/wawali-(ti)/, wa/i-wa/i-+ra/i-
‘to be ill’
- Language
- Hieroglyphic Luwian
- Grammar
- verb
- ID
- 1047
1. Individual Anatolian Languages
1.1 Hieroglyphic Luwian
/wawali-(ti)/, wa/i-wa/i-+ra/i-
‘to be ill’1.1.1Transmission
Attested three times in the HLuw. corpus, this lexeme is used in inscriptions in Amuq, Assur and Karkamiš. All attestations date to the 9th and 8th century BCE.
[AH.B.]
1.1.2Forms
| 3sg. pret. ind. act. | /wawalitta/ | [… w]a/i-wa/i+ra/i-tá | AIN DARA (Amuq) |
| 3pl. pres. ind. med. | /wawalintari/ | (MORI)wa/i-wa/i-ri+i-ta-ti | ASSUR letter e, §10 (Assur) |
| part. nom. sg. c. | /wawalimmis/ | wa/i-wa/i+ra/i-mi-sa | KARKAMIŠ A18h, §3 (Karkamiš) |
1.1.3Graphic Features
1.1.3.1Phonological Interpretation
Although the main structure of phonological interpretation of this word is clear, the use of the vowel-indifferent signs 〈wa/i〉 (*439) and 〈+ra/i〉 (*383) leaves some room for speculation regarding the quality of the first few vowels. However, the link to the word family around /wala-/ ‘to die’ lends more certainty to the interpretation, at the same time showing that this word, too, has undergone rhotacism, turning intervocalic /d, r, l/ into the flap /ɾ/ (Rieken & Yakubovich 2010a:217).
[AH.B.]
1.1.4Meaning
Only two of the three attestations can be used to determine the meaning of this lexeme, because all that is left of the inscription in AIN DARA is the present lexeme and a following relative pronoun. In KARKAMIŠ A18h, the meaning becomes clear most easily in the context of this funerary inscription, because part of the clause the verb is used in as a participle translates as ‘and I went away sick (i.e. died from sickness)’. It is likely that the reduplication is to be interpreted as iterative, in this case very probably signifying prolonged ill health. By contrast, the context in the ASSUR letter is rather more difficult to interpret due to the very different genre these texts belong to. Oshiro 1995b:297 suggests that the iterative meaning of the reduplication can be explained in the context of the letter as caused by the plural subject /niwaranninzi/ ‘children’, leading him to suggest that the children are “dying one by one”, albeit without taking the medio-passive ending into account. Much of the letter has now been newly interpreted by I. Yakubovich, in line with the suggestion by Hawkins 2006a:22f. that combined with the preverb ARHA, i.e. /ahha wawali-/, the verb means ‘to die’. It is hence likely that the relevant clauses should be understood as: ‘Or while I make this life of mine, all the while these cursed children will waste away on me from hunger and the evil eye, from avarice(?) and offense’ vel sim. Thus, the author of the letter complains about neglect at the hand of the addressee, and the medio-passive ending of the verb could imply that the children’s suffering is brought on by the addressee.
[AH.B.]
1.1.5Stem
The lexeme is derived from the same root as the verb /wala-/ ‘to die’. It shows reduplication of the onset and nucleus of the root syllable as well as suffixation (cf. Oshiro 1995b:294, 297).
[AH.B.]