Locative-directional preverbs in the Hattian and Abkhazian-Adyghe languages: a comparative aspect by A.P. Tikhonova
Aza Petrovna Tikhonova
Candidate of Philology, Associate Professor of English Philology Department, Adyghe State University.
Bulletin of the Adyghe State University. Series 2: Philology and Art History, 4 (187) 2016.
For the first time an attempt is made to single out locative-directional prefixes in the Hattian verbs, reveal their meaning and functions by comparing them with locative-directional prefixes in the Abkhazian-Adyghe languages. While singling out prefixes we took into consideration legitimate sound correspondences of vowels and consonants in the Hattian and Abkhazian-Adyghe languages:voiced-voiceless, palatal-hard, etc. Hattian sentences are given in Latin, their Abkhazian-Adyghe matches in the Cyrillic alphabet and Latin transliteration in square brackets. The materials of the study were bilingual texts «The God of Moon Fallen from the Heaven» and «A Building Ritual». The methodology of the investigation is based on L. Talmy’s cognitive semantics and typology. Orientation relationships are used for analyzing the meaning of Hattian verbal prefixes.
The analysis of the Hattian locative-directional prefixes and their comparison with Abkhazian-Adyghe locative-directional prefixes made it possible to reveal: 1) their coincidence in form and function; 2) the generality of archetype of locative-directional meanings in the matches; 3) the use of incorporation to widen the meaning of a locative prefix. Thus, in spite of a long time gap between the Hattian and Abkhazian-Adyghe languages, the locative-directional matches in the languages make it possible to speak of their close relationship. The results of the investigation may be used for writing books on history of Hattian and Abkhazian-Adyghe languages and for reconstruction of languages that have no writing.
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See also:
+ Common West Caucasian: The Relation of Proto-West Caucasian to Hattic by Viacheslav Chirikba
+ How credible is the hypothesis that Circassian/North West Caucasian languages are related to Hattic? by Thomas Wier