/ahhull(i)-/, (“MALLEUS”)á-hu-li-

Attested just once, this hapax legomenon occurs in an inscription from Tabal, which can be dated roughly to the 9^th or 8^th century BCE.

[AH.B.]

The meaning offered is to be understood as tentative, and the hypothesis mainly rests on the graphematic evidence. If the logogram used for a determinative here, MALLEUS (sign *280), is indeed read correctly, the word is highly likely to denote a weapon used for smashing, because the logogram is otherwise almost exclusively employed with the verb /walla-⁽ⁱ⁾/ ‘to smash’. The relevant clause in BOROWSKI 1, §4 runs: *a-wa/i-tu (“MALLEUS^?”)á-hu^?-li-na ARHA DELERE-nu-wa/i-tu, approx. /a=wa=du ahhullin ahha marnuwattu/, meaning ‘May he destroy his club^?’ (cf. Hawkins 2000a:557); the clause shows raising of the possessor out of the object noun phrase into the clitic chain, cf. Bauer 2014a:138-141.

[AH.B.] [I.Y.]

The lexeme is a common gender noun in HLuw., but based on a single attestation, the stem is difficult to assess. However, the acc. sg. case ending suggests that it conforms to the usual i-mutation pattern found so frequently in HLuw. common gender nouns, although further paradigmatic evidence is needed to prove this point, as an i-stem would be possible, too, though less likely.

In all other respects, the formation of the stem remains in the dark at this point, unless a loan from Hurrian is assumed, see the discussion of the possible origin below.

[AH.B.]

It is marginally possible, though not at all provable at this point, that the present lexeme constitutes a loanword from Hurrian, whose corpus holds attestations for 〈a-ḫu-u-li〉 and 〈aḫ-ḫu-ul-li-ir-ra〉, albeit in broken and very ill-understood passages and hence without any interpretations so far, cf. Richter 2012a:3.

[AH.B.]