*moi̯h1eh2-nt-
‘the young man’
- Language
- Proto-Anatolian
- Grammar
- subst, common
- ID
- 1624
1. Individual Anatolian Languages
1.1 Palaic
mayant-
‘young man, grown-up’1.1.1Transmission
This lexeme is found in a Palaic hymn part of a ritual preserved on Old and Middle Hittite tablets.
[D.S.]
1.1.2Forms
| nom. sg. | LÚma-ia-an-za | KUB 32.18 iv 10’ | (CTH 752, OS or MS) |
| [LÚma-i]a-an-za | KUB 32.16 iv? 3’ | (CTH 752, OS) |
1.1.3Graphic Features
Checked against the photograph in the Konkordanz (Mainzer Fotoarchiv).
[D.S.]
1.1.4Meaning
Kammenhuber 1955b:361 convincingly equates Pal. LÚmayant- with Hitt. LÚmayant- ‘young man, grown-up’ (followed by Carruba 1970a:62, Melchert 1994a:197, Sasseville 2021a:534). It denotes the cult official responsible for singing a song at the end of the Old Hittite ritual for the disappearing deity. Further contextual evidence is given by Sasseville 2021a:368-371, who interprets the content of the song as “the song of growth”, adequately sung by the man in the prime of his life.
[D.S.]
1.2 Hittite
mayant-
‘young man, grown-up’1.2.1Literature / Comments
CHD L-N:116-118
2. Reconstruction
2.1Reconstruction ‘the young man’
Equating Palaic mayant- with Hitt. mayant-, one can reconstruct a Proto-Anatolian substantive for ‘young man, grown-up’. The formation in -nt- can be taken either as deverbal based on the strong stem of the verb, i.e. *moi̯h1- + -ént- ‘growing’ (not according to Melchert 1984a:46, who would expect the Hittite outcome to be *mēyant-; for the participle derived expectedly from the weak stem see HLuw. /miyant(i)-/.). Alternatively, it can be taken as denominal based on an action noun *maya- ‘growth’ (attested in Hitt. as maya- c. ‘adulthood’ (thus with CHD L-N:116; cf. Melchert 1984a:46f.) and indirectly attested in the Luwian compound ūm-maya- ‘ungrowing, ungrowth’), i.e. *mói̯-eh2- + -nt- ‘having growth’ (cf. Hitt. *miyaḫḫ- → miyaḫḫ-unt-ešš-(mi) ‘to become old’). Differently, Melchert 1984a:46f. reconstructs a thematic stem in *-o-, which is possible, although so far only the stem in *-eh2- can be discerned; contra EDHIL:542. The latter option, i.e. the denominal derivation, is overall preferable.
[D.S.]
For the lemma head see CLuw. mai-/-iya-(i).