ušmant(i)-

The word is found in the Old Hittite festival text mentioning the ašušattalla-men.

[E.R.]

acc. sg. c.	uš-ma-an-ti-in	KUB 35.133 ii 28	(CTH 665, LNS)
nom. pl. c.	uš-ma-ti-z[i?]	KUB 35.133 ii 28	(CTH 665, LNS)

The reading uš-ma-ti-z[i^?] follows Starke 1990a:281 n. 9 (cf. also CLL:247). Its assignment is less than assured, as it is based mainly on the co-occurrence of ušmantin in the same text.

[E.R.]

Checked against the photographs in the Mainzer Fotoarchiv. – If uš-ma-ti-z[i^?] at ii 28 belongs to the same lemma as ušmantin, one needs to accept that the nasal of putative *ušmantinzi is graphically suppressed twice.

[E.R.]

The lexeme occurs within the context of an address to the Storm-god: ^(27’)tu-ú-iš UD.KAM-iš ta-at-ta ^(28’)uš-ma-an-ti-in šu-na-at-ru-wa-an-ti-in ú-pa “your day arrived (lit. stepped). Furnish it as an ušmantin (and) šunatruwantin one.” The translation follows Starke 1990a:520, who interprets the two words as adjectives referring to UD.KAM-iš ‘day’ in the previous sentence as their head noun (also adjectival interpretation, but with unlikely syntactic analysis Yakubovich 2005a:246). In fact, the obvious use of the desubstantival possessive suffix -want- speaks for an adjective šunatruwant(i)- ‘possessing fullness’, i.e. ‘rich in outpourings, rich in blessings’, and an asyndetic combination of two adjectives, which is more probable than that of a head noun with a postposed qualifying adjective (see, in contrast, apparantin arin ‘future time’ a line later in ii 29’ with the expected word order). As a consequence, it is reasonable to assume that juxtaposed ušmantin has a similar meaning (contra Carruba 1972a:9 n. 11: translating as substantive ‘Gabe’; CLL:247: substantive without translation; Yakubovich 2017d: ‘prosperity(?)’). Accordingly, Starke 1990a:520 n. 1922 suggests a connection with CLuw. *usantar- that he sees in ušantara/i- ‘gains-bringing’, HLuw. /usnuwa-/ ‘to bless, to benefit’ etc. Based on this etymology, a meaning ‘gains-bringing, blissful, beneficial’ vel sim. is probable and would fit the context. Outdated Meriggi 1957a:221 (followed in DLL:103) with an interpretation as 2pl. possessive pronoun.

[E.R.]

For contextual reasons, the adjectival interpretation of ušmantin preferred here. Thus, the stem is posited as ušmant(i)-. It can by analyzed as root uš- + substantival suffix -ma- (cf. Melchert 2014d:208f. on deradical -m(i)-, e.g. in tarm(i)- ‘peg’) + adjectival -ant(i)-, i.e. in terms of semantics, ‘good’ → ‘good things’ → ‘furnished with good things’.

[E.R.]

For the lemma head see CLuw. wašš-.