pārta(/i)-

The transmission of the lexeme is limited to the rituals of Puriyanni and the Kuwatalla tradition. The earliest tablets feature MS.

[E.R.]

Melchert (DCL:181) lists two more attestations of the lexeme: a distributive nom./acc. pl. n. pár-⸢ta⸣-an-[da] at KUB 35.88 ii 8, and pár-ta-⸢an⸣-ta (followed by another gloss wedge). For the former, an alternative reading as distributive dat./loc. pl. pár-⸢ta⸣-an-[da-a]n-za is suggested here, which, together with the restoration of the verb form as suggested by Ivanov and Yakubovich (pers. comm.), permits an improved understanding of the context:

ii 7 [... ku-wa-ar-ḫ]a ŠU^MEŠ-an-ta zi-⸢i⸣-la ⸢ḫu⸣-[w]a-⸢am-mi-ti⸣-i[a-an-za]
ii 8 [ku-wa-ar-ḫa pa-a-ta-a]n-ta zi-i-la pár-ta-an-d[a-a]n-za ⸢ku-wa⸣-a[r-ḫa]

“... I cut off (pret.). Then I cut off hands from the arms. Then I cut off the feet from the legs.”

As a result, paršand(a)- can be deemed a ghost word (see already DCL:180).

The other attestation, pár-ta-⸢an⸣-ta, occurs in the opaque context of an oracle report and may or may not belong to the present lemma.

Checked against photographs in the Mainzer Fotoarchiv.

[E.R.]

The word is always determined by the numeral ‘4’ and occurs in initial position within lists of body parts of billy goats used as means of carrying away the domestic impurity of the ritual client. Semantic interpretations vary between ‘side’ (DLL:80, HED PA:177), ‘parole’ (Raggi Braglia 1989a:210), ‘leg(?), hoof(?)’ (CLL:171, Schürr 2014a:755 n. 30), ‘leg(?), talon(?)’ (CHD P:197, Ünal 2007a:528), ‘foot, claw’ (HEG L-P:506, Tischler 2008a:140) and ‘leg, limb’ (German ‘Lauf’) (Oettinger 2015d:271 and Mouton, Yakubovich & Puértolas-Rubio, pers. comm.), partly depending on inner-Anatolian connections and Indo-European etymologies. Of these, common gender parta-, designating an ivory-made or inlaid part of bedsteads in Hittite inventories, is of particular importance, because it confirms the general sense of the word (with the body-part term used metaphorically for the parts of a bedstead). It is probably a borrowing of the Luwian word treated here (see under Lemma). Among the translations listed above, preference is given here to ‘leg’ or part of it, rather than ‘side’, since the image described by “four sides” of a billy goat do not evoke the idea of an animal. Further evidence for the semantics have been added above under forms posteriorly.

[E.R.]

Due to a lack of strong case forms, it is unclear whether the word is a common gender stem pārt(i)- or pārta-, or a neuter stem pārt(a)-. If the root connection with part- ‘to take off’ is correct, a concretized abstract noun of the productive classes in -(i)- or -a- c. is more likely than one of the few neuters ending in a simple thematic vowel.

[E.R.]

1. partarīnali(t)-
2. ^NINDApartann(i)-