CENTUM
‘(one) hundred’
- Language
- Hieroglyphic Luwian
- Grammar
- num
- ID
- 1039
1. Individual Anatolian Languages
1.1 Hieroglyphic Luwian
CENTUM
‘(one) hundred’1.1.1Transmission
Attested 26 times in the corpus, this lexeme can be found distributed across most of the HLuw. region. The earliest attestations originate from Emirgazi and Yalburt in Central Anatolia and date to the second half of the 13th century BCE. All other attestations date to between the 10th and 8th centuries BCE. and can be found in Tabal in the south, Karkamiš in the east, and Amuq and Hama in the far south of the HLuw. area.
[AH.B.]
1.1.2Forms
| indecl. | /…/ | CENTUM-ni | |
| SHEIZAR, §2 (Hama) | |||
| CENTUM | |||
| YALBURT frag. 3, §8 | |||
| CENTUM? | YALBURT frag. B, §2 | ||
| ˹CENTUM˺? | KULULU lead frag. 3, §4 (Tabal) | ||
| 1(×)CENTUM | BOHÇA, §13 (Tabal) |
Two attestations are followed by particles: SULTANHAN, §26 reads 〈CENTUM-ha〉, and ASSUR letter c, §8 reads 〈100-ha-wa/i-mu〉.
In both EMİRGAZİ 2, §10 and YALBURT frag. 3, §8, the sign CENTUM is, in all likelihood, part of a larger number, i.e. 4 MILLE CENTUM ‘four-thousand one-hundred’.
[AH.B.]
1.1.3Graphic Features
1.1.3.1Phonological Interpretation
Despite 26 attestations, the numeral ‘one-hundred’ cannot be found in syllabic spelling in the HLuw. corpus. Instead, ‘one-hundred’ is exclusively expressed with the logogram CENTUM (*399), a saltire-type cross, whose top ends are often bent inward in incised writing, but not in bas-relief. In scholarship on HLuw., the logogram *399 is frequently transliterated as ‘100’ instead of ‘CENTUM’, mimicking the use of the number sign. Due to the logographic spelling, the phonological shape of the underlying HLuw. word has so far remained in the dark.
In fact, the commonly used transliteration of the enlarged form as 〈CENTUM-ni〉 may have to be altered to 〈CENTUM.NI〉 with sign *411 〈ni〉 read as a phonetic indicator rather than a phonetic complement.
[AH.B.]
1.1.4Meaning
The meaning of the logogram *399 was first proposed by Hrozný 1933a:224 n. 6 and is fully supported by the available evidence, much of which surfaced at a later date. Cf. also Hawkins 2000a:260f., 470, who adduces contextual evidence from SULTANHAN, where it is implied that CENTUM constitutes a tithe of MILLE.
[AH.B.]
1.1.5Origin
See Lyc. A sñta under Reconstruction.
[AH.B.]