/san(n)awi?/, sa-na-wa/i
‘well’
- Language
- Hieroglyphic Luwian
- Grammar
- adv
- ID
- 1742
1. Individual Anatolian Languages
1.1 Hieroglyphic Luwian
/san(n)awi?/, sa-na-wa/i
‘well’1.1.1Transmission
This lexeme occurs six times in the HLuw. corpus, where it can be found in Tabal and Cilicia as well as on several of the Assur letters whose origin is unclear. All relevant texts date to the 8th and early 7th centuries BCE.
[AH.B.]
1.1.2Forms
| indecl. | /san(n)awi?/ | (BONUS)sa-na-wa/i | KIRŞEHİR lead strip, §3 (Tabal) |
| (BONUS)sa-na-wá/í | KARATEPE 1 Hu., §14 (Cilicia) | ||
| sa-na-wa/i | ASSUR letter a, §2 (Assur) | ||
| ASSUR letter b, §2 (Assur) | |||
| ASSUR letter d, §2 (Assur) | |||
| ASSUR letter e, §21 (Assur) |
The ASSUR letter forms in letters a, b, and d §2 resp. are all followed by another sign: 〈sa-na-wa/i+ra/i〉, which is interpreted here as /san(n)awi=di/, containing the rhotacized variant of the enclitic pronoun form /=di/, the dative reflexive of 2sg. in this case. Hawkins 2000a:539 analyses the same string in a different way, preferring to see the spelling stand for /san(n)awidi/, i.e. the abl./instr. of the adjective or nominalised adjective, but he points to the syntactic problems this presents, which only the discovery of the KIRŞEHİR lead strip resolved, cf. Yakubovich 2016b:470.
[AH.B.]
1.1.3Graphic Features
1.1.3.1Phonological Interpretation
The syllabic spelling of all attestations renders reasonably secure the phonological interpretation for the present lexeme. It is further bolstered by the word being a member of the family around the adjective /san(n)awi-/ ‘good’, which is not only well-attested in HLuw., but also has cognates in the other Anatolian languages. Only the ending of the form remains uncertain, i.e. the form could be /san(n)awa/ instead, because the signs 〈wa/i, wá/í〉 (*439 and *166 resp.) are ambiguous as to their vowel quality, cf. Yakubovich 2016b:465.
[AH.B.]
1.1.4Meaning
The meaning of the present lexeme proved difficult to pin down for many years. While Bossert 1949a:103 offers a correct morphosyntactic analysis of the form, his interpretation of the KARATEPE 1 Hu., §14 context suffers from the fact that the Phoenician version differs slightly. That fact is remarked on later in Hawkins 2000a:60, who regards the forms as adverbially used nouns, translating them as ‘well’ and thereby linking them to the numerous other lexemes from the same word family that also occur in the same texts. Yakubovich 2016b:469-471 offers a recent take on the textual evidence for /san(n)awi?/, also taking into account the more recently discovered KIRŞEHİR evidence. Despite their different morphosyntactic analyses for ASSUR letters a, b, and d, Hawkins 2000a:534f., 539 and Yakubovich 2016b:469-471 still arrive at the same interpretation for the Assur passages. There, the lexeme under discussion is mainly part of the introduction to the letters, e.g. in ASSUR letter a, §2, the phrase runs sa-na-wa/i+ra/i PUGNUS.PUGNUS-si, i.e. /sannawi=di …-lisi/ ‘May you stay well’. Although perhaps an enquiry after the health of the addressee should be considered: ‘Are you well?’.
[AH.B.]
1.1.5Stem
Derived from the adjective /san(n)awi-/, the present adverb was first tentatively identified as such by Bossert 1949a:103. If the phonological interpretation as /san(n)awi/ is correct, then it constitutes a hypostasis, which saw the endingless nom./acc. sg. n. used in adverbial function and subsequently lexicalised. It is possible, however, that the attested forms should be read as /san(n)awa/ instead, see Yakubovich 2016b:465.
[AH.B.]