/walla-(i)/, (“MALLEUS”)*71-la-
‘to smash, erase’
- Language
- Hieroglyphic Luwian
- Grammar
- verb
- ID
- 2532
1. Individual Anatolian Languages
1.1 Hieroglyphic Luwian
/walla-(i)/, (“MALLEUS”)*71-la-
‘to smash, erase’1.1.1Transmission
The 38 attestations of this lexeme mostly occur on inscriptions from Commagene and Karkamiš, but some can also be found in Tell Ahmar and Maraş, and one originates from Tabal. The inscriptions date to between the 11th and the late 8th century BCE, covering most of the Iron Age Luwian era.
[AH.B.]
1.1.2Forms
The attestations at ADIYAMAN 1, §3 and ANCOZ 2, l. 2 may require a transliteration as ARHA.MALLEUS, because the sign representing the adverb ARHA looks like it is combined with the sign MALLEUS: it sits directly above it with no space intervening.
[AH.B.]
1.1.3Graphic Features
1.1.3.1Phonological Interpretation
The phonological form of this word has been reasonably clear for some time, since Meriggi 1937b:90 incl. n. 5 noted the use of the logogram MALLEUS (sign *280) to represent /wa/ in a toponym in another inscription.Meriggi 1937b:90 assigned the value 〈wa5〉 to it, but this has since been changed to 〈wa/i9〉, cf. Payne 2010a:180. What remains somewhat unclear is the quality of the lateral, i.e. whether it is a singleton or geminate. The geminate interpretation finds support in the possible Hittite cognate wallanu- ‘to erase, remove’, see Goedegebuure 2019a:297-299.Hittite wallanu-(mi) is usually etymologically linked with a different HLuw. verb: /walanu(wa)-/ ‘to let die’, cf. e.g. HEG U-Z:240. But Hittite, too, uses the phrase laman wallanu-(mi) ‘to erase the name’, which is also the most common use of the present verb, see the discussion of the meaning below.
That the different spellings, with some involving the logogram AVIS, others the sign *71 and most neither, do in fact belong to the same sign became fully clear when *71 was identified as the cursive form of AVIS (sign *128), following the finding of TELL AHMAR 6, see Hawkins 2006a:29 and recently Goedegebuure 2019a:297-299 for a comprehensive account.
[AH.B.]
1.1.4Meaning
While the general meaning of this verb is clear, i.e. some form of damage infliction, its precise denotation has proved difficult to assess based on its contexts. In most cases, the verb is interpreted as ‘to erase’ (Hawkins 1975a:146), or ‘to efface’ (e.g. Rieken & Yakubovich 2010a:208), while the earliest interpretation ‘to break’ (thus first Hrozný 1933a:38) has found less acceptance. The more concrete meaning ‘to smash’ was likewise proposed at an early stage, see Gelb 1942a:49, and recently followed by Yakubovich 2019a:545. Taking into account the logogram MALLEUS (sign *280), which Hrozný 1933a:38 n. 5 suggested to depict a club or mace (“massue”), Yakubovich 2019a:545 draws a direct link between the tool depicted and the meaning of the verb.
Morpurgo Davies 1979a:593f. remarks on how extraordinarily frequently (in fact exclusively) this verb occurs as a 3sg. pres. act. and how formulaic its contexts of attestation often are. Indeed, the verb is a mainstay of many curse formulae included in the inscriptions as protection against damage, e.g. in KARKAMIŠ A11a, §25: NEG2-pa-wa/i-tá á-ma-za á-lá/í-ma-za ARHA MALLEUS-i, approx. /naba=wa=tta amman=za alaman=za ahha wallai/, meaning ‘or erases/smashes my name’ in a longer string of protases. In nearly all cases, the verb is preceded by the adverb /ahha/ ‘back, away’, denoting the completeness or utterness of the action.
[AH.B.]
1.1.5Stem
The inflection pattern of the verb shows that it belongs to the ḫi-conjugation, showing variation between the two 3sg. pres. act. endings /-ai/ and /-aya/ (cf. Sasseville 2021a:342).
[AH.B.]
2. Reconstruction
2.1Reconstruction
The Hieroglyphic Luwian verb /walla-(i)/ ‘to smash, erase’ can be etymologically compared to Hitt. wallanu-(mi) ‘to erase’. Kloekhorst (EDHIL:945) compares it to the Hittite root wall- ‘to praise’ but admits that this is not semantically adequate. Therefore, he leaves wallanu-(mi) without an etymology. Tischler (HEG U-Z:239-241) connects them to the Luwian root wa-la- / u-la- ‘to die’, which is not impossible; cf. PAnat. *u̯lṓ-/*u̯l̥-´ ‘to die’. However, to phonologically reconcile the two roots, i.e. -ll- vs. -l-, one needs to accept the schwebe-ablaut, as posited for the verb ‘to die’. Regardless of this connection, what we can reconstruct from the two cognates discussed here is a Proto-Anatolian root verb of the ḫi-conjugation, i.e. *u̯ólH-/u̯l̥H-´ ‘to smash, erase’ (with a nu-causative found so far only in Hittite).
[D.S.]