/kwazza-(i)/, (“X.FLAMMAE”)ku-wa/i-za-
‘to fall (?)’
- Language
- Hieroglyphic Luwian
- Grammar
- verb
- ID
- 1844
1. Individual Anatolian Languages
1.1 Hieroglyphic Luwian
/kwazza-(i)/, (“X.FLAMMAE”)ku-wa/i-za-
‘to fall (?)’1.1.1Transmission
This lexeme is attested four times in inscriptions from Konya, Emirgazi and the Amuq, dating from the 13th century to the 8th century BCE.
[A.P.]
1.1.2Forms
| 3sg. pres. ind. act. | /kwazzai/ | (“X.FLAMMAE?”)ku-wa/i-za-i | JISR EL HADID 4, §5 (Amuq) |
| 3pl. pres. ind. act. | /kwazzanta/ | kwa/i-zi/a-tá | YALBURT frag. 2, §5 (Konya) |
| kwa/i-zi/a-tá | EMİRGAZİ 2, §13 (Emirgazi) | ||
| kwa/i-[zi/a-tá] | YALBURT frag. 1, §9 (Konya) |
For JISR EL HADID 4, §5, Dinçol, Dinçol, Hawkins & Peker 2014a:65f. remark on the peculiarity of the logograms used for a determinative.
[A.P.] [AH.B.]
1.1.3Graphic Features
1.1.3.1Phonological Interpretation
The phonological interpretation of this lexeme is provisional, because it is not clear if the word has cognates in HLuw. or any of the other Anatolian languages. Perhaps it is related to a verb attested in ANCOZ 1, §3: 〈(CORNU2)ku-wa/i-i〉, /k(u)wai/, whose meaning remains opaque (Dinçol, Dinçol, Hawkins & Peker 2014a:65f.), cf. the discussion of the stem below.
An alternative interpretation of the spelling would be /kwanza-/, since pre-consonantal /n/ is regularly omitted by HLuw. orthographic conventions. If that shape should prove correct, a link with HLuw. /kwanzu-/ ‘heavy’ should be considered possible. However, any relation to the verb /kwanza-(di)/ ‘to carve, to strike’ seems unlikely for both semantic and graphological reasons, because the verbs use different logographic determinatives.
[AH.B.]
1.1.4Meaning
The meaning of the word is assigned tentatively (thus Yakubovich 2017e: s.v.). The verb was first interpreted in the YALBURT contexts by Poetto 1993a:42, 70f. and Hawkins 1995a:76, who translated it as ‘to kneel’ because of the mention of ‘knee’ in the same clause. YALBURT frag. 2, §5 runs: a-wa/i tala/i-wa/i(REGIO) FEMINA.MANUS.VIR2 GENU-za/i INFRA kwa/i-za/i-tá, approx. /a=wa Tlawa …-zi …-z(a) zanta kwaz(z)anta/, meaning ‘The people in Tlawa fell down to (their) knees’. Its occurrence in a different context in JISR EL HADID 4 suggests a less specialised meaning, however. In their editio princeps of JISR EL HADID 4, Dinçol, Dinçol, Hawkins & Peker 2014a:65f. deem the verb used in §5 to be of uncertain meaning. However, the form implies a connection with the present lexeme, and the context – if interpreted correctly – suggests the meaning ‘to fall’: (DEUS)TONITRUS-ti-i 1 ARIES-ni-sa (“X.FLAMMAE?”)ku-wa/i-za-i, translating as ‘For/To (the storm-god) Tarhunt, one ram (will) fall, (and afterwards, one ox and one gazelle will stand?)’.
[AH.B.]
1.1.5Stem
If the attestations listed under Forms do indeed belong to the same paradigm, the verb clearly inflects according to the ḫi-conjugation as proved by the 3sg. pres. act. ending /-i/.
For the shape of the stem, two analyses come to mind. On the one hand, it may be a stem in /-a-(i)/, likely the thematic vowel, see Sasseville 2021a:340-342. On the other hand, it may represent a derivative of the verb /k(u)wa-(i)/ ‘(unknown)’, in which case it could be a stem in /-zza-(i)/, which is deverbal and can mark imperfectivity (see Sasseville 2021a:440f.).
Curiously, the logographic determinative used for the present lexeme in JISR EL HADID 4, §5 and here read as FLAMMAE? is, in fact, a doubling of CORNU2 in the verb 〈(CORNU2)ku-wa/i-i〉 in ANCOZ 1, §3, which could be further evidence for the imperfective interpretation of /kwazza-(i)/. None of these points are compelling, however, and further data are needed.
[AH.B.]