aštaniya-⁽ⁱ⁾

The attestations of the lexeme are limited to two NS oracle texts.

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Reading of the attestations at KBo 53.103 after Beckman, Bryce & Cline 2011a:206.

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Checked against the photographs in the Mainzer Fotoarchiv.

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The most complete and informative passage containing the verb aštaniya-⁽ⁱ⁾ is KBo 24.126 rev. 7’f.: ^(7’)nu-uš-ši ^LÚpa-ti-li-iš še-er aš-ta-ni-ia-i máš-kán-na za-an-ki-la-tar-ra ⸢iš⸣-tu é.⸢lugal⸣ sum-an-zi ^(8’)siskur-ia iš-tu é.lugal ⸢sum⸣-an-zi siskur-ma a-ri-ia-an-zi “And on his behalf, the patili-priest will perform a.: They will give both the (offerings of) atonement and contrition from the palace. Also, they will give the sacrifice from the palace. They will establish the sacrifice by oracle.” It is clear that the action of aštaniya-⁽ⁱ⁾ implies a positively evaluated action like a sacrifice. Because the word was connected with the negatively connotated word family of āšta- and āštayarattar-/-t(ta)n-, both denoting an act of witchcraft (since Goetze 1938a:87; doubts raised in Starke 1990a:523), ašta- and its derivatives were regarded either as ambiguous regarding their connotation (CLL:38 ‘charm/spell’ and ‘to recite charms/spells’Melchert (in CLL:38) seems to prefer a verb of speaking, because he believes aštaniya- to contain the suffix -aniya-^(ti) that marks verbs of this semantic field. However, Sasseville 2021a rightly points out that the verb shows ḫi-inflection and therefore cannot belong to that class., followed in HHw:28) or adapted metonymically (Beckman 1983a:237 ‘to perform a sin-offering^?’).

In contrast, Ünal 2005a:81, 91 suggests that aštaniya-⁽ⁱ⁾ means ‘to make amends, to compensate’, arguing that the patili- priest is in charge of the task of compensating (on behalf of the king), whereas the costs for this are paid by the palace. This agrees well with fact that the second and third clause about the costs are not introduced by the sequential particle nu and are, therefore, likely to explicate the action of the first clause about the activity of the patili- priest. Also, the derivative aštaniyawar and the base ašta- are compatible with ‘penance, compensation’, so that nothing speaks against Ünal 2005a’s translation followed here.

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As pointed out by Sasseville 2021a:412, the ḫi-verb does not contain the suffix -aniya-^(ti) that forms verba dicendi (thus Melchert in CLL:38), but belongs to the class of denominative verbs in -iya-⁽ⁱ⁾ and probably has an unattested n-stem *aštan- as its base.

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1. aštaniyawar-/-un-

The assumption that aštaniya-⁽ⁱ⁾ represents a loan word from Luwian (Starke 1990a:523 n. 1936, CLL:38, van den Hout 2006a:250, Sasseville 2021a:412) rests upon its specifically Luwian ending -iyai in the 3sg. pres., the abundance of Luwianisms in KBo 24.126, and the likely attestation of its base ašta- in Ištanuwa Luwian.

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For the lemma head see CLuw. ašta-.