/wanid-/
‘stele’
- Language
- Common Luwian
- Grammar
- subst, neuter
- ID
- 1868
1. Individual Anatolian Languages
1.1 Hieroglyphic Luwian
/wanid-/, (“STELE”)wa/i-ni-
‘stele’1.1.1Transmission
With 45 occurrences, this lexeme is one of the rather well-attested words in the HLuw. corpus. The relevant inscriptions originate from most of the HLuw. area, ranging from the West to the East and South, and they date to between the second half of the 13th century to the late 8th century BCE.
[AH.B.]
1.1.2Forms
Not all 45 occurrences are listed in the above table. Care has been taken to show the broad geographical and temporal distribution of the lexeme, but broken forms have been left out as well as multiple attestations from the same inscription if they showed the exact same spelling.
The distribution of forms is such that most of the nom./acc. sg. forms ending in 〈-zi/zí〉 function as subjects in their respective clauses, while those ending in 〈-za〉 always function as objects. It is not clear whether this particular choice of signs has any significance, cf. the remarks by Hawkins 2000a:180.
[AH.B.]
1.1.3Graphic Features
1.1.3.1Phonological Interpretation
The phonology of the present lexeme had escaped scholars for some time due to the vagaries of the HLuw. writing system (cf. e.g. Laroche’s “wan(a)i-?” in DLL:106), but eventually Hawkins & Morpurgo Davies 1988a:176f. proposed the stem /wanid-/, after which the neuter particle /=sa/ would take the shape /=za/, as it does after /n/, cf. also Melchert 2004d:472 n. 2. The interpretation of the stem fits well with the rhotacism seen in the dat./loc. sg. forms, in which the intervocalic stem final /d/ is represented by the sign combination 〈ra/i+i〉 (*383+209), which is commonly interpreted as /ri/ and hence transliterated as 〈ri+i〉, cf. Melchert 2003b:179-182. Regarding the nom./acc. sg. forms, however, the suggestion by Hawkins & Morpurgo Davies 1988a:176f. falls foul of the fact that Luwian is known to have deleted word-final dental stops before the introduction of the neuter particle (see Melchert 2003b:182), i.e. the environment that was assumed to lead to /=za/, viz. /-d+sa/, did not actually exist any longer. Recently, Rieken 2017a:24 hence proposed that the forms both in HLuw. and CLuw. instead attest to an analogical spread of the neuter thematic ending /-an/, i.e. /wani(y)an/ with syncope to /wanīn/, after which the neuter particle /=sa/ always takes the shape /=za/ while the /n/ is deleted at least on the graphemic level; the original stem-final dental was, however, retained in the remainder of the paradigm.
The phonological interpretation is supported by the cognates found in CLuw. wanīti(ya)- ‘of stone’ and further words belonging to the same family, see CLL:255f.
[AH.B.]
1.1.4Meaning
The sense of the logogram STELE (*267) was first established by Forrer 1932a:11 as ‘Denkmal, Stele’, followed later by Laroche 1960c:138f. Although Laroche suggested a semantically broader ‘bloc de pierre, stèle (?)’ for the CLuw. cognate in DLL:106., but Meriggi 1967b:12f. advocated for ‘stone’ for /wanid-/ (thus still Hawkins 2000a:494). However, the HLuw. contexts of attestation do suggest the more specific meaning ‘stele’ (cf. also Aro 2003a:317) as opposed to /tanid-/ ‘statue’ and the more general /assu-/ ‘stone’, and Forrer’s original interpretation is therefore followed here.
The word typically occurs in inscriptions on stelae and is used to denote the carrier object, both in incipits and dedications as well as curse formulae. In RESTAN, §3, the dedication runs: za-pa-wa/i (“STELE”)wa/i-ni-za (DEUS)pa-ha-la-ti-ia CRUS-nu-ha-á, approx. /zan=ba=wa wani(d)=za Pahalattiya tanuhha/, i.e. ‘I set up this stele for (the god) Ba’al’.
[AH.B.]
1.1.5Stem
The stem formation of the present lexeme became clear when Hawkins & Morpurgo Davies 1988a:176f. proposed the interpretation /wanid-/, cf. also Starke 1990a:187 for the CLuw. cognate derivatives of *wanit-. The word hence constitutes one of the many neuter nouns in /-id-/ seen throughout both HLuw. and CLuw. More recently, the often remarked upon peculiarities seen in the inflection have been elucidated by Rieken 2017a:24, who proposes the existence of a stem allomorphy with /waniyan=za/ in the nom./acc. sg. and /wanid-/ for the rest of the paradigm.
[AH.B.]
1.2 Cuneiform Luwian
*wāni(t)-
‘block, stele’1.2.1Derivatives
For the lemma head see PLuw. *u̯on-.