The Indo-European Elements in Hurrian

Hurrian Verb Morphology
6
Verbal Morphology
Hurrian verb morphology is extremely complicated. As in nominal forms, the root comes
first, but, unlike the noun, it is not followed by a stem vowel (“thematic vowel”). The root is
followed by derivational suffixes, followed by aspectual/temporal forms, followed by valency
markers (class markers), negative markers, and person and mood markers. Hurrian verbs clearly
distinguish transitive and intransitive (cf. Bush 1964:177—178). Though most verbs are either
exclusively transitive or intransitive, some can be used as both, for example: un- ‘(intr.) to
come; (tr.) to bring’; na¯¯- ‘(intr.) to sit down; (tr.) to set, to put, to place’; an- ‘(intr.) to be
pleased; (tr.) to please’. 84 The endings of transitive verbs agree with the person and number of
their subject, but this is not the case with intransitive verbs. The direct object and the subject of
intransitive verbs, when they are not represented by an independent noun, are indicated by clitics
and pronouns.
One of the notable characteristics of Hurrian verb morphology is “valency”. Valency
refers to the number of noun phrases governed by the verb. The valency of a verb can be
modified either by changing the valency marker or by using a suffix that indicates intransitive.
According to Speiser (1941:85), Hurrian distinguished between three valency markers (Wilhelm
and Bush call them “class markers”; Diakonoff [1957:5], on the other hand, calls them
“indicators of transitiveness and intransitiveness”):
(1) -a-: one valency, intransitive, apparently only with verbs of motion;
(2) -i-: two valencies, transitive used in the active voice; and
(3) -u-: two valencies, transitive used in the passive voice. 85
Hurrian person names can exemplify this system. The valency marker is followed by the
(obsolescent) Hurrian pronoun *-b representing ‘P3 sg. + past tense’, 86 often written with ,
or the more recent -š. The three valency markers function as follows:
- Unab-šenni ‘a brother came’ (intransitive)
- Tadu-Àeba (fem.) ‘Àebat is loved’ (transitive in the passive voice)
84 Examples from Wilhelm (2004a :110).
85 Wilhelm’s (2004a:111) approach does not seem to fit the pattern of person names.
86 It can be noted that -b seems to be missing, especially in feminine person names. Speiser (1941:139) nevertheless
rejects the idea that this may have a connection with grammatical gender.