†zuwa-

Reconstructed from a personal name preserved in the texts of the Old Assyrian Colony period merchants in Anatolia.

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Zu-ú-a

ICK 1 137,8

The attestation follows Laroche 1966b:214 and Yakubovich 2010d:215 checked against the hand copy of the publication (a photograph was not available).

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See the discussion under Origin.

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This name was explained from the (allegedly) Luwian word zūwa- ‘bread, food’ (for its status see the discussion s.v.) by Garelli 1963a:141 (as a Luwian and Hittite word) and Hecker 1968a:60 (as a Hittite word), which is considered as a “possibility” and “likely” by Yakubovich 2010d:213f., 215 (entertaining the alternative explanation that it belongs to Luwian zuwan(i)- ‘dog’ as an “archaic” [i.e. n-less] nominative [cf. also Zehnder 2010a:325] – which is, however, problematic, since this archaic nominative is not attested in Luwian). Only for the sake of completeness one must mention the rejection by Kloekhorst 2019b:62 (“unconvincing”), since he did not adduce any argument. Yakubovich’s counter-arguments are its lack “in characteristically Luvic compounds” and that “contextual considerations” do not support the Anatolian origin of this name. Nevertheless, the presence in “characteristically Luvic compounds” is not obligatory for a Luwian name and Yakubovich did not specify those “contextual considerations” that do not support the Anatolian origin: Zuwa is a witness, thus he can be perfectly Anatolian.

The problems with this interpretation are the semantics and the form. First, it is not clear from a semantical point of view how a meaning ‘bread, food’ could serve as a personal name. Although Bossert 1960a:309 claims that Greek ἄρτος ‘cake; loaf of wheat-bread’ is used as a personal name, LGPN knows only a single case from Rubi (the region of Bari; LGPN III.A:No. 29711), the Greek origin of which is open to doubts (names of invented persons cannot be taken into consideration, contra his views). Moreover, the word zūwa- probably does not mean ‘bread, food’, but ‘portion, share’ (see the discussion s.v.). This also argues against its usage as a personal name.

Second, formally speaking, Zuwa looks like a typical example of an Anatolian “Lallname” consisting of a CV base with enlargement in -a-, connected by a glide (type Puwa, cf. Laroche 1966b:244–246; Hoffner 1998a:117; Zehnder 2010a:49). Since no semantically convincing connection is provided by the Luwian lexicon, Zuwa is probably only an Anatolian “Lallname” (so already Laroche 1966b:245 and Hoffner 1998a:117) and, accordingly, not language-specific.

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Last updated: 27 July 2020