/sal(i)-/
‘opponent, prosecutor’
- Language
- Hieroglyphic Luwian
- Grammar
- subst, c.
- ID
- 2173
1. Individual Anatolian Languages
1.1 Hieroglyphic Luwian
/sal(i)-/, LIS-la/i/u-
‘opponent, prosecutor’1.1.1Transmission
This lexeme is attested 14 times in inscriptions from Hama, the Amuq, Karkamiš, Malatya and Commagene, dating from the 12th to the maximally the early 8th century BCE.
[A.P.]
1.1.2Forms
| nom. sg. | /salis/ | sa-li-sà | MEHARDE, §6 (Hama) |
| LIS-la/i/u-sa | ARSUZ 2, §26 (Amuq) | ||
| [LIS]-la/i/u-sa | ARSUZ 1, §26 (Amuq) | ||
| LIS-li-sa | SHEIZAR, §7 (Hama) | ||
| TULEIL 2, §d (Amuq) | |||
| LIS.*398 | KARAHÖYÜK, §24 (Malatya) | ||
| LIS-la/i/u | KARKAMIŠ N1, §2 (Karkamiš) | ||
| LIS-[la/i/u] | KARKAMIŠ A4b, §2 (Karkamiš) | ||
| acc. sg. | /salin/ | LIS-na | KARKAMIŠ A4b, §6 (Karkamiš) |
| KARKAMIŠ N1, §6 (Karkamiš) | |||
| nom. pl. | /salinzi/ | LIS-la/i/u-zi | ANCOZ 7, §14 (Commagene) |
| LIS-la/i/u-[z]i | KARKAMIŠ A18b (Karkamiš) | ||
| LIS-la/i/u-zi | GÜRÇAY, §2 (Karkamiš) | ||
| dat. pl. | /salanza/ | LIS-za | MEHARDE, §6 (Hama) |
The attestation at SHEIZAR, §7 is peculiar in that the LIS sign is embraced by two word-dividers, i.e. 〈|LIS|-li-sa〉. Perhaps the second of these is a mistake for the logogram marker *410, whose composition is quite similar, resulting in a reading 〈|“LIS”!-li-sa〉.
In KARKAMIŠ N1, §2, there are remnants of another sign underneath the logogram LIS, which Peker 2016a:16 transliterates as 〈la/i/u〉 and which is followed here; like many other words in that inscription, the noun remains uninflected at least graphemically. Since KARKAMIŠ A4b runs largely parallel to KARKAMIŠ N1, it may be assumed that the sign traces there are to be interpreted in a similar way.
[A.P.] [AH.B.]
1.1.3Graphic Features
1.1.3.1Phonological Interpretation
The phonological interpretation of this word has been debated among scholars, and various suggestions have been made. A reading of the MEHARDE, §6 passage 〈|LIS-za||sa-li-sà〉 across a line break has been taken as 〈LIS(-)za-sa-li-sà〉 and therefore potentially as /zasalis/, see Melchert 1987a:199 n. 40 following Hawkins 1979b:152. However, it is not at all clear if the string should be one word or two words, viz. 〈LIS-za sa-li-sà〉. The latter suggestion is followed here, i.e. /sal(i)-/ (cf. Yakubovich 2017e). Yet another view considers the root unclear, thus Sasseville 2021a:444f. who regards the well-known suffix /-alla/i-/ to be part of the stem, i.e. /…-all(i)-/, refraining from any suggestion concerning the root of the word.
The logogram LIS (sign *24) is quite pictographic with two heads in profile facing each other over the sign SIGILLUM (*327) also read 〈sa5〉 (see Laroche 1960c:18 with an update by Hawkins 2000a:34).The use of *327 may or may not point towards a /sa/ in the root. Previously, the logogram was interpreted as IRA ‘ire’ (Laroche 1960c:18 “colère”), but newer research has revealed that it constitutes an antonym to CONTRACTUS (*344), and the reading was therefore changed to LIS, see Hawkins 2000a:418.
[AH.B.]
1.1.4Meaning
The meaning of this word has long been clear in a general way because of the logogram used (see Meriggi 1934a:149 “Streit”), and it later received a refinement to LIS and the appropriate agent noun ‘prosecutor, opponent’, see Hawkins 2000a:418, who compares a similar wording with Hittite LÚDI-ŠU ‘adversary at law’. Frequently used in curse formulae, the word usually appears in the apodosis as in ANCOZ 7, §14: pa-ti-pa-wa/i za-zi DEUS LIS-la/i/u-zi á-sa-tu-u, approx. /abatti=ppa=wa zanzi massaninzi salinzi asantu/, meaning ‘(Or who smashes the name of Suppiluliuma and Hattusili, of the father and the son), these gods shall be opponents to him’ (cf. Hawkins 2000a:357).
[AH.B.]
1.1.5Stem
The analysis of the morphology depends on whether the proposed shape /sal(i)-/ is correct or not. If it is, this noun appears to be derived directly from the root with a thematic vowel, which was later subjected to i-mutation. Alternatively, it may be an original i-stem, but the attested spellings do not provide enough evidence so far.
[AH.B.]