“CAPUT.CULTER.LINGUA+x”-i

This hapax is attested in a single inscription from Tabal, dating to the 8^th century BCE.

[A.P.]

3sg. pret. ind. act.

/…-itta/

“CAPUT.CULTER.LINGUA+x”-i-ta

İSTANBUL 2, C2 (Tabal)

At İSTANBUL 2, C2, the logogram markers 〈“  ”〉 are placed directly below the sign CULTER, rather than at the end of what is today perceived as a string of logograms. Note, however, that the signs are arranged much more according to layout and accommodating shape and size instead of strictly the order in which they should be read, cf. the photograph supplied by Taş & Weeden 2011a:57.

[A.P.]

With the word a hapax legomenon and its phonology unclear, its meaning is largely opaque. The clause at İSTANBUL 2, C2 reads: wa/i-ta 1200 CAPUT-ti-na ARHA “CAPUT.CULTER.LINGUA+x”-i-ta, approx. /wa=tta … …-ttin ahha …-itta/, perhaps translating as ‘He fully CAPUT.CULTER...-ed 1,200 men, (and to each house …)’. In their editio princeps, Taş & Weeden 2011a:57-59 cautiously suggest ‘they slaughtered’ for the verb upon drawing comparisons to words with similar spellings, which they consider to occur in contexts of hostility, and the use of the preverb /ahha/ ‘back, away, entirely’. However, that interpretation is not a given for the adduced passage from the KIRŞEHİR letter, and their proposal of ‘to slaughter (?)’ for the present verb is therefore even less certain.

[AH.B.]

Largely unknown, except for the fact that its stem is built with one of the i-containing suffixes, most likely /-i-^(ti)/ or perhaps /-iya-⁽ⁱ⁾/., cf. Sasseville 2021a:131-133, 404f.

[AH.B.]