nimiyanni

This lexeme is found in a song performed during the festival of Ištanuwa.

[D.S.]

dat. sg.

ni-mi-ia-an-ni

KBo 4.11 rev. 43

(CTH 772, NS)

Checked against the photographs in the Konkordanz (Mainzer Fotoarchiv).

[D.S.]

Starke 1990a:452f. analyzes nimiyanni as a compound of the private suffix ni- and the root verb *miya-⁽ⁱ⁾ ‘to grow’ followed by the suffix -ann(i)- and translates ‘having no growth’ (not followed by Melchert (CLL:158), though without justification). Eichner 1993a:107f. accepts Starke’s etymological approach, but takes nimiyanni as a verb instead and translates it as ‘does not prosper’, which is not tenable, since the verbal form would have to be -annai (Sasseville 2021a:514). Sasseville 2021a:146, 527 also accepts Starke’s etymological approach, but assumes instead an abstract noun in -ātar/n- (thus also Meriggi 1980a:372, cf. Hitt. miyātar/n- n. ‘growth’), translating nimiyanni with ‘ungrowth’, which would make contextually more sense, if atti kuiš nimiyanni annān ili duddumanitan means ‘Whoever (finds) himself in the ungrowth under ili, have mercy (on him!)’, whereas a noun denoting an individual would be difficult to fit into the sense of the passage.

[D.S.]

Due to the lack of attestations, it is not possible to verify whether nimiyanni reflects a noun in -ann(i)- (Starke 1990a:452f.) or in -ātar/n- (Meriggi 1980a:372 His assumption however that the word nimiyatar/n- is Hittite is not necessary., Sasseville 2021a:527). For a discussion of the Luwian abstract nouns in -attar/-attn- vs. -ātar/-ann-, see Sasseville 2021a:526f. with further literature.

[D.S.]

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