tammi(ya)-

The word is attested only once in a NS oracle text dealing with the demands of Ištar of Šamuḫa (for an edition of the text see Lebrun 1976a:199-201).

[E.R.]

nom./acc. sg. n.

dam-me-in-za

VBoT 25 i 12

(CTH 582, NS)

Reading checked against the hand copy of Götze. The form agrees with ^GIŠTUKUL-an-za ... ku-it-ki (cf. also ibid. 5 ki-i ^GIŠTUKUL-an-za) as per Melchert 2003a:203, but contrary to Melchert’s analysis, it must be a nom./acc. sg. n. as shown by the pronominal forms kuitki and ki. As a consequence, the vowel -i- before the ending -nz(a) has to be part of the stem (see below under Stem).

[E.R.]

Götze marks the last sign of the word with an exclamation mark, but the reason for this is unclear.

[E.R.]

Earlier semantic interpretations were based on the assumed lexical identity with tamma in KUB 35.107 iii 20’, which was analyzed as a participial form of la- ‘take’ (cf. tamm(i)-). However, in the following passage, dammeinza semantically specifies ^GIŠTUKUL-an-za ... ku-it-ki as noted by Melchert 2003a:203:

11 ⸢^dIŠTAR⸣ ^URUša-mu-ḫa ku-it ^GIŠTUKUL-an-za BAL-u-an-zi ša-an-aḫ[-zi]
12 [DINGIR-]LUM SISKUR ^GIŠTUKUL-an-za dam-me-in-za^! ku-it-ki ša-an-aḫ-z[i] …
“As for the fact that Ištar of Šamuḫa demands a weapon to be sacrificed (to her), does the deity demand a sacrifice and (or: as a sacrifice) some kind of … weapon?”

The interpretation of [1850] Starke 1990a:329 n. 1165a regarding dammeinza as ‘other’ is excluded because this would need an earlier mention of a specified weapon. Although the word does not belong to the same lexeme as the form tamma ‘cut, incision’, an etymological connection is very well possible. This would imply that ^GIŠTUKUL-anza dammeinza is a cutting weapon of some kind, e.g. a knife or sword, which would give an excellent sense within a context where the generic term ‘weapon’ is narrowed down step-by-step in the fashion typical of oracle queries (see Rieken & Sasseville 2019a:532f. and cf. Lebrun 1976a:199-201).

[E.R.]

The assignment of the meaning ‘of cutting, of incision’ suggested by the phonological similarity with tamma and strongly corroborated by the context allows a straightforward solution to the question of stem formation: Luw. dammeinza is the nom./acc. sg. n. of an adjective of appurtenance with -i(ya)- suffix based on tamma(/i)- ‘cut, incision’.

[E.R.]

Luwian origin of tammeinza is assured by both the derivational relationship to Luw. tamma and the Luwian ending -nza.

[E.R.]