Comparative Notes on Hurro-Urartian, Northern Caucasian

Vs. I 1). Two other similar verbal forms follow: ta-al-ma-aÍ-ti-i-li “I will praise“ (ib. I 2-
3; derived from the stem of talmi “great” by means of the verbal suffix -aÍt-) and kat-ti-
il-li “I will speak” (ib., I 4 and 7; the stem of the verb kad- “speak” in -il-). In the next
part of the bilingual composition, a Voluntative form based on another stem (in -ul-) of
the same verb is used: ka 4 -du-ul-li/ka 4 -tú-li “I will add (to this) = I will give you
another fable” (ib. I 23-24; 25; 40; IV 7; 8; 21; 33; 34; 53; 54). In the bilingual Hurrian-
Hittite text, the modal forms of the other persons in -l- with other morphs are also
used: a-me-la-a-an-ni “let (the fire) burn him” (Optative, with a sequence of two modal
elements as in Urartian forms in -le-ne; see above on the whole formula in connection
with the name for fire), i-ti-la-an-ni = Hittite -ma-na-an wa-la-aß-zi “let (the god
Teshop) strike him” (K Bo XXXII 14 I 6-7), Hurrian sí-ik-ku-ú-ul-li = Hittite ma-an… ar-
ßa(-)du-wa-ar-na-at-ta-ri “let (his arm) be completely broken” (ib., I 47-48 = II 47-48; Rs.
37 = 43-44); Hurrian e-ße-eb-Íu-li = Hittite …ma-an…ú-i-Íu-ri-ya-at-ta-ri “let it be
constricted” (ib., I 48-49 = II 48-49; Rs. 37 = 43-44). Such combinations confirm that in the
dialect of the bilingual text, as in other variants of Hurro-Urartian 413 , the marker -l- in
combinations with other morphs in the same agglutinative chain expressed different
modal meanings. Among them, the Voluntative forms of the 1st Person (also known in
the Mitannian letter and in other dialects) stand out because of the unusual typology of
addressing an order to the self.
Although such forms are typologically unusual, they are encountered at
approximately the same time in three different languages belonging to three different
families but in cultural contact with each other: Hurrian, Hittite and Akkadian. The
morphs expressing this unusual meaning in all three languages contain -l- and in
general can thus be compared to one another (keeping in mind all the difficulties of
poems” can be connected with the counting of the number of the verse units; the conscious approach to
the structure of a musical and metrical poetic composition may be deduced from the cuneiform notation
of a Hurrian song. E. Neu suggests the parallel German Zahl “number”: erzählen “to tell a story”; B.
Vine adds English recount, tell “count” (Shakespeare), Modern bank-teller and tell a story. On the
following Voluntative forms and their Hittite correspondences, cf. Neu, ib., 35-36, 37, 105-106, 123-124;
151-152, 154 (with bibliography).
413 Xachikian 1985a, 104ff.