H. Negation

279) a) To negate the positive sentence, texts usually use the Akkadian UL and seldom the Hittite natta.

b) Other negations are also used : nāwi "not yet" (§224b. 260) and nūwān (nūwān) "not at all ; no more" (§224b).

280) a) The prohibitive negation is lē with the indicative present, cf. §264a.

b) One can sometimes find :

1. lē with the imperative (§264) : nu-tta LÚMEŠ ŠU.GI lē memiskandu "and the elders cannot talk to you", lē-ta nāhi "do not be afraid".

2. once lē with man potential-present in Old-Hittite with the meaning of Lat. utinam ne : lē-man-se LUGAL-us kissan tezzi "may the king not talk of him like this".

281) The negation is placed before the verb, and, for compound verbs, between the particle and the verbal form : nu namma INA ÍDSeha UL pāun "so (§315) I did not go to the land of the river Seha", nu-wa BĒLNI INA URUHayasa lē pāisi "now, our lord, do not go to Hayasa", apiya-ya-ta-kan anda UL daliyami "then I will not let you down", nu-za-kan memiyani sēr lē karussiyasi "do not stay quiet in front of the thing", nu namma dUTUŠI URUDuqqaman saruwawanzi UL tarnahhun "So (§315) I, the Sun, let here the city Duqqama without plundering it".

282) a) However, various accentuated words can attract the negation : nu-wa BĒLNI lē namma uwasi "now, our lord, do not come yet", nu-tta UL kuwatqa ammēl A.ŠÀ kueri anda zahhiya tiyami "now, I will by no means come to fight on my field (and my) soil".

b) The emphatic negation can be placed at the end of short sentences : namma-ma-kan KUR URUHapalla kuenta-ya UL epta-ya-at UL "then you did not strike the land Hapalla and you did not seized it either", nu-war-an sannatti-ya lē munnāsi-ya-war-an lē "now do not hide him and do not conceal him", parkunusi-ma-za UL kuit "but you do not let the least go through".

c) The negation is placed at the beginning of the interrogative sentence : UL-war-an-kan tuētaza memiyanaz kuennir "did not they kill you because of your word (cf. §213b2) ?".

d) The negation can also be doubled to strengthen the negative aspect : nu-war-an huwappi DINGIRLIM-ni UL parā UL kuwapikki tarnahhun "now, I have never, never left him with a bad deity".

283) A negation can act on the following sentence : hassannas DUMU-an idālu lē kuiski iyazi nu-ssi-san ĜÍR-an takkeski "nobody should mistreat a son of the family, nor prepare a dagger against him", ANA BULUĜ3 GIM-an hassatar-set NU.ĜÁL UL-an A.ŠÀ-ni pēdanzi nan NUMUN-an ienzi "since there is no vitality in malt (?), it is not brought to the field and it is not sown".