URBS.MI-na-li-

The form is attested only once in an inscription from Malatya, dating to the 11^th or 10^th century BCE.

[AH.B.]

dat./loc. sg.

/…-nalli/

URBS.MI-na-li

DARENDE obv. (Malatya)

It is possible that the above table should also list 〈URBS+MI〉 from TOPADA, §14, since that form is contextually also an adjective. However, adjectives in /-alla/i-/ become very rare indeed in the 1^st millennium BCE in HLuw., and a mid-8^th century BCE inscription such as TOPADA is much more likely to rely on a newly formed adjective in /-assa/i-/ or /-i(ya)-/, cf. Bauer 2014a:162-164. The attestation is hence found listed with the noun URBS+MI-n(i)- ‘town’.

[A.P.]

The phonological interpretation of this adjective is partly unclear, because it has yet to be discovered what Luwian word behind the logogram URBS (sign *225) is. The addition of the syllabic sign 〈mi〉 is generally understood as a phonetic indicator, and in the case of the noun, it is often (but by no means always) combined into a ligature with URBS, cf. Laroche 1960c:123.

[AH.B.]

Even though the word is attested but once, its meaning is quite clear because of its transparent morphology and context of attestation, see already Meriggi 1934a:153.Meriggi lists the word as “STADT-mi-nu-li”, relying on subsequently revised readings for some signs. A typical adjective of appurtenance, it is used in DARENDE obv. to modify a deity name: (DEUS)hi-pa-tu (DEUS)hi-pa-tu URBS.MI-na-li, approx. /Hibadu Hibadu …-nalli/, meaning ‘(And I put this stone for the deity,) for (the goddess) Hepat, for urban Hepat’ (cf. Hawkins 2000a:305).

[AH.B.]

The word represents an adjective of appurtenance in /-alla/i-/, a suffix frequently used to this purpose in the earlier stages of Luwian, cf. Melchert 2003b:195, and the derivational base is the noun URBS+MI-n(i)- ‘town’.

[AH.B.]