/sariyas(i)-/, (EUNUCHUS)sa-ri+i-ia-si-
‘eunuch’
- Language
- Hieroglyphic Luwian
- Grammar
- subst, common
- ID
- 1840
1. Individual Anatolian Languages
1.1 Hieroglyphic Luwian
/sariyas(i)-/, (EUNUCHUS)sa-ri+i-ia-si-
‘eunuch’1.1.1Transmission
This hapax is attested in a single inscription from Commagene, dating to the early 8th century BCE.
[A.P.]
1.1.2Forms
| nom. sg. | /sariyasis/ | (EUNUCHUS)sa-ri+i-ia-si-sa | ANCOZ 4, §1 (Commagene) |
1.1.3Graphic Features
1.1.3.1Phonological Interpretation
The phonological interpretation of this word is relatively certain, because it appears to be a loanword from Akkadian, see the discussions of the stem and origin below. The logogram employed as determinative here, EUNUCHUS (sign *474), is also used in the word family around /wassinass(i)-/ ‘attendant’.
[AH.B.]
1.1.4Meaning
The meaning was first suggested by Hawkins 2000a:349 on the basis of two points. First, the word uses the same determinative logogram EUNUCHUS like the more well-attested /wassinass(i)-/ ‘attendant’. Second, it appears to be a loan from Akkadian ša rēši ‘eunuch’. As it is, the word is attested only once on a fragment of unknown purpose, and the beginning of the clause is broken off in ANCOZ 4, §1: …]x-ha (CORPUS)sa-ri+i-ia-si-sa á-sa-tá, meaning ‘… he was a eunuch’ (Hawkins 2000a:349).
[AH.B.]
1.1.5Stem
If the likely provenance of the word as a loan from Akkadian ša rēši ‘eunuch’ (thus Hawkins 2000a:349) holds true, the phrase is univerbated in HLuw. (cf. Giusfredi 2012a:157) and treated as a common gender noun without the addition of any further suffixes. It is probably also subject to i-mutation, but further paradigmatic data are necessary to prove that point.
[AH.B.]
1.1.6Origin
Hawkins 2000a:349 suggests the word to be a loan based on the Akkadian conventionalised phrase ša rēši ‘eunuch’ (literally: ‘(he) of the head’); cf. also CAD R:296.
[AH.B.]