for self-instruction, we
cannot give assurance that such a method will produce satisfactory
results.' Conversations with people in various universities suggest
that the book has indeed been adopted swiftly for introductory Hittite
classes, and has given the impetus for some new classes. Given the
conditions under which Hittite is often learned, however, the book will
inevitably also be used for independent study. Furthermore, it will be
worked through by those (like this reviewer) who need to be able to act
as teacher or helper but for whom this means first working through and
benefitting from the course themselves. The next four paragraphs are
intended partly to guide those thinking of adopting the book for a
class, and partly to guide those thinking of using the book other than
with an experienced Hittitologist as teacher. The main point to grasp
is that this course is for the serious student; work is needed, but it
pays off and one is rewarded by really learning the language.

The tutorial volume is fairly demanding.	The exercises require that the
relevant parts of the grammar have been thoroughly understood;
sometimes a piece of information needed was in a footnote in the
grammar (thus sentence 6.8 in lesson 6 requires p. 121, n. 204 to have
been taken in when p. 121 was read for lesson 5). Many sentences
include points of grammar not yet covered, or not otherwise covered at
all, with footnotes to guide the reader to the relevant paragraph of
the grammar. I found it satisfying to be guided to the right part of
the grammar rather than just told how to translate something, but
sometimes a necessary piece of information is given a bit fleetingly
even in the grammar (for example, the instrumental of separation is
discussed at p. 269, para. 16.109, to which the reader is referred when
translating sentence 6.5, but the reader is left to infer that this
instrumental can actually agree with an ablative). Sometimes it would
have been useful to be given an extra footnote (for example, sentence
8.12 requires one to recognize a nominative of direct address in the
'embedded appositional construction', which is introduced properly in
lesson 11, although it might have been encountered if one read chapter
16 when told, in lesson one, to see chapter 16 for 'further details' on
the uses of the cases).

Some of the sentences taken or adapted from ancient texts contain
idioms or Hittite ideas that may seem bizarre to those new to the
Hittite world (e.g. in sentence 9.10 the idea of turning someone's eyes
to the mountain). While appropriately making it important for users to
pay careful attention to the grammar, these points (when not explained
in the notes) can also make users unnecessarily uncertain about their
own translations. Furthermore, some sentences have more than one
possible interpretation, at least in the absence of further context.
This is a fact the authors acknowledge (p. 26, n. 92; p. 33 n. 112), as
is the fact that some of the sentences from actual texts may be
analysed more than one way even in context (p. 34 n. 120; p. 42 n.
161). However, the possibility of more than one interpretation is not
always signalled by the authors, and again it can be difficult for a
beginner to tell whether he or she needs to work harder to eliminate
the incorrect interpretation, or has hit upon more than one
grammatically correct possibility. (In sentence 6.7, for example, does
the priestess see the sun god of heaven or does the sun god of heaven
see the priestess? Which of them is eating the bread of life? Only if
one instinctively grasps the whole situation, or has the intuition that
to 'see the sun god of heaven' and 'eat the bread of life' represent
being alive, will one be sure to identify the priestess as the
subject.) For those fortunate enough to participate in a class, of
course, such sentences will provide valuable opportunities for
classroom discussion.

At the back of the tutorial volume there is a cumulative vocabulary for
all the exercises, making it easy to look words up if they were not
learned when first encountered (or have since been forgotten), but
there are some omissions (e.g. ALAM 'statue', huhha- 'grandfather', and
hanna- 'grandmother', all needed for sentence 8.1, are not given
anywhere).

In one respect, by contrast, some sentences are arguably too easy.
Sometimes the user looks up the paragraph of the grammar referred to in
a footnote and finds that the very sentence being attempted is
translated there (e.g. sentence 13.12). The places where this happens
may be frustrating for those using the work in a classroom, but for the
independent student they may well be welcome. Some users will regret
the absence of an answer key. Given that the book is aimed for
classroom use, I do not think the authors should have provided a key,
but somebody else might enjoy the project of producing some
supplementary sentences for each lesson, with key.

Pdf files of both volumes are provided on an accompanying CD. These
files are searchable and page cross-references are hyperlinked to the
page to which they refer (both within the grammar or the tutorial and
between the two). Searching is on the whole very straightforward, and
words with diacritics are found even if one types them without
diacritics. The upper-case transcription of a Sumerogram (e.g. DINGIR)
or Akkadogram (e.g. ABU) can, however, only be found if, having already
located an example, one copies and pastes it into the 'Find' box. (One
may, more easily, search for the likely English translation of a
Sumerogram or Akkadogram, but not every example of the Sumerogram or
Akkadogram will be found.) A pleasingly brief and non-technical set of
tips and recommendations for using the pdf files is provided on the CD.
I found the pdf files perfectly user-friendly without the tips and
recommendations and looked at these only at a late stage, but then
discovered there a more sophisticated way of searching, as well as an
explanation of the non-searchability of DINGIR, ABU, etc. The grammar
does not have a traditional index; the combination of very full table
of contents on the one hand and searching facility on the other
provides a rather good substitute for one--though for those of us not
automatically connected to a computer at all times and in all teaching
contexts, a slight re-thinking of working habits is required. The
searchability of the whole work also makes life a bit easier for those
using the tutorial (especially if they are using it for independent
study), since some help can often be gained e.g. if, having failed to
recognize a form, one tries searching for it in the grammar.

The whole work is nicely produced and I noticed very few typographical
errors. The work is already in its second printing and a small number
of typographical and other errors to the first printing have been
corrected in the second; a list of these is available on the
Eisenbrauns website.
(https://www.eisenbrauns.com/assets/errata/Hittite_Grammar_2ndprinting.pdf)


This work is likely to be the standard Hittite grammar for a
considerable time to come. The combination of grammar and tutorial
volume, and current up-to-dateness of both, makes the present time an
extremely good one to start learning Hittite.

Table of Contents for Part I: Reference Grammar

Introduction
1. Orthography and Phonology
2. Noun and Adjective Formation
3. Noun and Adjective Inflection
4. Noun and Adjective Declension
5. Personal Pronouns
6. Possessive Pronouns
7. Deixis: The Demonstratives
8. Relative and Indefinite Pronouns
9. Numbers
10. Verb Formation
11. Verb Inflection
12. Conjugation of mi-Verbs
13. Conjugation of hi-Verbs
14. Medio-Passive Conjugation
15. Grammatical Agreement
16. Noun Cases
17. Adjectives
18. Pronouns
19. Adverbs
20. Local Adverbs, Preverbs, and Postpositions
21. Verb Voice
22. Verb Tense
23. Verb Mood
24. Verb Aspect
25. Non-Finite Verb Forms
26. Negation
27. Questions
28. Particles
29. Conjunctions
30. Clauses
31. Sumerian and Akkadian
------------------
Notes:


1.   I am very grateful to Helen Sims-Williams, a graduate student who
has successfully used the tutorial to give herself a good grounding in
Hittite grammar, for sharing her reactions to the course. It is not to
be inferred that she necessarily agrees with everything said in this
review.

2.   A point of confusion arose for me (I suspect as a result of
different views of the same sentence creeping into different parts of
the book) in connection with the 'optative and potential' particle
ma-an, which the authors carefully distinguish (pp. 314-15 of the
grammar) from the conjunction ma-a-an 'if, whenever'. Normally the
first of these words is written ma-an (or -ma-an or -ma-n-) while the
second is written with an extra vowel sign (so-called 'plene writing').
The authors state (p. 315) that 'All examples but one (KBo 5.8 iii 15)
of the plene writing of potential man are clause-initial and followed
by a vowel'. This statement suggests that in the sentence beginning
ma-a-an-wa-mu 1-an DUMU-KA pa-is-ti... (KBo 5.6 iii 12-13 = sentence
13.15 in the exercises), the initial ma-a-an is the conjunction 'if'
and not the optative/potential particle. Yet at p. 421, paragraph
30.52, it is suggested rather that the initial ma-a-an is the
optative/potential particle with plene writing.

3.   I had one disagreement in connection with verbal aspect (which is,
however, a difficult subject excellently treated, with a very clear and
accessible presentation of the results of recent work by both authors).
On pp. 169 and 320 of the grammar it is pointed out that multiplicative
adverbs (such as 'once', 'twice', etc.) are never used with the
specifically 'imperfective' verb forms such as those in -ske-. On p.
317 it is suggested that in combination with these adverbs the basic
verb has to be read as imperfective (with the multiplicative expression
providing sufficient indication of imperfectivity). It seems to me more
likely that multiplicative adverbs normally require perfective verb
forms, as in Latin, where multiplicatives such as bis are found with
perfects, not with imperfects (so H. Pinkster, Latin Syntax and
Semantics, tr. H. Mulder, London 1990, p. 223; Pinkster suggests that
the perfect occurs with bis etc. because 'Quantifying expressions of
this kind can typically be applied in retrospect to ended states of
affairs'). In this light, the exceptions mentioned on p. 169, where a
multiplicative adverb is accompanied by a distributive expression such
as 'year by year' (to give sentences meaning e.g. 'Let them read them
aloud before you three times yearly'), make sense: the distributive
expression gives rise to a genuinely imperfective reading.

4.   Many Hittite texts, including the most widely discussed, are
available in transliteration, so that the language is worth learning
even without the script. Learning the script of course makes the full
range of published texts accessible; even a fairly basic acquaintance
with the script makes such things as debates about readings much easier
to follow.