Local Adverbs in Hittite: Synchrony and Diachrony

Abstract

Abstract Words expressing spatial relationships in Hittite are synchronically adverbs, not case forms of nouns as sometimes alleged. They are attested in three distinct syntactic roles: postpositions, preverbs, and freestanding adverbs. Some of these local adverbs are inherited from Proto‐Indo‐European, while others reflect petrified case forms of nouns. Postpositions from inherited local adverbs originally were construed with the dative‐locative, while those from nouns took the genitive. The agreement patterns of enclitic possessive pronouns with postpositions show that the nominal postpositions developed variously from dative‐locative, ablative, and accusative case forms. By attested Hittite, the postpositions from inherited adverbs and those from nominal case forms have mutually influenced each other's syntax, and both sets can be construed either with the dative‐locative or with the genitive (including enclitic possessives).