eDiAna

*Hant-

‘forehead, front’

Language
Proto-Anatolian
Grammar
subst
ID
1065

1. Individual Anatolian Languages

1.1 Hieroglyphic Luwian

/hant(a)-/, (“FRONS”)ha-ta-

‘face’

1.1.1Transmission

Attested three times in the corpus, this word can be found in inscriptions from Karkamiš and Tell Ahmar, all of which date to the late 10th or early 9th century BCE.

[AH.B.]

1.1.2Forms

nom./acc. sg. /hantan=za/ (“FRONS”)ha-ta-za TELL AHMAR 1, §17 (Tell Ahmar)
abl./instr. /hantadi/ (“FRONS”)ha-ta-ti KARKAMIŠ A2, §6 (Karkamiš)
nom./acc. pl. /hanta/ (“FRONS”)ha-tá KARKAMIŠ A3, §23 (Karkamiš)

1.1.3Graphic Features

1.1.3.1Phonological Interpretation

Despite just three attestations, the phonological interpretation of this word appears to be quite secure. Not only is it attested in fully syllabic spelling including some minor variations, it is also well connected to other members of its word family as well as multiple cognates in the other Anatolian languages, e.g. CLuw. ḫanti(ya)- ‘headband’ and Hittite ḫant- ‘forehead, front’, cf. e.g. EDHIL:287f. The particle /-sa, -za/, marking the word as a neuter noun, appears in its expected form /-za/ here because of the preceding /n/ (Melchert 2003b:186f.).
The fact that the pre-consonantal /n/ does not appear in writing is fully expected and due to HLuw. spelling conventions (see Melchert 2003b:182). The presence of said /n/ is further indicated by the use of 〈tá〉 (Rieken 2010a:304).

[AH.B.]

1.1.4Meaning

The present meaning was tied more securely to the present lemma by Hawkins 1975a:142, 148, following a first suggestion by Steinherr 1951b:113 and Meriggi 1962b:55, who linked it tentatively to the Hittite noun ḫant- ‘forehead’. The meaning ‘face’ for the HLuw. word is fully supported by the contexts.

[AH.B.]

1.1.5Stem

The noun is a neuter a-stem, overtly marked as such by the neuter particle /-sa, -za/, and therefore not a full cognate of Hittite ḫant- ‘forehead’ (whose gender remains unknown). Contra Hawkins 1980d:130 and EDHIL:287f., the HLuw. word is not a bare root noun, because the nom./acc. sg. form is 〈(“FRONS”)ha-ta-za〉, i.e. /hantan-za/, showing clearly the existence of the stem in /hanta-/ with the neuter particle /-sa, -za/ following after the ending /-an/, instead of a shorter stem.

[AH.B.]

1.1.6Compounds

  1. /hantawattura-/
  2. /hantawatturi(ya)-/

1.1.7Derivatives

  1. /hanta/
  2. /hanti/
  3. /hanti(ya)-/
  4. /hantil(i)-/
  5. /hantili/
  6. /hantahid-/
  7. /hantawatt(i)-/
  8. /hantawattahid-/
  9. /hantawata-(ti)/
  10. /hantawatti(ya)-/
  11. /hantawattalla/i-/

1.2 Cuneiform Luwian

ḫant(i)-

‘forehead’

1.2.1Transmission

The word is found twice in the fragmentary context of a birth incantation (MS).

[E.R.]

1.2.2Forms

nom. sg. ḫa-an-ti-i[š] KUB 35.91, 4’ (CTH 762, MS?)
acc. sg. ḫa-an-ti(=) KUB 35.99, 5’, 6’ (CTH 765, MS)

The morphological interpretations of the words are far from assured. For the analysis of ḫa-an-ti-i[š] in KUB 35.91, 4’, see under Meaning. The second form, ḫa-an-ti=ša-an in KUB 35.99, 5’, 6’ is best understood as ḫanti(n)=šan, acc. sg. c. with a possessive pronoun, cf. turim=šan in KBo 13.260 ii 4 (contrary to Yakubovich 2017d: ḫantišša/i- ‘foremost(?)’; undecided CLL:53).

[E.R.]

1.2.3Graphic Features

1.2.3.1Phonological Interpretation

The deletion of the nasal in ḫanti(n)=šan is commonplace in Cuneiform Luwian (see Melchert 2003b:182).

[E.R.]

1.2.4Meaning

In KUB 35.91, 4’, the attested form can be analyzed either as a noun ḫant(i)- modified by the adjective wanītīš, or as an adjective (ḫanti(ya)-) coordinated with it. The putative meaning of wanītīš ‘made of rock (?)’ (Starke 1990a:187, CLL:255, Rieken 2017a:24) tips the scales in favor of regarding ḫant(i)- as a noun, which would then be identified as the cognate of Hitt. ḫant- ‘forehead’ and yield a plausible sense ‘forehead made of stone, hard forehead’. It is needless to say that this proposal is only tentative.

[E.R.]

1.2.5Stem

While the shape of the root ḫant- is not in doubt, its gender remains unclear and, by extension, whether or not it is subject to i-mutation. Starke 1990a:125-132 was the first to suggest that the form SAG.KI-anza in the lexical list KBo 1.42 ii 12’ is not the nom. sg. c. ḫanz(a) of Hitt. ḫant- c., but rather the nom./acc. of ḫant- n. with the secondary ending -ša/-za, i.e. ḫanza (for details, see Rieken 1999a:31-35, EDHIL:287-289; Starke views the forms as plural, while the communis opinio regards them as singular). However, the fact remains that this form is ambiguous, and the same applies to the nominative form ḫanz[a] in KBo 8.73 ii 6’.
Moreover, Starke assumed that the idiomatic expressions ḫanza har(k)-(mi) and ḫanza ep(p)-/app-(mi) also contained the neuter form ḫanza ‘in front’, but this has been refuted because, obviously, ḫanza has an adverbial function in that phrase (see, e.g. EDHIL:289) and can easily be derived by sound change from the dat./loc. sg. form *h2ént-i (Jasanoff apud CLL:51). Therefore, the form ḫanza attested in Hittite transmission does not supply unambiguous evidence for a Luwian neuter stem ḫan(t)-, and economy demands that the forms be interpreted as Hittite within a Hittite context. As a consequence, nothing speaks against the analysis as presented above that CLuw. ḫantiš and ḫanti(n) belong to the paradigm of a common gender stem ḫant(i)- ‘forehead’.

[E.R.]

1.2.6Compounds

  1. dḪantašepa- (Starke 1990a:130 with references)
  2. lamarḫandatta(/i)-
  3. lamarḫandatti(ya)-

1.2.7Derivatives

  1. ḫantil(i)-
  2. ḫandatta(/i)-
  3. ḫandawat(i)-
  4. ḫantawadaḫi(t)-
  5. ḫanti(ya)-
  6. ḫantiyašša-
  7. ḫantiyā(i)-(mi)
  8. ḫandiliške/a-(mi)
  9. ḫantalliyā(i)-(mi)
  10. ḫantiyara-
  11. ḫantiyaraḫḫa-
  12. [ḫa]ntawattalla/i-
  13. dḪantašša- (most recently Sasseville 2018a:307f.)

1.3 Lycian A

*xñt-

‘forehead, front’

1.3.1Derivatives

  1. xñta-
  2. xñta-(ti)
  3. xñtla-
  4. xñtata-
  5. xñtawa-(ti)
  6. xñtawata-
  7. xñtawate/i-
  8. xñtawati(je)-

1.4 Lycian B

*xñt-

‘forehead, front’

1.4.1Derivatives

  1. xñtawata-
  2. xñtaba-
  3. xñtabaime/i-
  4. xñtaba-(ti)

1.5 Pisidian

*γδ-

‘forehead, front’

1.5.1Derivatives

  1. *γδεβετι-
  2. *γδαβα-

1.5.1.1Uncertain Derivatives

  1. *γδασα-

1.6 Carian

*kδ-

‘forehead, front’

1.6.1Derivatives

  1. kδou-
  2. kδuśo-
  3. kδuśol-

1.7 Palaic

*ḫant-

‘forehead, front’

1.7.1Derivatives

  1. ḫantanā-(di)
  2. mḫantili- (KBo 19.155 iii 3’; Görke & Sasseville in preparation)

1.7.1.1Uncertain Derivatives

  1. ḫantašān

1.8 Hittite

ḫant-

‘forehead’

1.8.1Literature / Comments

HW 2nd ed. Ḫ:161f.

2. Reconstruction

2.1Reconstruction ‘forehead, front’

The equation of CLuw. ḫant(i)- c. ‘forehead’, HLuw. /hanta-/ n. ‘face’ and Hitt. ḫant- c. ‘forehead’ allows the reconstruction of a root noun *Hant- c. for Proto-Anatolian. While the Cuneiform Luwian noun has simply undergone i-mutation, the Empire Luwian dialect (HLuw.) might have made a neuter thematic stem out of it, thus a simple transfer, and the semantics would have evolved from ‘forehead’ to ‘face’. On the other hand, it is possible that the neuter stem is an actual derivative in *-o- from the root noun with a change in meaning ‘forehead’ → ‘face’.
Furthermore, evidence from Hittite ḫanda ‘according to’ (and possibly Hieroglyphic Luwian /hanta/ ‘in front of (?)’) and /hanti/ ‘against’ speak for the grammaticalization of the body part noun into an adposition already completed by the Proto-Anatolian stage. At least two different cases can be reconstructed, i.e. a frozen allative continuing Hitt. ḫanda and a frozen locative continuing HLuw. /hanti/.

We take the underlying roots of all derivatives listed below to go back to the very well-known Indo-European root *h2ent- meaning ‘face, forehead, front’. For the Proto-Anatolian stage, we can reconstruct a word-initial laryngeal with the root vowel *-a-, i.e. *Hant-. The vowel can have originated in two ways, i.e. either due to the coloring of *h2 or to the accent vowel é before -nT-, i.e. PIE *-ént- > PAnat. *-ánt-. All Anatolian derivatives listed above can semantically be traced back to the meaning ‘face, front’. Especially the semantics of the ‘front’ gave rise to denominative verbs such as ‘to place to the front’, ‘to order’ (Oettinger 1979a:367, HEG A-H:149-153, contra EDHIL:290-291), ‘to be king, to rule’ via ‘having the status of the front’ (see Rieken & Sasseville 2014a). Puhvel (HED H:106f.) prefers to relate the Hittite verb ḫandā(i)-(mi) ‘to order’ and its derivatives semantically to ḫā(i)-(mi) ‘to trust’, by assuming a denominative verb derived from a participial form of the latter (rejected on semantic grounds by EDHIL:290f.). Melchert (DLL:83) assumes the same origin for some of the Lycian derivatives, whose meanings however are unclear. Since the original semantics of ‘front’ are perfectly in order, there is no need to separate them into two different roots. More precise information on the semantic change can be found in the individual lemmata.

[D.S.]

3. Proto-Indo-European

3.1Semantic Reconstruction

The nominal root PIE *h2ent- and the root noun derived therefrom means ‘forehead, front’, cf. EIEC:209, Watkins 2000a:4, and LIPP II:306.

3.2Morphological Reconstruction

The oldest nominal formation reconstructable for PIE is a root noun *h2ént- ‘forehead, front’ > Hitt. ḫant- ‘id.’ (EDHIL:287–289 s.v.). The loc. sg. of this root noun, PIE *h2ént-i ‘at the forehead, at the front’, underlies, e.g., Hitt. ḫanz(a) adv. ‘in front’, Ved. ánti adv. ‘opposite, before, near’, Lat. ante prep. ‘before; in front of’, etc. (cf. EDHIL:287–289, LIPP II:306f.). Cf. also the adj. *h2enti̯o- > CLuw. ḫanti(i̯a)- ‘headband’, Gk. ἀντίος adj. ‘set against, face to face, opposite’, etc. (cf. LIPP II:309). For secondary verbal formations such as Gk. ἄντομαι ‘I meet, implore’ and Hitt. ḫantii̯ae-zi ‘to support (?)’, cf., e.g., LIPP II:310.

[T.S.]

4. Transmission

Ved. sbst. ánta- m. ‘end, limit, boundary’ (RV+), adj. ántya- ‘pertaining to the end, last’ (Br., Sū.+), sbst. ántaka- ‘death, personification of death’ (RV [1.112.6, presumably proper name], AV+), adv. ánti ‘opposite, before, near’ (RV+), etc.Cf., e.g., EWAia I:75, 78, EIEC:209, Lühr 2000a:12 s.v. en, LIPP II:306.

Gk. ἀντί prep. + gen. ‘opposite, over against; instead of, in the place of’, ἄντα adv. ‘over against, face to face’, prep. + gen. ‘over against, before, against’, pres. ἄντομαι ‘I meet, implore’ (Il.+), etc.Cf., e.g., GEW I:112, 113f., EIEC:209, Lühr 2000a:12 s.v. en, EDG:107f., 109, LIPP II:306, 308. 

Arm. ənd prep. + gen. ‘for, instead of’Cf., e.g., Lühr 2000a:12 s.v. en, LIPP II:307. 

Lat. ante prep. + acc. ‘before; in front of’, Osc. ant prep. + acc. ‘up to’; derivatives: Lat. antīcus ‘lying in front’, antīquus ‘ancient, early; old’ (Plaut.+)Cf., e.g., EDLIL:45 with further lit., LIPP II:306, 309. 

OIr. étan m. ‘forehead’Cf., e.g., EIEC:209, EDPC:39 s.v. *antono-. 

Goth. andeis m. ‘end, extremity’, ON endir m. ‘end’, OE ende m. ‘end, back’, etc.;< PGerm. *anđi̯a-: cf., e.g., LIPP II:309, EDPG:27. ON enni n. ‘forehead; steep crag’, OHG andi, endi n. ‘forehead’, etc.< PGerm. *anþi̯a-: cf., e.g., Lühr 2000a:259, EDPG:31. 

Lith. añt, añ prep. ‘on, upon, towards’Cf., e.g., ALEW I:44, EDBIL:57. 

TochB ānte ‘surface, forehead, front’, TochA ānt ‘id.’Cf., e.g., EIEC:209, DTB²:46. 

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