The Hittite Mediopassive Endings in -ri.

• Author: Woodward, Roger D.

In the chapter introducing this work (pp. 1-43), Yoshida sets out the problem which he is to investigate and the course which he will follow in his investigation. The present mediopassive verb forms of Hittite are marked at times by the attachment of a final syllable -ri - a formant which is perhaps to be linked to the mediopassive -r of certain other Indo-European languages, namely Tocharian, Old Irish, and the Italic languages. Most of the previous investigators, or commentators, have treated the absence or presence of Hittite mediopassive -ri as a matter of free variation. Yoshida proposes to test the often assumed free-variable status of -ri by examining its synchronic distribution within each of the three broad phases of Hittite linguistic history: Old Hittite, Middle Hittite and Neo-Hittite. Yoshida points out that this is a method made possible only by relatively recent advances in the chronology of Hittite documents. On the basis of any synchronic pattern emerging from this examination, he will then seek to delineate the diachronic development of mediopassive -ri within Hittite and, more broadly, within the Anatolian subfamily of Indo-European.

The first chapter concludes with a catalogue of the Hittite texts from which Yoshida's data will be drawn. Stressing the importance of the distinction between texts from a particular period and later copies of such texts, Yoshida subdivides his catalogue as follows: Old Hittite texts in Old Hittite manuscripts (OH); Old Hittite texts in Middle Hittite manuscripts (OH+); Old Hittite texts in Neo-Hittite manuscripts (OH++); Old Hittite texts in manuscripts of undetermined date (OH-); Middle Hittite texts in Middle Hittite manuscripts (MH); Middle Hittite texts in Neo-Hittite manuscripts (MH+); Middle Hittite texts in manuscripts of undetermined date (MH-); and Neo-Hittite historical texts (NH; historical texts having been chosen since historical references within the texts signal that their composition is original to the Neo-Hittite period; see p. 6).

In chapter two ("An Overview of the History of -ri," pp. 44-68), Yoshida presents the results of his search for present mediopassive verb forms in the texts catalogued in the preceding chapter. Listed in opposing columns are first, second, and third person singular and plural verb forms having -ri and those lacking -ri. First treated are Neo-Hittite historical texts (though it appears that only some subsets of the catalogued Neo-Hittite historical texts were actually sampled; see the heading of appendix A, p. 122); next are presented lists of verbs culled from original Old Hittite and Middle Hittite manuscripts (i.e., OH and MH texts). Following these three priority sets are enumerated verb forms occurring in Old Hittite and Middle Hittite texts which are preserved in later manuscripts or in manuscripts of undetermined date.

On the basis of a somewhat impressionistic statistical analysis of the distribution of -ri among verbs from the various phases of Hittite, Yoshida concludes that "the traditional view of -ri as an optional element which appears totally unpredictably is inadequate" (p. 67). This initial examination of the distribution of -ri suggests to Yoshida that the...