/aliya-/, LOCUS-li-ia-
‘to place, bury (?)’
- Language
- Hieroglyphic Luwian
- Grammar
- verb
- ID
- 2463
1. Individual Anatolian Languages
1.1 Hieroglyphic Luwian
/aliya-/, LOCUS-li-ia-
‘to place, bury (?)’1.1.1Transmission
This lexeme is attested once in a mid-8th century BCE inscription from Tabal.
[A.P.]
1.1.2Forms
| 3sg. pret. act. | /aliyatta?/ | (“*476”)LOCUS-li-ia-ta | KULULU 4, §16 (Tabal) |
The spelling of attestation in KULULU 4, §16 has been variously interpreted as 〈“*476”(-)TERRA-li-ia-ta〉 by Hawkins 2000a:446, but 〈(“*476”)LOCUS-li-ia-ta〉 has also been suggested (Yakubovich, pers. comm.), and 〈“*476.TERRA”-li-ia-ta〉 is likewise possible, because the logogram marker occurs between both signs and could hence refer to both.
[AH.B.] [A.P.]
1.1.3Graphic Features
1.1.3.1Phonological Interpretation
The phonological interpretation of this lexeme is tentative, because it is attested only once and it very much depends on what cognates are accepted for it and which rejected, cf. the discussions of the meaning and the stem below. If the proposed connection with /alant-/ ‘place’ should not hold, the spelling attested in KULULU 4, §16 could be interpreted as /aliya-/, or the beginning of the word could be different altogether, resulting either in /liya-/ or in a partly unknown form /…-l(l)iya-/.
The issue is complicated by the fact that a form, which looks quite similar, is attested in a semantically probably incompatible context, viz. 〈(“*476.*311”)a-li-ia-ta〉 in ASSUR letter a, §9, see also the discussion in /aliya-/ ‘to other (?), treat as an outsider (?)’. Featuring different combinations of logograms, the present lexeme and several others have sparked some discussion among scholars, as *476 occurs either alone or in conjunction with *311 or *201 (TERRA/LOCUS). If taken as a compound semantic sign, 476.TERRA in the KULULU 4 attestation could be a similar compound to the one used for 〈(“*476.*311”)a-li-ia-ta〉 in ASSUR letter a, §9, replacing the altar sign *311 with the symbol for ‘earth’ (*201). The semantic compound could thus encode the object and its intended location of the verbal activity.Similar compounds include SACRIFICIUM and *478. Some other examples of semantic indication of the object are e.g. (TERRA)/latra-/, ‘to extend’, or on a purely graphematic level, the bowl in the hand of the sign LIBARE (*27), most likely also *33 (Payne 2018a:115).
[AH.B.] [A.P.]
1.1.4Meaning
The suggested meaning is based on the contextual interpretation of the verb in conjunction with its possible etymological link with /al(l)V(n)t-/ ‘place (for which see Yakubovich 2017c; Yakubovich, pers. comm.), but the assignment should be understood as tentative. KULULU 4 is a funerary stele, and the word in question occurs on top of the stone in a passage not part of the inscription proper. It details that the stele was put up by the nephew of the author, finishing with §16: PRAE2-sa8-pa-wa/i (“*476”)LOCUS-li-ia-ta, approx. /parissan??=ba=wa aliyatta/, possibly meaning ‘(This stele Huli put up, Ruwa’s bother’s son.) He buried? (him) for the former?? (i.e. the brother?) / He placed (it, i.e. the stele) for the former?? (i.e. the brother or the dead person?)’ (cf. Hawkins 2000a:446).
As is obvious from the translation, the clause presents a number of challenges. Firstly, the initial word of the sentence is unclear regarding both its phonological shape and its meaning; the shape proposed here, the dat./loc. sg. /parissan/ ‘for the former / aforementioned(?)’, is tentative, and the writing would also permit an interpretation as /paris/ ‘the former / aforementioned(?)’ vel sim., a nom. sg., provided that the variant of the logogram PRAE is to be taken as representing /pari/ here. Secondly, with the phonology of the first word in the dark, its syntactic role is likewise ambiguous, and it can either be a nom. sg. c. in /-s/ or a dat./loc. sg. /-issan/ of a possessive adjective in /-assa/i-/; an acc. sg. c. in /-an/ of some other stem is unlikely, though not wholly impossible. Thirdly, the verb /aliya-/ appears to go without its object, which can happen in cases when the object is immediately retrievable from the context, and both the stele as well as the dead person are fully salient in the context, resulting in two possible meanings for the verb: ‘to place (an item)’ or, semantically more narrow, ‘to bury (a dead person)’.
Alternatively, the lack of an overtly expressed direct object could mean that the verb is intransitive after all and therefore wrongly interpreted. As has become evident from the discussion, the meaning of the verb is by no means obvious, and new evidence may result in a reappraisal.
[AH.B.]
1.1.5Stem
The morphological analysis of the present word is hypothetical for the moment. If the etymological link with HLuw. /alant-/ ‘place’ and CLuw. ārlanu(wa)-(i) ‘to replace, relocate’ should prove correct (cf. Yakubovich 2017c; Yakubovich, pers. comm.), the verb /aliya-/ would represent a formation in /-iya-/, a suffix used to derive, among others, denominal verbs (Sasseville 2021a:402, 404f.). The morphological base would probably be the noun /arl(a)-/ ‘pedestal, altar’ (see Yakubovich 2017c:21).
[AH.B.]
For the lemma head see HLuw. /arla-/.