/warrišša-⁽ⁱ⁾

Out of more than twenty instances of ()warrišša- only three actually show the use of gloss wedges. The word is limited to NH texts, mostly political texts (treaties, edicts, letters and instructions), but also one oracle report. Further attestations besides the representative sample cited below are listed in HEG U-Z:316-318 and EDHIL:962f.

[E.R.]

2sg. pres. act.	wa-ar-ri-ša-at-ti	KUB 21.5 iii 65	(CTH 76, NS)
	wa-ar-ri-iš-ša-at-ti	KUB 21.5 iii 68	(CTH 76, NS)
3sg. pres. act.	wa-ar-ri-iš-ša-a-i	KUB 52.72 obv. 19	(CTH 570, NS)
2pl. pres. act.	[wa-a]r-re-eš-ša-at-te-ni	KUB 26.12 i 7’	(CTH 255, NS)
3pl. pres. act.	wa-ar-ri-iš-ša-an-zi	KBo 5.8 i 10	(CTH 61, NS)
3sg. pret. act.	wa-ar-re-eš-še-eš-ta	KUB 14.16 ii 13’	(CTH 61, NS)
	wa-ar-ri-iš-ši-iš-ta	KUB 31.47 obv. 13’	(CTH 209, NS)
3sg. imp. act.	wa-ar-re-eš-ša	KBo 5.13 iii 20	(CTH 68, NS)
3sg. imp. act.	wa-a[r-re-e]š-še-eš-d[u]	ABoT 1.57 obv. 29	(CTH 106, NS)
	wa-ar-r[e-eš-še-eš-du]	ABoT 1.57 obv. 32	(CTH 106, NS)
part. nom. pl. c.	wa-[a]r-ri-iš-ša-an-te-eš	KBo 5.8 i 19	(CTH 61, NS)

Checked against the photographs in the Mainzer Fotoarchiv. – Restoration in ABoT 1.57 follows EDHIL:962 (cf. also the translation in Beckman 1996a:103).

[E.R.]

The meaning of warrišša- ‘to (come to) help, to be of help’ as elucidated already by Hrozný (1919a:174f. with n. 6) is generally accepted in the handbooks (HW:245, Starke 1990a:155f., Ünal 2007a:787, EDHIL:962f., HEG U-Z:313, HHw:195). It is both used in absolute position and combined with dat./loc. case forms, often also preceded by the  preverbs anda ‘in(to)’ and peran šarā ‘up in front’, which specify the meaning of the verb as ‘to come to help’.

[E.R.]

The verb obviously ends in the imperfective suffix -šša- and inflects according to the ḫi-conjugation (for references, see under Origin).

[E.R.]

It is generally agreed that the verb is a -šša- derivative of Hitt. warrā(i)-^(mi), warrai-/-i(ya)-^(ḫi) ‘to help’ (since Götze 1928a:105; for references, see HEG U-Z:313). Only Starke 1990a:155f. classifies warrišša- as Luwian, based on the existence of CLuw. warraḫi(t)-, HLuw. /warriya-⁽ⁱ⁾/ ‘to help’ and /warriya-/ c. ‘help’. In spite of the late attestation of warrišša-, Kloekhorst (EDHIL:963) is sceptical towards this assumption. In fact, the root *warr- is present in both Hittite and Luwian, as is the suffix -šš(a)-. For the suffix, cf. ḫalzišša- ‘to call’, īšša-, ēšša- ‘to make’, šišša- ‘to press’; for the root, cf. Hitt. warrā(i)-^(mi), warrāi-/-i(ya)-^(ḫḫi) ‘to help’, warra- and OH urra- ‘help’, warri- ‘helpful, helping’ and warriya- ‘help’. The claim of Starke 1990a:156 n. 496 that the last two lexemes are also Luwian can be neither substantiated nor refuted with morphological arguments, since warrieš cited as non-ablauting nom. pl. c. in HEG U-Z:327 is to be interpreted as a predicative nom. sg. c., and the expected ablauting nom. sg. c. wa-ar-ra-i-š=a (HEG U-Z:327, following Alp 1991a:126) should be read as an a-stem gen. sg. wa-ar-ra-aš-š=a ‘of help’. Instead, the cumulation of evidence should be considered: the use of the gloss wedges, which most often indicates Luwian origin, the late attestation, and the existence of the same preverb + verb combination found in Lyc. ñtuweriha- and Lyd. ẽtwerš(i)- tip the balance towards a possible Luwian origin.

[E.R.]

For the lemma head see CLuw. *warriya-⁽ⁱ⁾.