ḫalāi-
‘sickenss (vel sim.)’
- Language
- Palaic
- Grammar
- subst
- ID
- 2385
1. Individual Anatolian Languages
1.1 Palaic
ḫalāi-
‘sickness (vel sim.)’1.1.1Transmission
This lexeme is found in the festival for the Palaic pantheon.
[D.S.]
1.1.2Forms
|
nom. sg. |
ḫa-la-a-i-iš |
KUB 19.152 i 9’ |
(CTH 751, MS) |
|
ḫa-la-iš |
KBo 19.153 iii 5’ |
(CTH 751, NS) |
These words were interpreted rightly as nominal forms by Watkins 1978a:308f., contra Carruba 1970a:53, Carruba 1972a:42.
[D.S.]
1.1.3Graphic Features
Checked against the photographs in the Konkordanz (Mainzer Fotoarchiv).
[D.S.]
1.1.4Meaning
The Palaic word ḫalāiš refers to something negative that the ram, which is about to be sacrificed for the meal of the Palaic pantheon, does not have. Sasseville & Yakubovich 2018a:48 n. 12 (and Sasseville 2019a:24) suggest a convincing etymological connection with Luwian ḫallīna-(i) ‘to (de)contaminate (vel sim.)’ and ḫalliš- n. ‘(de)contamination (vel sim.)’. Therefore, ḫalāi- can be translated provisionally as ‘sickness, contamination’.
[D.S.]
1.1.5Stem
The stem is unclear, but it looks like a diphthong āi-stem, which would imply that it cannot be the exact match of the Luwian base needed for e.g. ḫalliš-, i.e. *ḫall(i)-.
[D.S.]
2. Reconstruction
2.1Reconstruction
The geminate -ll- in Luwian (see ḫalliš, ḫalliyatt(a)- and ḫallīna-(i)) against the single -l- in Palaic would speak a priori for Čop’s Law operating in the former language, i.e. *Hél-i- > CLuw. *ḫall-i-. It is tempting to connect this root with the one of Hittite ḫalīna- ‘clay’ (HW 2nd ed. Ḫ:43, HEG A-Ḫ:131f., HED H:32), which could be semantically accounted for by the action of “smearing” = “contaminating”. However, this etymology requires more evidence.
[D.S.]