CAPUT.VIR
‘chieftain (?)’
- Language
- Hieroglyphic Luwian
- Grammar
- subst
- ID
- 2170
1. Individual Anatolian Languages
1.1 Hieroglyphic Luwian
CAPUT.VIR
‘chieftain (?)’1.1.1Transmission
This lexeme is attested three times in a single inscription from Boğazköy, dating to the 13th century BCE.
[A.P.]
1.1.2Forms
| acc. sg. | /.../ | CAPUT.VIR | SÜDBURG, §7 (Boğazköy) |
| CAPUT.VIR | SÜDBURG, §11 (Boğazköy) | ||
| dat. pl. | /.../ | CAPUT.VIR | SÜDBURG, §3a (Boğazköy) |
[A.P.]
1.1.3Graphic Features
1.1.3.1Phonological Interpretation
The phonological interpretation of this word is unclear. The logograms used, i.e. CAPUT (sign *10) and VIR (*313) were quickly identified as belonging together, see already Otten 1989b:335f.Note that rather than following the conventions proposed by Hawkins, Morpurgo Davies & Neumann 1973a:3 prelim. n. to use Latin for the transcription of logograms, Otten 1989bemploys the previously common mix of languages, depending on which scholars he is citing in his article. Melchert 2002a:140 considers VIR to represent a reading aid for CAPUT, i.e. essentially advocating for a transliteration as 〈CAPUT.ZÍ〉 for /zid(i)-/, which is theoretically possible, but not convincing, since VIR by itself stands for /zid(i)-/ already. If at all, one could consider a compound of the two words commonly represented by the logogram, viz. /harmahi-zid(i)-/ vel sim. Since all these suggestions are entirely hypothetical, no phonological shape will be suggested here.
[AH.B.]
1.1.4Meaning
With the word limited to a single text, its precise meaning has been difficult to gauge, especially since the SÜDBURG inscription poses a unique challenge with its dearth of inflectional endings and often unclear clausal boundaries. Still, the general drift of the semantics of this word seems reasonably clear because of the logograms used: CAPUT (usually associated with /harmah(i)-/ ‘head’) and VIR (which stands for /zid(i)-/ ‘man’). Hawkins 1995a:23 provisionally suggests ‘prince-man’ (following Otten 1989b:335f. who took it for a title “Mann des Landes …”), besides considering the possibility of a personal name in the more detailed discussion (see Hawkins 1995a:35f.). In contrast to that, Melchert 2002a:140 again goes back to Otten 1989b’s suggestion, but interprets it as a plural equivalent to Hittite LÚMEŠ URUX ‘people of town X’ because of the contexts of attestation.
However, with the contexts being ambiguous, preference is given here to the literal interpretation of the semantics inherent to the logograms CAPUT and VIR, i.e. ‘head’ and ‘man’, and therefore Hawkins’ interpretation as some kind of ‘chieftain’. SÜDBURG, §11 runs: PURUS.FONS.MI MAGNUS.REX ali-wa/i-ní á-INFRA.KA CAPUT.VIR TONITRUS(URBS) REGIO á-INFRA.KA ARHA CAPERE, approx. /Suppiluliumas hantawatturas aliwanni anni … Kumanni wattaniya anni ahha latta/ vel sim., possibly meaning ‘Great-King Suppiluliuma took away the chieftain (?) from the enemy from region (of the town) Kummiya’ (see Yakubovich 2017e, and cf. Hawkins 1995a:22f.).
[AH.B.]
1.1.5Stem
Unclear.
[AH.B.]