zappalālla
‘(household appliance used in setting the table)’
- Language
- Cuneiform Luwian
- Grammar
- subst
- ID
- 1166
1. Individual Anatolian Languages
1.1 Cuneiform Luwian
zappalālla
‘(household appliance used in setting the table)’1.1.1Transmission
The word is attested once in the NS copy of a festival text.
[E.R.]
1.1.2Forms
| nom./acc. pl. (or coll.) | ˹GIŠza˺-ap-pa-la-a-al-la | KBo 7.68 ii 8’ | (CTH 764, NS) |
1.1.3Graphic Features
Checked against the photographs in the Konkordanz.
[E.R.]
1.1.4Meaning
The lexeme appears in a list of household appliances and dishes that are set up for a divine guest, the Storm-god. The determinative GIŠ points to a kind of appliance rather than dish; cf. already Carruba 1982b:10, who thinks of ‘Schöpflöffel’, but suggests ‘Besteck’ in Carruba 1982b:55. Starke 1990a:335 writes more cautiously: “das bzw. ein Zubehör des zappal-* oder das zappal-* samt Zubehör,” then qualifying the zappal-* as an item that is connected with food and drink or the serving of it. The dictionaries DLL:113, CLL:278 and HEG W-Z:661 do not translate the word.
Considering that the verb zappa-(ti) ‘to make a flow (of liquid); to drain, let flow; to let bleed (?)’ is related to the process of slaughtering a sacrificial animal and metonymically to feastingCf. as a parallel the root *deh2p- reflected in Hitt. taḫūp(p)aštai- etc. ‘buttering block’, Gk. δάπτω ‘to maul, consume’ and Lat. daps f. ‘sacrificial meal’ in Rieken 2015a., it is tempting to assume a derivational relationship between zappa-(ti) and the *zappal- (something pertaining to dining). For the deverbal use of -al- < *-ó-lo- to form instrument nouns, parallels are numerous: neuter pl. ariyala ‘basket’ ← ariya- ‘to lift’, ardala ‘saw’ ← arda- ‘to saw’ etc. (following Starke 1990a:300-345 for synchronic analysis, specifically 335; outdated van Brock 1962a:118). If correct, the *zappal- should be a device for bleeding the sacrificial animal, such as a knife, or for butchering in general. Consequently, the GIŠzappalālla is yet another device related to it, but used at the table when the meal is already prepared.
[E.R.]
1.1.5Stem
Following Starke 1990a:335, the GIŠzappalālla is derived from *zappal-. More precisely, Melchert (CLL:278) claims that the lexeme is a substantivization of an adjective in -alla/i-, i.e. zappal-alla/i-. Neuter gender is probable because of its use as an instrument noun, although it could also be a plurale tantum (for the same adjective employed as an agent noun, see under LÚzappalalla/i-).
[E.R.]
For the lemma head see Luw. *zapp-.