ARGENTUM-
‘silver’
- Language
- Hieroglyphic Luwian
- Grammar
- subst, neuter
- ID
- 1771
1. Individual Anatolian Languages
1.1 Hieroglyphic Luwian
ARGENTUM-
‘silver’1.1.1Transmission
This lexeme is attested four times in two inscriptions from Tabal and Karkamiš, dating to the mid- to late 8th century BCE.
[A.P.]
1.1.2Forms
| nom./acc. sg. | /…=za/ | ARGENTUM-za | CEKKE, §8 (Karkamiš) |
| CEKKE, §9 (Karkamiš) | |||
| CEKKE, §11 (Karkamiš) | |||
| ARGENTUM-za-a | KIRŞEHİR, §22 (Tabal) |
KARKAMIŠ A4a, §3 may have featured another instance of the nom. sg., because the text runs parallel to CEKKE, but the putative occurrence has since been lost in a break.
In their first investigation of the present noun and the very similar ARGENTUM- ‘(a weight measure, ingot?)’, Hawkins & Morpurgo Davies 1982a:95-99 assigned all attestations then known to one paradigm. The later discovered KIRŞEHİR letter (see Akdoğan & Hawkins 2010a) made it possible for the forms to be recognised as belonging to two different, albeit probably closely related, lexemes.
[A.P.] [AH.B.]
1.1.3Graphic Features
1.1.3.1Phonological Interpretation
The phonological interpretation of this noun is unclear for the reason that its form is largely hidden underneath the logogram ARGENTUM (sign *257). Only the neuter particle /=za/ is visible; see also the discussion of the stem below.
Yakubovich (pers. comm.) suggests the interpretation /inzagan-/, a phonological shape known from CLuw., see CLuw. īnzagan-. Its meaning has seen a lot of discussion and is tentatively translated as ‘rake?’ in this dictionary. Still, the two attested contexts of the CLuw. noun easily accommodate the meaning ‘silver’, KUB 35.54 ii 31’-32 would translate as ‘Here lie all the seeds, the silver, the golds’, and KBo 29.6 obv. 25’-26’ would mean ‘Just as this silver is rubbed clean, (so) may the ritual patient come (away) from the sin’. but definite proof is lacking.
[AH.B.]
1.1.4Meaning
The meaning of the present word was suggested on the basis of the CEKKE evidence by Hawkins & Morpurgo Davies 1982a:95-99, who also assigned the reading ARGENTUM to sign *257. It also appears in the later discovered KIRŞEHİR letter, in which §22 runs : wa/i-mu-u 1 ARGENTUM-sa ARGENTUM-za-a NEG2 pi-ia-ta, approx. /wa=mu … …-s(a?) …=za na piyanta/, meaning ‘They did not give me one measure/ingot? (of) silver’ (cf. Akdoğan & Hawkins 2010a:5).
[AH.B.]
1.1.5Stem
Since the stem of the word is hidden beneath the logogram ARGENTUM, the only evidence comes from the neuter particle /=za/. Its shape suggests that the word is either an a-stem (with an ending in /-an/), an n-stem, or an l-stem, as all of these cause the particle to appear as /=za/ rather than /=sa/. If Yakubovich’s suggested interpretation as /inzagan-/ is correct (see the discussion of the phonological interpretation above), the word would be an n-stem, and in contrast to its CLuw. cognate, it is fully expected to show the neuter particle, which is ubiquitous in HLuw; cf. the discussion inCLuw. īnzagan-.
[AH.B.]