/san(n)awistarr(i)-/, sa-na-wa/i-sa-tara/i-
‘goodness’
- Language
- Hieroglyphic Luwian
- Grammar
- subst, common
- ID
- 1743
1. Individual Anatolian Languages
1.1 Hieroglyphic Luwian
/san(n)awistarr(i)-/, sa-na-wa/i-sa-tara/i-
‘goodness’1.1.1Transmission
The lexeme is attested five times and can be found in inscriptions from Cilicia and Tabal. The texts date to the 8th and early 7th centuries BCE.
[AH.B.]
1.1.2Forms
| abl./instr. | /san(n)awistarradi/ | (“BONUS”)sa-na-wa/i-sa-tara/i-ti | KARATEPE 1 Hu., §18 (Cilicia) |
| (“BONUS”)sa-na-wa/i-sa-tara/i-tí | KARATEPE 1 Ho., §18 (Cilicia) | ||
| sa-na-wa/i-sa4-tara/i-ri+i | KULULU 5, §13 (Tabal) | ||
| sa-na-wa/i-sa-tara/i-ri+i | SULTANHAN, §45 (Tabal) | ||
| [sa]-na-wa/i-sa-tara/i-ri+i | SULTANHAN, §5 (Tabal) |
1.1.3Graphic Features
1.1.3.1Phonological Interpretation
This lexeme is attested several times in fully syllabic spelling, sometimes preceded by the logogram BONUS (*165), which can be found on and off throughout the word family around /san(n)awi-/ ‘good’. While the root of the word is clear, the suffix employed in the present form has seen some debate. Its orthographic rendition has been variously interpreted as /-star-/ (Starke 1990a:384f., 389), /-as(t)ra/i-/ (Melchert 2003b:196), and more recently as /-starr(i)-/ (Yakubovich 2016b:471), which is the view followed here. As regards the ending, only the evidence from the Karatepe bilingual shows the original abl./instr. /-adi/, whereas the other forms display the rhotacism that becomes ubiquitous for intervocalic /d, l/ in later Iron Age Luwian (see Melchert 2003b:179-182).
[AH.B.]
1.1.4Meaning
Formed with a well-known abstract suffix, the meaning of the lexeme is quite transparent in addition to the fact that it is attested in the Karatepe bilingual inscription and translates Phoenician w-b-nʿm lby ‘my goodness of heart’, as already noted in Bossert 1949a:109, cf. also the treatment in Starke 1990a:385f. This morphological approach to the semantics of the word is borne out by the contexts it is used in. The passage in KULULU 5, §13-14 is particularly instructive in this respect: za-ia-pa-wa/i DOMUS-na kwa/i-sa sa-na-wa/i-sa4-tara/i-ri+i ti-ia+ra/i-ti wa/i-tu-ta za-zi DEUS-ni-zi wa/i-s˹u˺-u “PES”-tu-u, approx. /zaya=ba=wa parna kwis sannawistarridi tiyaritti wa=du=tta zanzi massaninzi wasu awintu/ ‘Who(ever) guards these houses with goodness, may the gods come well for her/him’, followed by further rewards the gods are to bestow on any such person.
[AH.B.]
1.1.5Stem
The lexeme features the suffix /-starr(i)-/, which is used to derive de-adjectival nouns with an abstract meaning (Melchert 2003b:196; Yakubovich 2016b:471) and was first recognised by Neumann 1965b:88. Even though the word is attested in only one case form that happens to be unspecified for gender, other formations with the same suffix and more case forms attested inflect as common genders, and the same can hence be assumed for the present lexeme.
[AH.B.]
For the derivational base, see /sannawi-/.