wattari-

Apart from two possible attestations with gloss wedges in fragmentary context, the instance in the ritual for the Tutelary Deity of the Hunting Bag is the only one (NS).

[E.R.]

Checked against the photographs in the Mainzer Fotoarchiv.

[E.R.]

The mediopassive verb form is used intransitively in an incantation that uses assonance to form a wordplay: (The dog barks, the pig grunts, and you, deity, shall not listen to (any noise) from anyone of them.) § [mā]n ŠA ^URULalanda memai nu lalattaru [mā]n ŠA ^URUWattarwa memai nu wattarittaru “If (someone) from the city of Lalanda speaks, (it) shall be lala-ed, if (someone) from the city of Wattarwa speaks, (it) shall be wattari-ed.” The goal of the ritual is to make foreboding words ineffective, which limits the possible meanings of the two verbs (for the deliberate choice of the place names on account of their phonological shape, see CHD L-N:26, Starke 1990a:565 n. 2104, Bawanypeck 2005a: 80f., Archi 2015a:289; for the opposite stance, cf. Kronasser 1966a: 571, Kammenhuber 1985b:541, HEG L-N:20f., HEG U-Z:440f., EDHIL:988, and more recently Francia 2016a:8). The attempts that build on the very probable assumption that wattari- is a genuine verb with an assigned meaning in Luwian takes one of two directions. Thus, Neu 1968a:15f. (building on Rosenkranz 1964a:241, 247) suggests an etymological relationship between wattari- and wattaru- ‘spring’ and derives from this a meaning ‘to trickle away’ and, with further bleaching, ‘to perish’; in his view, the action denoted by the verb extends, by analogy, to the foreboding words that are uttered and thus dilute or even cancel out their effect. Tischler (HHw:s.v.) also starts from wattaru- ‘spring’, but assumes ‘to burble’ in the sense of ‘to babble, to talk nonsense’. In contrast, Bawanypeck 2005a:74f. translates ‘shall become water’, i.e. ‘shall become ineffective’, thus implying a direct derivative from the word for water. Undecided Ünal 2007a:796f., unlikely Stefanini 1983a:149. Outdated Starke 1990a:373 n. 1343, who posits a lexeme wattar-/*uttn- ‘word’, but †uwattar is a ghost word. While Tischler’s interpretation is semantically the most attractive, it is obvious that wattari- is not derived from the u-stem wattaru-, but either from *wattar- ‘water’ or *wattara(/i)- ‘watery’, the latter of which can best be reconciled with wattaru- ‘spring’ (see under Lemma). Therefore, with all due caution, the mediopassive wattari- is translated here as ‘to become watery (?)’.

[E.R.]

Presupposing what is laid out under Meaning, the verb belongs to the denominative stems in -i-^(ti).

[E.R.]

The assumption of a Luwian origin for wattari- is based on the shape of the root watt- (< *u̯éd- ‘water’ by Čop’s Law) alone. Given the feeble arguments for its meaning, also its status as a Luwianism is less than assured. In fact, most handbooks list the word as Hittite, generally without comment (but see already Starke 1990a:373 n. 1343, 564, who presupposes a Luwian origin).

[E.R.]

For the lemma head see CLuw. *wattar/n-.