zappi(ya)-
‘letting bleed (?)’
- Language
- Cuneiform Luwian
- Grammar
- subst
- ID
- 1169
1. Individual Anatolian Languages
1.1 Luwian in Hittite transmission
zappi(ya)-
‘letting bleed (?)’1.1.1Transmission
The lexeme is found twice in NS duplicates of a Hittite birth incantation heavily interspersed with Luwianisms.
[E.R.]
1.1.2Forms
| nom./acc. sg. n. | za-ap-pí-ia-an | KUB 35.145 iii 14’ | (CTH 767, NS) |
| za-ap-pí-˹an˺ | KUB 44.4 rev. 32 | (CTH 767, NS) |
1.1.3Graphic Features
Checked against the photographs in the Konkordanz. – As emphasized by Melchert (CLL:279), zappiyan, which is obviously the neuter form of an adjective in -i(ya)-, excludes the restoration [ḫar-ga]-an (acc. sg. c. of ḫarga- ‘destruction’) for the head noun in KUB 35.145 iii 14’ (suggested in Starke 1985b:231), but demands [ḫe-en-ga]-an (nom./acc.sg. n. of ḫengan ‘death, doom, plague’).
[E.R.]
1.1.4Meaning ‘(weakening or destroying by) draining, letting bleed (?)’
Poetto 2010c:299 was the first scholar to propose a translation for zappi(ya)-, relating it to zappa-(ti), which he interprets as ‘to offer as sacrifice, slaughter, destroy, kill’. Thus, he arrives at ‘rovinoso (?)’, Engl. ‘destructive (?)’ for the Luwian adjective. His suggestion fits the head noun ḫengan ‘death, doom, plague’ well.
However, if one starts from a different semantic interpretation for zappa-(ti), as is done here (see under Lemma), viz. ‘to make a flow (of liquid); to drain, let flow; to let bleed (?)’ and connects it with Hitt. zappiye/a-(mi) ‘to trickle, leak, flow’, then a more concrete meaning such as ‘(weakening or destroying by) draining, letting bleed’ is the expected result of the derivational process and suits the head noun ḫengan ‘death, doom, plague’ even better.
[E.R.]
1.1.5Stem
As per Melchert (CLL:289), the word is an adjective -i(ya)- derived from the root (or the root noun) zapp-, either or both of which also serve as bases for Dzappa- ‘drain, sewer’, zappa-(ti) ‘to make a flow (of liquid); to drain, let flow; to let bleed (?)’ and Hitt. zappiye/a-(mi) ‘to trickle, leak, flow’.
[E.R.]
1.1.6Origin
While it cannot be entirely excluded that zappiyan is a genuinely Hittite word form ultimately derived from inherited *zapp- (thus HEG U-Z:666-668), it is the strongly negative meaning of weakening or destroying that is typical for the Luwian branch of Anatolian and that tips the scales in favor of a Luwian origin (cf. Poetto 2010c:299; without semantic reasons, but obviously based on considerations regarding the derivation process, see already Starke 1985b:231 and CLL:279; no mention in Melchert 2005a:448-452).
[E.R.]
For the lemma head see CLuw. *zapp-.