*pérEn

The lexeme is attested 52 times in the HLuw. corpus and can be found in inscriptions from all parts of the HLuw. area. The temporal distribution is equally wide, since the relevant texts date across the entire HLuw. era from the late 13^th to the early 7^th century BCE.

[AH.B.]

The above table holds but a selection of the 52 attestations in total. Care has been taken to ensure that all spelling variants are recorded, and that the attestations bear witness to the wide geographical and temporal distribution.

[AH.B.]

That the words involving the logogram PRAE (sign *14) usually represent an adverbial postposition was first discovered by Forrer 1932a:51 n. 7. Subsequently, the exact meaning of /parran/ could be established on the basis of the bilingual inscriptions KARATEPE 1 Hu. and Ho., §27, see Bossert 1950a:33f., and it became clear that the meaning should be understood to work in the spatial and temporal domain alike (see e.g. Melchert 2003b:203). The word is a mainstay of a phrase describing putative support from the gods, e.g. in KARKAMIŠ A11b+c, §11: *a-wa/i-ma-tà PRAE-na (PES₂)hwa/i-ia-ta, approx. /a=wa=mu=ada parran hwiyanta/, meaning ‘They (scil. the gods mentioned two clauses previously) ran before me’ (cf. Hawkins 2000a:103). In the case of /parran/ combined with a king’s name, Durnford 2010a:61 argues that it constitutes a dating formula such as ‘during the reign of King X’, which may the case in the inscription ANKARA 2 on a silver bowl.

Like most words of this part of speech category, /parran/ can be used as an adverb, a postposition, or as a pre-verb, and it is sometimes difficult to distinguish the different uses (thus already e.g. Laroche 1960c:9, and the passage cited above is a case in point). Again like many of its category and indeed across several Anatolian languages, /parran/ is complemented by a cognate /pari/, and the two have long been assumed to denote location vs. direction (cf. e.g. Hoffner & Melchert 2008a:294f.). However, Boroday & Yakubovich 2018a:15f. show that the semantic difference between /parran(ni)/ and /pari/ is not strict, but rather a matter of degrees, with /parran(ni)/ being more likely to introduce a benefactor.

There are a handful of instances where /parran/ appears in combination with its cognate /pari/ (Hawkins 2000a:393f.), e.g. in BABYLON 1, §9: *a-wa/i-tu-tà TONITRUS.HALPA.PA-wa/i-ní (DEUS)TONITRUS-ti-i pa+ra/i-na-´ PRAE-i pi-ia-ha, approx. /a=wa=du=ada Halpawanni Tarhunti parran pari piyahha/, meaning ‘I dedicated them before (the storm-god) Tarhunt of Aleppo’. The combination reminds of the Hittite construction peran parā ‘previously, in advance’ (see CHD P:303), but is likely to be accidental here, as noted by Oshiro 1995a:219f. and Hawkins 2000a:393f., who analyse the passage accordingly and classify /parran/ as a postposition and /pari/ as a pre-verb for /piya-⁽ⁱ⁾/ ‘to give’, specifying the meaning to ‘to dedicate’.

Besides /parran/, the corpus holds evidence for the much less frequent variant /parranni/, but it is not exactly clear whether and, if so, in what way the two forms differ from each other. Boroday & Yakubovich 2018a:15f. propose that /parranni/ constitutes an archaism continued from Empire Luwian, but largely obsolete by Iron Age times.

[AH.B.]

The present lexeme is closely related to /pari/ ‘before’ and, together with it, conforms to the Anatolian pattern of adverbs that exist in contrastive pairs, cf. Hittite pēran ‘before, in front’ and parā ‘out, forth, forward’ (cf. e.g. Hoffner & Melchert 2008a:294f.).

[AH.B.]

1. /parranihha/

The lexeme is widely attested, viz. in the ritual traditions of Kuwattalla and Puriyanni as well as the Ištanuwa festival.

[E.R.]

The assignment pár-ra-[an^?] KUB 35.35 l. col. 4’ (Starke 1985b:175, CLL:166) is not assured. For the attestation in KBo 60.32, see Sasseville 2020a:52.

[E.R.]

Checked against the photographs in the Mainzer Fotoarchiv, with the exception of KUB 35.55, 10’.

[E.R.]

Although Meriggi 1957a:222f. (and Meriggi 1957b:62) translated parran as ‘before, in front’ without providing any reasoning, the semantic interpretation was accepted and stood the test of time (cf. DLL:78, HW:385, CLL:166, HHw:s.v., HED PE:21, Oettinger 2000b: 186 n. 7, EDHIL:667, LIPP II:609, Yakubovich 2010d:325). The word functions as postposition or preverb.Contra Starke 1990a:38 n. 49 and 55, the postposition parran at KUB 35.54 iii 7 does not govern the preceding genitive ša en sískur, but its headnoun dingir^MEŠ-anza.

[E.R.]

Following Boroday & Yakubovich 2018a:16 (superseding other derivations with particles by Melchert 1994a:74, Oettinger 2000b:186 n. 7, LIPP II:609), parran represents a compound made of par(r)- ‘before, in front’ and an ‘in, under’; cf. under Reconstruction.

[E.R.]

CHD P:291-311