/sarnu(wa)-(i)/, (FLAMMAE)sa5+ra/i-nu-wa/i-
‘to burn, lay waste (?)’
- Language
- Hieroglyphic Luwian
- Grammar
- verb
- ID
- 1306
1. Individual Anatolian Languages
1.1 Hieroglyphic Luwian
/sarnu(wa)-(i)/, (FLAMMAE)sa5+ra/i-nu-wa/i-
‘to burn, lay waste (?)’1.1.1Transmission
Attested twice, this verb can be found in only one inscription from Karkamiš, whose dating is uncertain.
[AH.B.]
1.1.2Forms
| 3sg. impv. act. | /sarnuwattu/ | (“FLAMMAE”)sa5+ra/i-nu-wa/i-tu | KARKAMIŠ A15a, §3 (Karkamiš) |
| (“FLAMMAE?”)[sa5+ra/i-n]u-wa/i-tu | KARKAMIŠ A15a, §4 (Karkamiš) |
It is possible that the form should be analysed as a 3pl., i.e. /sarnuwantu/, instead of a 3sg., because the spelling can reflect either and the context does not provide enough information for favouring one over the other.
[AH.B.]
1.1.3Graphic Features
1.1.3.1Phonological Interpretation
The phonological interpretation of this verb is to be understood as preliminary, because the etymology of the verb is unclear and the assigned meaning to be understood as tentative. In fact, it may be that the attested spelling should be read as /sar(r)anuwa-/ or even /sar(r)inuwa-/, and only the suffix /-nu(wa)-/ seems to be identifiable with some certainty at this point, see the discussion of the stem below.
[AH.B.]
1.1.4Meaning
The meaning is assigned tentatively in congruence with the remarks by Hawkins 2000a:189, who observes that the logogram FLAMMAE (sign *477) usually serves as a determinative to verbs from the semantic domain of burning. The matter is complicated by the fact that the only text the verb occurs in, KARKAMIŠ A15a, §§3-4, is severely damaged and legible merely in fragments with no clause left intact. Still, what does become clear from the context is that the verb denotes the destruction of something, because either occurrence of the verb is combined with the adverb /ahha/ ‘back, away’, which likely functions as a preverb in both cases and usually indicates the utterness of the action denoted by the verb, i.e. ‘to burn entirely’, cf. e.g. /ad-/ ‘to eat’ and /ahha ad-/ ‘to eat up’ (see under lemma) and passim. In both clauses, the verbal phrase /ahha sarnuwa-/ occurs after the unknown noun /arzatt(a)-/ (see under lemma), probably a nom./acc. pl. n. and likely the direct object to the verb. As with any such tentative interpretation, it is possible that further finds will necessitate the assigned meaning to be adjusted.
[AH.B.]
1.1.5Stem
The morphological structure of the verb seems at least partly clear, because it likely belongs to the stems in /-nu(wa)-(i)/, which inflect according to the ḫi-conjugation. The suffix is applied to form causatives from other verbs and factitives from nominal stems (see Sasseville 2021a:462f.), which would imply the existence of either a verb */sar-/ or a noun or adjective */sar(a/i)-/. In fact, the HLuwian corpus holds evidence for a noun /sar(i)-/, but its meaning has remained wholly in the dark so far and positing any relation to the present lexeme is therefore entirely speculative.
[AH.B.]