Hoffner and Melchert's long-awaited work is sure to become both the standard reference grammar and the main teaching tool for the Hittite language. The first volume includes a thorough description of Hittite grammar, grounded in an abundance of textual examples. Moreover, the authors take into account a vast array of studies on all aspects of the Hittite language. In the five decades since the publication of the second edition of Johannes Friedrich's Hethitisches Elementarbuch (1960), our knowledge of Hittite grammar has become more detailed and nuanced, especially because of the number of new texts available and the growing body of secondary literature. This first volume in the LANE series fills a serious gap and offers a comprehensive reference for decades to come.
The second volume is a tutorial that consists of a series of graded lessons with illustrative sentences for the student to translate. The tutorial is keyed to the reference grammar and provides extensive notes.
The printed grammar volume is accompanied by a CD-ROM that contains the entire text of the grammar and tutorial in searchable, cross-referenced, and hyperlinked form.