/has(s)a(/i)-/, FLAMMAE?(-)hax-si
‘pyre’
- Language
- Hieroglyphic Luwian
- Grammar
- subst, gender unknown
- ID
- 1547
1. Individual Anatolian Languages
1.1 Hieroglyphic Luwian
/has(s)a(/i)-/, FLAMMAE?(-)hax-si
‘pyre’1.1.1Transmission
This hapax legomenon is attested in a single inscription from Hama, dating to the 9th or 8th century BCE.
[A.P.]
1.1.2Forms
| dat./loc. sg. | /has(s)i/ | FLAMMAE?(-)hax-si | SHEIZAR, §3 (Hama) |
1.1.3Graphic Features
1.1.3.1Phonological Interpretation
The phonological interpretation of this word is tentative, first and foremost because it is a hapax legomenon and has not yet been linked securely to any cognates either within HLuw. or in the other Anatolian languages; Hawkins 1979b:155 suggests that it may be cognate with Hittite ḫaššā- c. and CLuw. ḫaššanitti-, both ‘hearth’. The transliteration of the attested form in SHEIZAR, §3 is therefore to be understood as likewise provisional, because it cannot be ascertained if the logogram is to be understood as a determinative or whether it also represents part of the phonological shape of the word. Further evidence may result in a reappraisal of the word.
A syllabic value /ha/ for the sign *300 is only postulated for SHEIZAR, §§2-3, and hence transliterated as 〈hax〉. Despite such thin evidence, the interpretation would abide by the acrophonic principle, given the Luwian words represented by the logogram NEPOS (*300.*488); moreover, the parallel to the attestation of (PES2)pa-za-hax in SHEIZAR, §2 (the verb also appears in KARKAMIŠ A5b, §1 as 〈(PES2)pa-za-ha〉, /pazzaHa/) also supports such a reading.
[AH.B.] [A.P.]
1.1.4Meaning
The lexeme was first assigned the meaning ‘pyre’ tentatively by Hawkins 1979b:155, who interprets it as a dat./loc. sg. in the context in the funerary inscription SHEIZAR, §3: *a-wa/i-mu-ta *a-mi-zi INFANS-ni-zi “LONGUS”-zi FLAMMAE?(-)hax-si PONERE?-wa/i-ta, approx. /a=wa=mu=tta amminzi niwaranninzi …-zi hasi tuwanta/, probably meaning ‘My children put me on the funerary pyre’ (cf. Hawkins 2000a:417). Along with suggesting a possible etymological link with Hittite ḫaššā- and CLuw. ḫaššanitt(i)-, both ‘hearth’, Hawkins 1980c:219f. notes that Hittite employs an entirely unrelated word for ‘pyre’, viz. (subs.) ukturi- (cf. HEG U:29f.).
[AH.B.]
1.1.5Stem
If the phonological and semantic interpretation of the form attested in SHEIZAR, §3 is correct, /has(s)i/ could very well be cognate with Hittite ḫaššā- and CLuw. ḫaššanitt(i)-, both ‘hearth’. It would in all likelihood also be a common gender and show i-mutation. However, it cannot be judged on the basis of the attested form alone which grammatical gender the noun has, and further textual evidence may reveal it to be a neuter.
[AH.B.]