*u̯ósu-/u̯ésu-

The HLuw. corpus holds 17 occurrences for this lexeme. The great majority of the attestations originate from Karkamiš and Tabal and date to the 9^th and 8^th centuries BCE. Only those from Malatya are assessed as older and dated to the 12^th and 11^th or 10^th centuries BCE respectively.

[AH.B.]

The attestation in KARKAMIŠ A5a, §11 is read 〈(LIGNUM)wa/i-su〉 here (see Hawkins 2000a:184), but the surface of the stele is badly abraded, and the logogram may in fact be all that remains of an earlier 〈BONUS〉, which is built on a similar elongated vertical shape.

Although the attestation in ÇİFTLİK, §15 at first glance looks like a 1sg. pres. act. of the verb /wass-^(ti)/ ‘to be dear/pleasing’, this is impossible to accommodate in the relevant clause, which finishes with a 3pl. impv. act. of the verb ‘to come’. Instead, the attested 〈wa/i-su-wa/i〉 can only be analysed as an adverb. Weitenberg 1984a:394, partially following an earlier suggestion by Hawkins 1969a:105, tentatively analyses it as a nom./acc. pl. n. /wasuwa/ in adverbial function, which is possible, though far less frequent than a singular form.

A similar case is presented by 〈wa/i-sa〉 in KARAHÖYÜK (Elb.), §10, which is an unusual form immediately followed by a 1sg. pret. act. of the verb ‘to be’.

[AH.B.]

Although the word is originally an adjective, its usage in HLuw. seems to be exclusively adverbial, insofar as the preservation of the relevant clauses permits any such assessment; thus already Meriggi 1934a:78, 90 who translates it with German ‘Heil, Wohl’ Meriggi 1934a:78 reads the word 〈wa-lu-u〉 in accordance with the interpretation of signs at the time. and later Bossert 1954a:86f. who suggested the meaning ‘good’. In fact, it is used most frequently in the phrase /wasu awi-/ ‘to come well/favourably’ in the corpus, describing support from one or more deities (see Hawkins 1969a:105 and Hawkins 2000a:444) in the form of blessing formulae (Yakubovich 2002a:197). Less frequent are combinations with other verbs such as /as-/ ‘to be’, /usnu(wa)-/ ‘to bless, please’ And that, of course, derives from the same root as /wass-/ ‘to be dear/favoured’ and /wasu-/ ‘well’, cf. Sasseville 2021a:475. etc.

[AH.B.]

The lexeme is a u-stem adjective (cf. CLL:266), but only attested in adverbial function in HLuw. Yakubovich 2002a:200 regards it as a secondary formation, built from the verbal root /wass-/ ‘to be dear’, noting that the denotation ‘good’ is only really brought about by the u-suffix. The form used adverbially is the lexicalised nom./acc. sg. n. of the adjective (and perhaps at least once the nom./acc. pl. n., see discussion under forms above), as is common in the Anatolian languages and beyond. Outdated are the analyses offered by Weitenberg 1984a:395.

[AH.B.]

1. /was(a)u-^(di)?/

The lexeme occurs mostly in the OH/NS festival descriptions of Ištanuwa and the connected ašušatalla- texts, but only once in an incantation (MS).

[E.R.]

Analysis of wa-a-šu-un at KUB 35.132 ii 2’ (and at ˹wa-a˺-šu-[un] KUB 25.37 ii 39’ one line earlier) follows CLL:266, on account of the form ]x-a-tu-in, which precedes wa-a-šu-un and is clearly a non-mutated common gender acc. sg. form (contra Starke 1990a:35, who claims that wāšun is contracted from a neuter nom./acc. sg. *wāšuwan, and Lehrman 1998a:14 n. 10). – It is possible that some of the attestations of wašu classified as nom./acc. sg. n. are used adverbially ‘well’. Due to the fragmented state of several of the texts, the word wašu could be adjectival, adverbial or even reflect the substantivized noun wāšu- ‘good(s)’.

[E.R.]

Checked against the photographs in the Konkordanz. – Assignment of ]wa-šu-u[n^? at KUB 35.141, 2’ less than assured, because neither at the beginning nor the end of the word is there a space visible due to the fragmentation of the tablet (differently Starke 1985b:414).

[E.R.]

Although the contexts of the adjective wašuinzi (attribute of LÚ-inzi ‘men’) itself are not conclusive, the semantic interpretation can be safely based on the adverbial attestations, i.e. wāšu ‘well’. CLuw. wāšu- ‘well’ is used adverbially with awi- ‘come’ (comparable to the HLuw. idiom), ad- ‘eat’, and u- ‘drink’. The meaning was first recognized contextually by Meriggi 1934a:78 and 90 for HLuw. in the BULGARMADEN inscription and then transferred by Bossert 1954a:81 to other HLuw. contexts as well as the adverbial nom./acc. sg. n. CLuw. wāšu and Pal. wāšu. Confirmation comes from the relationship with CLuw. waššarāḫi(t)- ‘favor’ and its base waššar- ‘favor’ (Laroche 1954a:123) together with the underlying verb wašš- ‘be favorable’. The semantic interpretation is now widely accepted (e.g. DLL:110, Kronasser 1956a:92, Weitenberg 1984a:77 et aliter, Starke 1990a:62 et aliter, CLL:266, HED A:204, Yakubovich 2016b:480).

[E.R.]

The u-stem origin of the adjective is not in question. However, on account of the common gender nom. pl. wašuinzi, Starke 1990a:75 argues that also u-stems in general show i-mutation. This is vehemently negated by Melchert (CLL:iv and Melchert 1994a:318), who points to relevant forms without -i-, e.g. wāšun (contra Starke 1990a:35). Melchert (likewise Carruba 1990a:30) explains the nominative plurals in -inzi as featuring secondary metanalyzed endings that can be adduced as parallels for Lycian nom. pl. A -ãi < *-ainsi (also B masaiz ‘gods’). Therefore, the stem is posited here as wāšu-, rather than wāšu(i)-.

[E.R.]

1. ^mWašupiya- (PN) (Zehnder 2010a:35, 90, 305 with ref.)
2. ^fWašumiya- (PN) (Zehnder 2010a:35, 90, 305 with ref.)

1. wāšu-
2. wāšumman-

This lexeme is found in the incantations of the festival for the Palaic pantheon.

[D.S.]

The sequence wa-a-šu-na-at[(-) is attested in a fragmentary passage, which makes the following interpretation tentative. Nevertheless, it can be best segmented as wašun=a=t[…, i.e. acc. sg. c. wašun + -(y)a ‘and’ + =t[…] (particle). Carruba 1970a:78 separates wa-a-šu-n=a-at and parses wāšun as acc. sg. c. and =at as an enclitic pronoun in the nom./acc. sg. n. This is in inflectional terms unproblematic, but the presence of an accusative object in the common gender expected to agree with the enclitic pronoun in the neuter is not satisfactory; cf. Starke 1990a:75 n. 179.

[D.S.]

Checked against the Photographs in the Konkordanz (Mainzer Fotoarchiv).

[D.S.]

The meaning ‘good’ was attributed to the Palaic lexeme wāšu- by Bossert 1954a:96-103 on comparative grounds with Luw. wāšu- ‘good’ (followed by Kammenhuber 1959a:14, Laroche 1955a:76, Carruba 1970a:78). The word wāšu nom./acc. sg. in Palaic in often used adverbially and, thus, modifies the action of the verbs, e.g. lukī- ‘to cut’, kī- ‘to lie’. The meaning ‘well’ or even better ‘nicely’ is appropriate for the context, in which the speaker attempts to entice the deities to come and eat, e.g. nu-ú-wa-šu lu-ki-i-it ‘He cut (them) nicely.’, wa-a-šu… ki-i-ta-ar ‘It lies nicely.’; cf. Bossert 1954a:97, Kammenhuber 1955b:367 n. 1. Eichner 2010a:47 states that wāšu in these cases reinforce the praise and compares the use of Skt. sú and Gk. εὖ. The lexeme wāšu in its adverbial function can be either tonic, i.e. wāšu with plene spelling of the -a-, or enclitic, i.e. wašu without plene spelling of the -a-.

Bossert 1954a:99 interprets wāšu in KUB 35.165 obv. 26 as a substantive meaning ‘goods, belongings’ and assumes a genitive construction with the preceding tabarnaš, i.e. ‘belongings of the tabarna’; cf. Kammenhuber 1959a:87, 90. Since the sentence is broken off, this interpretation must remain tentative until further evidence.

[D.S.]

1. wāšukini-/wāšuniki-
2. wašūḫ-

The Armenian interjection vaš ‘good, bravo’ was explained as a loanword from “Hittite” wašu- ‘good’ by Schultheiß 1961a:222, which was corrected into Luwian by Greppin 1978a:122 (cf. also Greppin 1980b:205, Greppin 1982a:67, 71). Since the proposal is both semantically and formally fitting it was accepted also by Simon 2013b:118, who elaborated the phonological details. Nevertheless, Housepian 2017a:239 claims that this word belongs to the Caucasian, Turkic / Turkish (“turc”) or Iranian loans of Armenian, without refuting the above proposal or providing any argument for her own.

[Zs.S.]