Ejective stops in Hittite: evidence for a phonemic length distinction

Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, vol. 85, pp. 149–163

Abstract

Abstract In this article, it is argued that Hittite did not only possess a series of long ejective stops, as has previously been proposed, but that it also knew a series of short ejective stops. In this way, the Hittite stop system can be analysed as consisting of two types of stops, plain and ejective ones, with both types showing a length opposition: plain short /t/ vs. plain long /tː/, and ejective short /t’/ vs. ejective long /t’ː/.

Authors 1

1. Alwin Kloekhorst corresponding Aachen

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, Leiden, The Netherlands