/wassinan/(?), *336-na-na
‘in the presence of (?)’
- Language
- Hieroglyphic Luwian
- Grammar
- adv
- ID
- 1349
1. Individual Anatolian Languages
1.1 Hieroglyphic Luwian
/wassinan/(?), *336-na-na
‘in the presence of (?)’1.1.1Transmission
This lexeme is attested five times in the corpus and occurs across a wide geographical area ranging from northern Tabal and Commagene to Karkamiš in the east and Hama in the south. The relevant texts date between the 10th and the 8th centuries BCE.
[AH.B.]
1.1.2Forms
| indecl. | /wassinan/ | *336-na-na | KARKAMIŠ A2+3, §24 (Karkamiš) |
| HAMA 4, §4 (Hama) | |||
| ADIYAMAN 1, §8 (Commagene) | |||
| *336?-na-na | KIRŞEHİR lead strip, §11 (Tabal) | ||
| DÜLÜK BABA TEPESİ, §1 (Commagene) |
The number of sign *336 has proven prone to typographical mistakes in the scholarly literature. Thus, the editio princeps (Akdoğan & Hawkins 2010a:3 and 7) of the KIRŞEHİR lead strip records the attestation in §11 recorded with the number *366 (OMNIS). While admittedly difficult to make out in the photograph and autograph, the initial logogram is most assuredly not sign *366, but very likely *336 (usually read ANNUS and rarely 〈zì〉) and hence included in the above table.
A similar confusion of sign numbers also occurs in the editio princeps of DÜLÜK BABA TEPESİ (Simon 2014f:19).
[AH.B.]
1.1.3Graphic Features
1.1.3.1Phonological Interpretation
The phonological interpretation of this lexeme is somewhat tentative, because its form is partly represented by a logogram (sign *336) and it does not appear to have any cognates in the other Anatolian languages that could mitigate what the logogram obscures. However, sign *336 is usually read ANNUS and used with the HLuw. word /uss(i)-/ ‘year’, either as a determinative or for covering part of the syllabic spelling of the word. It is hence reasonable to assume that the sign represents a similar phonological shape when used in other lexemes.
Laroche 1960c:179 initially assigned the phonetic value 〈sa5〉 to sign *336, but this has since been abandoned. Instead, the sign has been found to represent a value 〈zì〉 in at least one inscription (KAYSERİ), see Hawkins 2000a:33. An alternative phonological shape for the present lemma should therefore be mentioned as well, viz. /zinan/.
[AH.B.] [I.Y.]
1.1.4Meaning
The meaning assigned to this lexeme was first suggested by Laroche 1960c:179 (‘en face de’) and has been tentative from the start, cf. the translations (and partial lack thereof) and commentary by Hawkins 2000a:110, 112, 345, and 406. While attested five times, the lexeme occurs mostly in broken contexts or clauses that are not entirely understood. The least opaque of these is probably the apodosis of the curse formula concluding in KARKAMIŠ A2+3, §24: *a-wa/i-sa DEUS-na-za CAPUT-tá-za-ha *336-na-na (DEUS)TONITRUS-tá-ti-i (LOQUI)ta-tara/i-ia-mi-sa i-zi-ia-ru, probably /a=wa=as massananz ...-ttanz=ha wassinan? Tarhuntadi tadariyammis izziyaru/, which likely translates as ‘May he be made cursed by Tarhunt in the presence of gods and (noble)men’ (cf. Hawkins 2000a:110).
The transmission of the word attests to the fact that it constitutes an integral part of the lexicon and therefore enjoys widespread usage, but at the same time its denotation is quite complex, causing its comparatively low frequency.
[AH.B.]
1.1.5Stem
The ending /-an/ is frequently found in postpositions, see Melchert 2003b:203. For the stem, however, two explanations are available at this time, which only a fully syllabically spelt attestation of the word can decide between. The first of these assumes the phonological form to be /wassinan/ (or perhaps /ussinan/ with the zero grade stem) and would be built from the noun /wassina(/i)-/ ‘body’, which is not attested as such in the HLuw. corpus, but occurs in CLuw. several times as waššina(/i)- (CLL:264). The semantic development in this case would be ‘by the body’ > ‘in the presence of’.
If, however, the underlying phonological form should turn out to be /zinan/, the derivational basis would be the proximal deixis /zin/, which later becomes incorporated into the paradigm of the demonstrative /za-/ ‘this’ replacing an older form, see Goedegebuure 2007a:334. The pertinent semantic development would be ‘here by me (scil. the speaker), in my presence’ > ‘close to, in the mentioned person´s presence’.
While typically termed a postposition in the scholarly tradition (thus already Laroche 1960c:179), the word is here classified more broadly as an adverb, because the part-of-speech delineation between postpositions and adverbs (and preverbs, for that matter) in HLuw. is far from clear and quite probably a matter of degrees.
[AH.B.]