SCRIBA+RA/I-la-(i)
‘to re-write (?)’
- Language
- Hieroglyphic Luwian
- Grammar
- verb
- ID
- 1011
1. Individual Anatolian Languages
1.1 Hieroglyphic Luwian
SCRIBA+RA/I-la-(i)
‘to re-write (?)’1.1.1Transmission
With six attestations, this lexeme is relatively well-represented in the HLuw. corpus. It can be found mainly in inscriptions from Karkamiš, which date between the 10th and 8th centuries BCE, but there is also one attestation in Malatya dating to the 12th century BCE.
[AH.B.]
1.1.2Forms
| 3sg. pres. act. | /…-lai/ | SCRIBA+RA/I-la-i | KARKAMIŠ A6, §26 (Karkamiš) |
| SCRIBA+RA/I-CAPERE-i | KARKAMIŠ A11a, §21 (Karkamiš) | ||
| SCRIBA+RA/I-CAPERE-ia | KARKAMIŠ A31+, §12 (Karkamiš) | ||
| [SCRIBA+RA/I]-CAPERE-˹i˺ | KARKAMIŠ A11b+c, §22 (Karkamiš) | ||
| 1sg. pret. act. | /…-lahha/ | SCRIBA.CAPERE-ha | KARAHÖYÜK, §19 (Malatya) |
| unclear | SCRIBA+RA/I-x[… | KARKAMIŠ A 26c, l. 2 (Karkamiš) |
1.1.3Graphic Features
1.1.3.1Phonological Interpretation
The phonological interpretation of this lexeme has so far escaped scholars, for despite a number of attestations, the word is unfailingly spelt with the logogram SCRIBA (*326) and the attached sign 〈ra/i〉 (*383) covering most of its stem. Solely the two signs following SCRIBA+RA/I in the present tense forms provide any hint as to the underlying phonological shape of the verb: 〈la〉 (*175) and CAPERE (*41), also read 〈tà〉. Because of this variation, the attested forms were long presumed to belong to two different verbs, but Hawkins 2000a: 294, 634b hypothesised that the different spellings 〈SCRIBA+RA/I-la-i〉 and 〈SCRIBA+RA/I-CAPERE-i〉 actually represent variations rather than signify separate lexemes. This view has received further support through the findings of Rieken & Yakubovich 2010a: 217 concerning rhotacism, which affects intervocalic /l, r, d/, merging them into a flap. The change between 〈la〉 and CAPERE / 〈tà〉 in the verb hence attests to it undergoing rhotacism.
[AH.B.]
1.1.4Meaning
The meaning of this lexeme is not entirely transparent, but it is clear that it does not represent the most frequently found verb in the semantic field of writing, which is /kwanza-(di)/ ‘to carve, incise’, attested 15 times in the HLuw. corpus. Still, the use of the logogram SCRIBA strongly suggests a connection to writing, albeit of a different type. Because the present lexeme is attested, for five out of its six occurrences, in the protases of curse formulae, it should be assumed to denote an action seen negatively in the context of dedicated inscriptions. Only in the context of KARAHÖYÜK does the verb not appear in a curse formula, but instead in a text passage in which the author seems to be justifying his actions, one of which is 〈SCRIBA.CAPERE-ha〉. It is therefore suggested that the meaning of the verb is ‘to re-write’ vel sim.
[AH.B.] [I.Y.]