/naPa-/, (ASCIA)na-pa-
‘axe’
- Language
- Hieroglyphic Luwian
- Grammar
- subst
- ID
- 2371
1. Individual Anatolian Languages
1.1 Hieroglyphic Luwian
/naPa-/, (ASCIA)na-pa-
‘axe’1.1.1Transmission
This hapax is attested in a single inscription from Tabal, dating to c. 740–730 BCE.
[A.P.]
1.1.2Forms
| abl./instr. | /naPadi/ | (ASCIA)na-pa-[ri+]í | KAYSERİ, §7 (Tabal) |
Another form may have to be added to the above table, viz. 〈na-a-pa〉 from ASSUR letter f+g, §5. The word is missing the logographic determinative ASCIA (sign *281), however, and occurs in a clause so little understood that it cannot be said if the word actually belongs to the present lexeme.
[A.P.] [AH.B.]
1.1.3Graphic Features
1.1.3.1Phonological Interpretation
The phonological interpretation of this word should be viewed as provisional. While the spelling appears to be reasonably clear, the word so far lacks etymological links, and the quality of its word-medial bilabial stop therefore remains indeterminate, here represented with the cover symbol /P/.
The logogram used as a determinative, ASCIA, can be found with one other lexeme, viz. HLuw. /karmali-(ti)/ ‘to hack’.
[AH.B.]
1.1.4Meaning
Even though the word is a hapax, its meaning is easily guessed from the shape of the logogram serving as a determinative. Because of its very pictographic nature, the meaning of the logogram ASCIA was clear already to Gelb 1931a:65,Gelb 1931a discussed the sign in the context of KARKAMIŠ A1a, §3, on the assumption that the following string of syllabograms represented the word for ‘axe’. The word was later identified as the verb /karmali-(ti)/ ‘to hack’. followed by scholars since, cf. e.g. Meriggi 1951a:93. The context supports the semantic assignment easily. KAYSERİ, §7 represents the apodosis of a curse formula intended to protect the installation: […] (DEUS)TONITRUS-hu-z[a]-sa4 á-pa-sa4-ri+i (ASCIA)na-pa-[ri+]í (“ARMA”)tu-pi-ti-í, approx. /… Tarhunzas abassadi naPadi tubidi/, meaning ‘(The storm-god) Tarhunt will strike … with his axe’ (cf. Hawkins 2000a:473).
[AH.B.]
1.1.5Stem
With only the abl./instr. attested so far, the grammatical gender of this word remains in the dark. For the same reason, the stem of the word is likewise unclear.
[AH.B.]