Terumasa OSHIRO, Some Aspects of Hieroglyphic Luwian: The purpose of this brief paper is to clarify some obscure linguistic aspects of Hieroglyphic Luwian, a member of the Luwian branch. This language, which is used in the Hieroglyphic inscriptions of the 1st millennium B. C., was formerly recognized as ‘Hieroglyphic Hittite’, but this term is now abandoned. It is important to note that there should be a clear distinction between the cultural use of the term ‘Hittite’ and its linguistic use. Thus Hieroglyphic Luwian obviously inherited various linguistic elements from Pre-Luwian. However, we can point out some peculiar elements in this language. Especially we shall be concerned with the linguistic characteristics compared with Hittite, such as the -hi conjugation of -i/-ia, -tisa, subordinate conjunctions of kuman, REL-i, REL-à, and the local adverb INFRA-ta.
On the -hi conjugation we might suggest that Hieroglyphic Luwian first inherited the contrast between -mi and -hi conjugations from Common Anatolian and then lost it, except the -ti/-i contrast (prs. sg. 3). Incidentally -tisa (prs. sg. 2) and -ta (prt. sg. 2) endings might be considered as the remains of -hi conjugation. The -ti/-i contrast in Hieroglyphic Luwian will be similar to that in Hittite. But it is difficult to understand why the -mi/-hi contrast is preserved only in the third person singular present in this language. Further, kuman is clearly compared with kuitman in Hittite, which can be analyzed into *kuit and *man, though the Hieroglyphic Luwian form is different from the early compound form as the result of the linguistic Luwoid innovation. And we can indicate two forms of the local adverbs meaning “under”: SUB-na-na (*anan) parallel to annan in Cuneiform Luwian and ene in Lycian, and INFRA-ta (*kata) compared with katta in Hittite. The distinction between the two forms can't be clearly defined from the functional point of view, but it is probable that there is a functional contrast between them.
The evidences mentioned above ought to suggest one of the two posibilities: either Hieroglyphic Luwian inherited some archaic elements from Common Anatolian, or Hieroglyphic Luwian originally created and innovated them, perhaps under the indirect influence of Hittite. Therefore, this problem will be discussed in future from the viewpoint of the comparative study.
