*mr̥-néu̯-/-nu-´
‘to cause to disappear’
- Language
- Proto-Anatolian
- Grammar
- verb
- ID
- 1448
1. Individual Anatolian Languages
1.1 Hieroglyphic Luwian
/marnu(wa)-(i)/, (“DELERE”)mara/i-nu-wa/i-
‘to cause to disappear’1.1.1Transmission
The lexeme is attested 22 times in the HLuw. corpus, making it one of the more frequent verbs. The relevant inscriptions originate from much of the HLuw. territory from Boğazköy in the north to Aleppo in the south. Similarly, the temporal span covered is long, starting in the late 13th century BCE and extending to the 8th century BCE.
[AH.B.]
1.1.2Forms
| 3sg. pres. ind. act. | /marnuway(a)/ | DELERE-i(a) | EMİRGAZİ 1B, §28 |
| DELERE[-i(a)] | EMİRGAZİ 1A, §28 | ||
| 3sg. impv. act. | /marnuwattu/ | DELERE-nu-wa/i-tu | ADIYAMAN 1, §8 (Commagene) |
| BOROWSKI 1, §4 (Tabal) | |||
| /marnuttu/ | DELERE-nu-tú | MEHARDE, §8 (Hama) | |
| 3pl. impv. ind. act. | /marnuntu/ | DELERE-nú-tu-u | KULULU 5, §10 (Tabal) |
| “DELERE”-nú-tu | BULGARMADEN, §14 (Tabal) | ||
| “DELERE”[x?]-nu-tu-´ | KARKAMIŠ A4a, §14 (Karkamiš) | ||
| “DELERE”-tú | ALEPPO 2, §22 (Tell Ahmar) | ||
| 1sg. pret. ind. act. | /marnuwahha/ | (“DELERE”)mara/i-nu-wa/i-ha | TELL AHMAR 6, §21 (Tell Ahmar) |
| DELERE-nú-wa/i-ha | KARKAMIŠ A1a, §9 (Karkamiš) | ||
| EMİRGAZİ 2, §8 | |||
| DELERE | YALBURT frag. 1, §6 | ||
| YALBURT frag. B, §1 | |||
| YALBURT frag. 1, §7 | |||
| YALBURT frag. 3, §6 | |||
| 3sg. pret. ind. act. | /marnuwatta/ | DELERE-wa/i-ta | KARKAMIŠ A4b, §6 (Karkamiš) |
| DELERE-nú-tá | KARKAMIŠ N1, §6 (Karkamiš) | ||
| part. nom. sg. c. | /marnuwammis/ | DELERE-nu-wa/i-mi-sa | MALPINAR, §24 (Commagene) |
| inf. | /marnuna/ | DELERE-nu-u-na | BABYLON 1, §15 (Aleppo) |
| unclear | (DELERE)mara/i-nu-w[a/i-…] | KARKAMIŠ A28g, l. 2 (Karkamiš) | |
| DELERE[...] | GELB, l. 3 |
1.1.3Graphic Features
1.1.3.1Phonological Interpretation
The phonological interpretation of this verb is quite certain at this point. Not only is it attested in fully syllabic spelling more than once, but it also receives support from its Hittite cognate mernu-/marnu-(mi) ‘to cause to disappear’ (see Melchert 1988a:38).
Earlier readings saw the verb starting with /p-/ based on the attestation in KARKAMIŠ A28g, l. 2, cf. e.g. Laroche 1960c:133. However, the present verb was among the words that eventually facilitated the identification of sign *462 as 〈max, mara/i〉, thus first suggested by Melchert 1988a:38, summarised and discussed by Hawkins 2000a:36f., and confirmed by additional textual evidence from TELL AHMAR 6, §21 laid out in Hawkins 2006a:27, further followed by Poetto 2014a:795.
[AH.B.]
1.1.4Meaning
The present meaning was assigned by Melchert 1988a:34-38, who undertakes a contextual study and then links the verb to Hittite mernu-/marnu-(mi) ‘to cause to disappear’ (cf. e.g. HED M:150 for Hittite; HEG L-M:199 is hesitant). Earlier, an approximative meaning (‘verbannen, expatriare’) had been suggested by Meriggi 1934b:11-14 and followed by Laroche 1960c:133, based on an assumed, but erroneous connection with Hittite parḫ- ‘to chase, to expel’; the new reading of sign *462 as 〈max, mara/i〉 voided that connection. While most contexts strongly suggest a translation as ‘to destroy’, some also leave room for a less concrete ‘to cause to disappear’, e.g. the apodosis of the curse formula in ADIYAMAN 1, §8: a-wa/i *a-pa-si-i á-lá/í-ma-za CAELUM TERRA *336-na-na ARHA DELERE-nu-wa/i-tu, approx. /a=wa abassi alaman=za tippasi taskwari usinan ahha marnuwattu/, meaning ‘He (shall) cause his name to disappear entirely from heaven (and) earth’.
In most contexts, the verb is preceded by the adverb /ahha/ ‘back, away’, adding a perfective sense, i.e. ‘to destroy utterly’, e.g. in TELL AHMAR 6, §21: *a-la/i-ni-zi-pa-wa/i-mi-i ARHA (“DELERE”)mara/i-nu-wa/i-ha, approx. /aluwanninzi=ba=wa=mi ahha marnuwahha/, meaning ‘But I destroyed my enemies utterly’,The possession in ‘my enemies’ is marked externally here, because the possessor has been raised out of the NP and into the clitic chain attached to the first word, overlapping with the beneficiary reading inherent in the dative reflexive, cf. Bauer 2014a:138-142; undecided Giusfredi 2020a:106-109. cf. Hawkins 2006a:15 and 27.
[AH.B.]
1.1.5Stem
The verb belongs to the stems in /-nu(wa)-(i)/, a suffix that forms deverbal causatives, cf. already Melchert 1988a:35, and more recently Sasseville 2021a:466f. It is likely derived from a base verb */mar-/ ‘to disappear’ vel sim., but the HLuw. corpus currently holds no proof for that.
[AH.B.]
1.1.6Derivatives
1.2 Hittite
mernu-(mi)
‘to cause to disappear’1.2.1Literature / Comments
CHD L-N:295f
2. Reconstruction
2.1Reconstruction ‘to cause to disappear’
The equation of HLuw. /marnuwa-(i)/ with Hitt. mernu-(mi) ‘to cause to disappear’ allows for the reconstruction of a Proto-Anatolian causative formation in *-néu̯-/-nu-´, i.e. *mr̥-néu̯-/-nu-´ ‘to cause to disappear’. The ablaut variant mernu- instead of expected marnu- cannot be old (Watkins 1969b:115) and must be analogical to the strong stem of the verbal base mer-/mar-(mi) ‘to disappear’ (Oettinger 1979a:105).
[D.S.]
For the lemma head see PAnat. *mér-/mr̥-´.