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The Ablative in Indo-European and Hittite
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 April 2026
Abstract
[From before the ablaut changes ablatives were formed with suffix tos. The nil-grade of this was ts, which lost its s under certain sandhi-conditions. The resultant t was in Hittite specialized as an instrumental suffix while ts formed ablatives. In Indo-European t is familiar as the ablative ending of o-stems. Indo-Hittite ts became Indo-European s, and this appears in Greek καλῶς, etc., and in ablatives of all declensions except the o-declension. Many Indo-European adverbs of place contain ablatival s, as is shown by such pairs as Greek ἀμφίς = Sanskrit abhítas ‘on both sides.’]
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- Copyright © 1932 Linguistic Society of America
References
1 Hrozný, Die Sprache der Hethiter passim, considered the forms in z locatives, but their true value was recognized by Bork, Orientalistische Literaturzeitung 23. 64 (1920) and by Sommer, Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 33. 94 ff. (1921).
2 Code Hittite 158, Donum Natalicium Schrijnen 3678f.
3 For the system of transliteration used in this paper, see my Hittite Glossary 3-5. That this is not a method of writing sarhuwantat-set is indicated by the variant, sar-hu-wa-an-ta-za-si-it (see Hrozný, CH 708).
4 For further examples, see Ehelolf, IF 43. 316 f.; Delaporte, Grammaire 22 f.
5 Cf. ŠU.DIM-it = ŠU.DIM-az, on which see Götze, Madd. 115.
6 Here should be included ideograms accompanied by Accadian QADU ‘with,‘ e.g. Madduwattas 1. 7, 8, 10, 11, 16, 2. 22.
7 Cf. Sommer, BoSt. 10. 26, 30, 53; Tenner, HAT 21; Götze, KlF 1. 1993.
8 See Lang. 4. 228-31 (1928).
9 JAOS 47. 181-4 (1927). I no longer believe in the second part (177-81) of that paper.
10 Leumann, Stolz-Schmalz Lateinische Grammatik5 299, thinks that intus is the only adverb of this type that Latin inherited. I cannot accept his view, partly because it seems improbable that this word alone would induce analogical formations, partly on account of the existence of sus- (*subs) beside subtus and of penes beside penitus (see below, p. 9 f.) and finally because I do not see how the pair in: intus could form penitus beside penes (which is vital to Leumann's theory).
11 For other examples see Götze, Madd. 78 f.; Delaporte, Gramm. 26, 31 f.
12 The historical IE languages do not enable us to decide between original d and t (see Brugmann, Grund. 22. 2. 164), but we must assume t rather than d as the result of ts. For an explanation of the circumflex accent, see below, p. 8.
13 Bopp, Vergleichende Grammatik §183; Curtius, Studien 10. 218 ff.; J. Schmidt, Pluralbildungen 352 ff.; etc.
14 Indogermanische Grammatik 3. 46 f.
15 Der Indogermanische Ablativ 3 f.
16 Friedrich, ZA 5. 54 f. and references.
17 See Sommer and Ehelolf, BoSt. 10. 26 f.
18 See Ehelolf, IF 43. 316 f.
19 Hittite a-stem ablatives in anza [ants] and instrumentals in anta [ant] (see Götze, KlF 1. 192; Ehelolf, IF 43. 316) are due to the analogy of the n-stems and the r/n-stems. Cf. dialectic Gk. datives pl. 
, etc.
20 BB. 5. 183 (1880).
21 For our present schematic purpose we may disregard the well-known IE changes of tt.
22 The nasal in the first syllable is in doubt (see Walde-Pokorny 1. 323), but that does not affect our present point.
23 See Hermann, Silbenbildung im Griechischen und in den andern indogermanischen Sprachen 33; Kieckers, Handbuch der vergleichenden gothischen Grammatik 135.
24 For the history of this word, see Boisacq s.v.
25 See Renou, Grammaire Sanscrite 159.
26 Walde-Pokorny 1. 190; Prokosch, Sounds and History of the German Language. The latter scholar will state his position more fully in his forthcoming Outline of German Historical Grammar.
27 See an article of mine to appear in JAOS 52.