walwaḫiššar/n-

Although listed under the library labels in the Konkordanz, the small tablet contains an oracle question and, accordingly, has to be assigned to the oracle texts following Waal 2015a:55-57.

[E.R.]

dat./loc. sg.

wa-al-wa-ḫi-iš-ni

KBo 31.32, 5

(CTH 283, NS)

Checked against the photographs in the Mainzer Fotoarchiv, insofar as they provide any information. However, Otten was obviously able to see the signs clearly enough to draw the handcopy in KBo 31.32 (but see the remark about the problems of the reading in Ünal 2007a:784).

[E.R.]

What little remains of the context around walwaḫišni is studied in Waal 2015a:55 n. 171. The transliteration presented here differs from hers in that it reads GAL GEŠT[IN] instead of GAL SANGA^?: ⁽¹⁾ki-i ku-it ⁽²⁾3 x-x-aḫ-⸢ti⸣ ⁽³⁾⸢EZEN⸣₄^? e-eš-šer ⁽⁴⁾nu GAL GEŠT[IN] ⁽⁵⁾wa-al-wa-ḫi-iš-ni “As for the fact that ... they celebrated the festival^? and the chief of wine (was) in w.” Oracle questions often report situations that trouble the king and his administrators. Therefore, the second sentence must imply something negative. Since there is nothing bad about a chief of wine, the negative semantics must be expressed by walwaḫišni. This fits well with the assumed meaning of walwayalla/i- (something dangerous or threatening, figurative, defamation?) derived from the same base walw(i)-.

[E.R.]

Melchert (pers. comm.) wishes to list the word as walwaḫiš-, although the oblique form ending in -išni points to the class of Hittite s-stems enlarged with -n- in the oblique cases and later transferred to the heteroclites in -eššar/-ešn-. Their Luwian equivalents remain s-stems (cf. the cases of CLuw. ḫappiš- vs. Hitt. ḫappeššar/-ešn- ‘member’ and kuppiš- vs. Hitt. kuppiš-/-išn- ‘stool’, cf. Rieken 1999a:387 and 396f., Starke 1990a:109 assuming additionally that the two lexemes themselves are borrowed into Hittite). If it can be assumed that such pairs existed, Luw. walwaḫiš- could be adapted to the Hittite type, keeping the i-vowel intact. The suffix preceding the stem final suffix -š- in the Luwian word is -aḫ(i)- probably also seen in ḫarmaḫ(i)- c. ‘head’ and turaḫ(i)- c. designating a wooden object (for the suffix -aḫ(i)-, see Sasseville 2021a:213). The secondary or even tertiary transfer to the class of neuter stems in -š- is paralleled by šarlamiš- n. ‘exaltation’ and duddumiš- n. ‘benevolence’, for which see Starke 1990a:119.

[E.R.]

The gloss wedge seen by Otten, the base walw(i)- and, possibly, the suffix -aḫi- all point to a Luwian origin of the word.

[E.R.]

For the lemma head see CLuw. walwa(/i)-.