E. Postpositions

228) a) Hittite does not use prepositions but postpositions. The boundary with adverbs and verbal particles is partially formal.

b) Hittite can often express syntactic relations usually conveyed by our prepositions by means of the only declined forms (without postpositions) ; the Dat.-Loc. É-ri means without postposition "in the house" and "to the house", and the ablative URU-az "out of the city".

c) α) The same construction is usually used for the questions "where ?" and "where to ?" : ^ĜIŠBANŠUR-i piran means "in front of the table" (where ?) and "to the front of the table" (where to ?).

β) 1. One can find difference only between HUR.SAĜ-i sēr "at the top of the mountain" and HUR.SAĜ-i sarā "to the top of the mountain".

2. The difference between É-ri anda "in the house" and É-ri andan "into the house" is seldom made, even if it exists in the strict sense.

229) The confusion between the notions "where ?" and "where to ?" induces that most Hittite postpositions govern the dative-locative. Some of them govern the ablative (to the question "where from ?"), and it happens that the genitive is freely used with postpositions. Postpositions governing the accusative are very rare (pariyan, §233), and none occurs with the instrumental.

230) a) The following postpositions for example govern the dative-locative :

• anda (andan) "in, into" ("where ?" and "where to ?") : É-ri anda (andan) "in the house, into the house" (cf. §228cβ2).
• piran "in front of" ("where ?" and "where to ?") : ^ĜIŠBANŠUR-i piran "in front of the table, to the front of the table".
• appa (appan) locally "behind", temporally "after" : ^Étarnui appan "behind the washhouse, to the back of the washhouse".
• katta (kattan) "under, underneath" ("where ?" and "where to ?") ; also "next to, with" and "to" : ^ĜIŠBANŠUR-i katta(n) "under the table, to the underneath of the table", ÍD-i katta(n) "downstream of the river, to the downstream direction of the river", tuqqa katta "with you (Sg.), to your house".
• sēr "on" ("where ?") ; also "for, because of" : suhhi sēr "on the roof", ÌR-i sēr "for the slave", ANA LÚ^MEŠ KUR Amurra sēr "because of the people of Amurru".
• sarā "onto" ("where to ?") : suhhi sarā "onto the roof".
• istarna "among, between" ("where ?" and "where to ?") : DINGIR^MEŠ-as istarna "among the gods", ANA KUR ^URUHatti istarna "to the interior of the land Hatti".
• handas "according to, in accordance with" : nakkiyanni handas "according to the esteem".

b) However, most of these postpositions also govern the genitive : LUGAL-was piran "in front of the king", attas-mas appan "after my father", annasas katta "with his mother".

c) One can also occasionally find the ablative, either with a characteristic meaning : URU-az katta "down out of the city", or without difference of meaning : tuzziyaz appa "behind the army".

231) tapusza (tapūsa) "along, next to" uses the dative-locative : hassi tapusza "next to the herd, to the herd".

232) a) parā "out of" sometimes governs the ablative : ^ĜIŠZA.LAM.GAR-az parā "out of the tent".

b) However, one can also find the genitive : KÁ-as parā "out of the gate".

In the phrase ^Éhīli parā "in the courtyard outside", parā is an adverb.

233) parranda and pariya(n), which both mean "through" (as well as "apart from" and "against"), differ in that parranda governs the dative-locative, and pariya(n) the accusative : aruni parranda or arunan pariyan "through the sea".

234) iwar "in the way of, like" uses the genitive : IN.NU.DA-as iwar "like straw".

mān is also used with the meaning "like" without specific case.