/san(n)a/, sà-na
‘well, properly (?)’
- Language
- Hieroglyphic Luwian
- Grammar
- adv
- ID
- 1739
1. Individual Anatolian Languages
1.1 Hieroglyphic Luwian
/san(n)a/, sà-na
‘well, properly (?)’1.1.1Transmission
This word is attested only once in an inscription from Karkamiš, dating to around 800 BCE.
[AH.B.]
1.1.2Forms
| indecl. or nom./acc. pl. n. | /san(n)a/ | sà-na | KARKAMIŠ A15b, §7 (Karkamiš) |
The analysis of the form in KARKAMIŠ A15b, §7 is tentative, see Yakubovich 2016b:474 with n. 41, who suggests the present analysis, but also mentions an alternative one with taking the attested string 〈sà-na-ha〉 as /san(n)ah(h)a/, a verb of unclear meaning. In his opinion, the interpretation as an adverb is to be preferred; see the discussion of the meaning below.
[AH.B.]
1.1.3Graphic Features
1.1.3.1Phonological Interpretation
The phonological interpretation suggested for this hapax legomenon is tentative. Yakubovich 2016b:480f. suggests this word may be etymologically connected with the HLuw. word family around HLuw. /san(n)awi-/ ‘good’, which informs the phonological shape assigned here. However, further textual evidence could void this link and with it the suggested phonological interpretation.
[AH.B.]
1.1.4Meaning
Because the lexeme is a hapax legomenon, the suggested meaning is assigned tentatively. In fact, the word itself as well as the context it appears in remained opaque for a long time (cf. the remarks in Hawkins 2000a:132), until the interpretation followed here was put forward by Yakubovich 2016b:474f. He translates the KARKAMIŠ A15b, §7 passage ˹wa/i˺-ta FLUMEN-pi-na (“PES2”)hi-nu-ha (X?)á-lá/í sà-na-ha, approx. /wa=tta habin hinuhha ara sanna=ha/, as ‘I spread out the river, right? and properly?’ in a context of irrigation works instigated by the author. Since /ara san(n)a=ha/ are coordinated, Unless the string of signs requires a different analysis altogether, see the remarks in Forms above. it is highly likely that they belong to the same part of speech category, i.e. adverbs, and the contexts suggests that both words denote something positive (see under Lemma for /ara/). Rieken (pers. comm.) suggests that the meaning may be closer to the etymological origin of the word, which is reflected in the Hittite cognate family around šannapi ‘in various places, scattered’ (cf. CHD Š:158), i.e. ‘apart’, denoting the particularly wide spread of the irrigation works. The form /san(n)a/ may have arisen out of a folk etymology of /san(n)awi-/ as a compound with /awi-/ ‘to come’ for its second member (Yakubovich 2016b:481).
[AH.B.]
1.1.5Stem
Yakubovich 2016b:480f. hypothesises that /san(n)a/ may represent a back-formation to the adjective /san(n)awi-/ ‘good’, based on a folk etymological view of /san(n)awi-/ to contain the verb /awi-/ ‘to come’.
[AH.B.]