/wa(/i)zzurall(i)-/, (“BIBERE”)wa/i-zú+ra/i-li-
‘(unknown)’
- Language
- Hieroglyphic Luwian
- Grammar
- subst, c.
- ID
- 2597
1. Individual Anatolian Languages
1.1 Hieroglyphic Luwian
/wa(/i)zzurall(i)-/, (“BIBERE”)wa/i-zú+ra/i-li-
‘(unknown)’1.1.1Transmission
This lexeme is attested once in an inscription from Tabal, dating to the mid 8th century BCE.
[A.P.]
1.1.2Forms
| nom. sg. | /wa(/i)zzurallis/ | (“BIBERE”)wa/i-zú+ra/i-li-sá | ÇİFTLİK, §13 (Tabal) |
[A.P.]
1.1.3Graphic Features
1.1.3.1Phonological Interpretation
Since the word has not yet been connected to any possible cognates in the Anatolian languages, its phonological interpretation remains partly opaque. Besides the unclear vowel in the first syllable, it is also not clear if the following affricate should be singleton or geminate, hence the use of the cover symbol /Z/. Only the final suffix /-all(i)-/ seems clear, cf. the discussion of the stem below.
The very pictographic logogram BIBERE (sign *8, depicting a person holding a cup), used as a determinative here, is otherwise found with the verb /u-/ ‘to drink’ (also probably in ÇİFTLİK), but it cannot be said if the two words are related.Any link with the Glossenkeilwort waššuraya tentatively adduced by Hawkins 2000a:451 is void with the sign *448 now being read 〈zú〉 instead of 〈sù〉, see Melchert 2012a:210 and Simon 2012b:170f.
[AH.B.]
1.1.4Meaning
While the logographic determinative BIBERE suggests that the word may belong to the semantic domain of drinking, it does not at all become clear what its denotation might be, not least because the context is fragmented before and after the relevant clause. ÇİFTLİK, §13 reads: u(-x?)-pa-tara/i-pa-wa/i-sá (“BIBERE”)wa/i-zú+ra/i-li-sá (DEUS)TONITRUS-hu-ta-sá 1000(-)ia-na(-)sa-ha-s[a(-) …], approx. /usuppattadi=ba=wa=as wa(/i)zurallis Tarhuntas …/, perhaps translating as ‘With a bull sacrifice, he … the wa(/i)zurall(i)- (to??) the thousand(?) … of (the storm-god) Tarhunt’ vel sim. (cf. Hawkins 2000a:449).The verb of the clause is lost in the lacuna, provided there was one in the first place. Hawkins 2000a suggests “(shall be)”, because the presence of the enclitic subject pronoun /=as/ proves the clause to be intransitive, but several other intransitive verbs are possible besides.
[AH.B.]
1.1.5Stem
Evidently a common gender, the word appears to be a substantivised adjective, derived with the suffix /-alla/i-/ from an unknown base.
[AH.B.]