Editing Hittite language (section)

==Morphology==
{{Main|Hittite grammar}}
Hittite is the oldest attested Indo-European language,<ref>Coulson 1986, p. xiii</ref> yet it lacks several grammatical features that are exhibited by other early-attested [[Indo-European languages]] such as [[Vedic Sanskrit|Vedic]], [[Classical Latin]], [[Ancient Greek]], [[Old Persian]] and [[Avestan language|Old Avestan]]. Notably, Hittite did not have a masculine–feminine gender system. Instead, it had a rudimentary noun-class system that was based on an older animate–inanimate opposition.

===Nouns===
Hittite [[inflection|inflects]] for nine [[grammatical case|cases]]: [[Nominative case|nominative]], [[Vocative case|vocative]], [[Accusative case|accusative]], [[Genitive case|genitive]], [[Dative case|dative]]-[[Locative case|locative]], [[Ablative case|ablative]], [[Ergative case|ergative]], [[Allative case|allative]], and [[Instrumental case|instrumental]]; two [[grammatical number|numbers]]: singular, and plural; and two [[animacy]] classes: animate (common), and inanimate (neuter).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.assyrianlanguages.org/hittite/hittite_grammar.pdf |title=Hittite Grammar |website=Assyrianlanguages.org |access-date=2017-01-17}}</ref> Adjectives and pronouns agree with nouns for [[animacy]], [[grammatical number|number]], and [[grammatical case|case]].

The distinction in [[animacy]] is rudimentary and generally occurs in the [[nominative case]], and the same noun is sometimes attested in both animacy classes. There is a trend towards distinguishing fewer cases in the plural than in the singular. The [[ergative case]] is used when an inanimate noun is the [[subject (grammar)|subject]] of a [[transitive verb]]. Early Hittite texts have a [[vocative case]] for a few nouns with ''-u'', but it ceased to be productive by the time of the earliest discovered sources and was subsumed by the nominative in most documents. The [[allative case|allative]] was subsumed in the later stages of the language by the [[dative case|dative]]-[[locative case|locative]]. An archaic [[genitive case|genitive]] plural ''-an'' is found irregularly in earlier texts, as is an [[instrumental case|instrumental]] plural in ''-it''. A few nouns also form a distinct [[locative case|locative]], which had no case ending at all.

The examples of ''pišna-'' ("man") for animate and ''pēda-'' ("place") for inanimate are used here to show the Hittite noun declension's most basic form:

{| class=wikitable style=text-align:center
|-
! rowspan="2" | &nbsp;
! colspan="2" | Animate
| rowspan="11" | &nbsp;
! colspan="2" | Inanimate
|-
! Singular || Plural || Singular || Plural
|-
! Nominative
| pišnaš || pišnēš || rowspan="2" | pēdan || rowspan="2" | pēda
|-
! Accusative
| pišnan || pišnuš
|-
! Ergative
| pišnanza || pišnantēš || pēdanza || pēdantēš
|-
! Vocative
| colspan="2" | pišne || – || –
|-
! Genitive
| colspan="2" | pišnaš || colspan="2" | pēdaš
|-
! Dative/Locative
| pišni || pišnaš || pēdi || pēdaš
|-
! Ablative
| colspan="2" | pišnaz || colspan="2" | pēdaz
|-
! Allative
| pišna || – || pēda || –
|-
! Instrumental
| colspan="2" | pišnit || colspan="2" | pēdit
|}

===Verbs===
The verbal morphology is less complicated than for other early-attested [[Indo-European languages]] like [[Ancient Greek]] and [[Vedic Sanskrit|Vedic]]. Hittite verbs [[inflection|inflect]] according to two general [[grammatical conjugation|conjugations]] (''mi''-conjugation and ''hi''-conjugation), two [[grammatical voice|voices]] ([[Active voice|active]] and [[Mediopassive voice|medio-passive]]), two [[grammatical mood|moods]] ([[indicative mood]] and [[imperative mood|imperative]]), two aspects (perfective and imperfective), and two [[grammatical tense|tenses]] ([[present tense|present]] and [[preterite]]). Verbs have two [[infinitive]] forms, a [[verbal noun]], a [[supine]], and a [[participle]]. Rose (2006) lists 132 ''hi'' verbs and interprets the ''hi''/''mi'' oppositions as vestiges of a system of grammatical voice ("centripetal voice" vs. "centrifugal voice").

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! style="background:#C0F0C0"| &nbsp;
! style="background:#C0F0C0"| ''mi''-conjugation active
! style="background:#C0F0C0"| ''ḫi''-conjugation active
! style="background:#C0F0C0"| Shared medio-passive
|-
|colspan="4" style="background:#FFDEAD; text-align:center;"| '''Indicative present'''
|-
| 1. Singular || ''-mi'' || ''-ḫḫi'' || ''-ḫḫa/-ḫḫari/-ḫḫaḫari''
|-
| 2. Singular || ''-ši'' (also: ''-ti'') || ''-ti'' || ''tta/-ttari'' (or ''-tati'')
|-
| 3. Singular || ''-zzi'' || ''-i'' || ''a/-ari/-tta/-ttari''
|-
| 1. Plural ||colspan="2" style="text-align:center"| ''-wēni/-wāni/-uni'' || ''-wašta'' (or ''-waštari'')
|-
| 2. Plural ||colspan="2" style="text-align:center"| ''-ttēni/-ttāni'' (or ''-šteni'') || ''-dduma/-ddumari'' (or ''-ddumat'')
|-
| 3. Plural ||colspan="2" style="text-align:center"| ''-anzi'' || ''-anta/-antari''
|-
|colspan="4" style="background-color:#FFDEAD; text-align:center"| '''Indicative preterite'''
|-
| 1st singular|| ''-un/-nun'' || ''-ḫḫun'' || ''-ḫḫat/-ḫḫati/-ḫḫaḫat/-ḫḫaḫati''
|-
| 2nd singular|| ''-š/-ta'' || ''-ta'' (also: ''-š'') || ''-ttat/-ttati'' (or ''-tta/-at'')
|-
| 3rd singular || ''-ta'' || ''-š/-iš/-eš/-ta'' (or ''-šta'') || ''-at/-ati/-ta/-ttat/-ttati''
|-
| 1st plural ||colspan="2" style="text-align:center"| ''-wen'' || ''-waštat/-waštati''
|-
| 2nd plural ||colspan="2" style="text-align:center"| ''-tten'' (or ''-šten'') || ''-ddumat/-ddudumati''
|-
| 3rd plural ||colspan="2" style="text-align:center"| ''-ir'' || ''-antat/-antati''
|-
|colspan="4" style="background-color:#FFDEAD; text-align:center"| '''Imperative present'''
|-
| 1st singular|| ''-allu'' || ''-allu/-lu'' || ''-ḫḫaru/-ḫḫaḫaru''
|-
| 2nd singular|| null, ''-t'' (or ''-i'') || nul, ''-i'' || ''-ḫuti/-ḫut''
|-
| 3rd singular|| ''-tu'' || ''-u'' (or ''-štu'') || ''-aru/-ttaru''
|-
| 1st plural ||colspan="2" style="text-align:center"| ''-wēni/-wāni'' || *''-waštati''
|-
| 2nd plural ||colspan="2" style="text-align:center"| ''-tten'' (or ''-šten'') || ''-ddumat/-ddumati''
|-
| 3rd plural ||colspan="2" style="text-align:center"| ''-andu'' || ''-antaru''
|}