/kadirh(i)-^?/, ka-tara/i-hi-

Attested just once, this lexeme occurs on an inscription from Aleppo, tentatively dated to the 8^th century BCE.

[AH.B.]

acc. sg.

/kadirhin?/

ka-tara/i-hi-

BABYLON 2, §4 (Aleppo)

Against Hawkins 2000a:395, the present word is recognised as separate from the one preceding it, following e.g. Melchert 2015a:409f. The attestation in BABYLON 2, §4 is followed by the enclitic connector /=ha/, obscuring the /n/ of the acc. sg. case ending: 〈ka-tara/i-hi-ha〉.

[AH.B.]

The word has so far escaped interpretation, but based on its context of attestation and likely borrowed origin, the provisional meaning ‘promise, gift, offering (?)’ is proposed here. The relevant clause in BABYLON 2, §2 reads: á-mu-pa-wa/i-tu (“*419”)wa/i-sa-ha-i-za ku+ra/i-i-sà ka-tara/i-hi-ha i-zi-i-ha, possibly /ammu=wa=du washain=za kuri=sa kadirhin^?=ha izziha/, which translates as ‘I made for him a washa-like kurid- and a promise^? / gift^? / offering^?’ (cf. Hawkins 2000a:395).Note that the morphosyntactic analysis by Hawkins 2000a is wrong, because he does not realise that the two accusative objects /kurid-/ and /kadirh(i)-/ have different genders. It describes the giving thanks to the storm-god Tarhunt, whom the author of the stele regarded as having listened to his laments.

[AH.B.]

Coordinated with a preceding nom./acc. sg. n. adjective and noun, the word must likewise show accusative inflection, albeit in the common gender. As such, the stem likely shows i-mutation, but based on the available evidence, this cannot be proved, as an i-stem would be possible. It is likely that the stem formation was opaque to speakers of Luwian, although within Hurrian, the suffix -ḫi- has appurtenant function, see Richter 2012a:196, who regards it as related to the root kad- ‘to say, speak’, but refrains from assigning a meaning.

[AH.B.]

The present lexeme is likely related to or based on Hurrian kadirḫi (or kattirḫi), where it is so far only attested as a personal name, cf. Richter 2012a:196 who assigns it to the root kad- ‘to say, speak’. Ultimately, the word may be based on a borrowing from Babylonian kadrû (or katrû) ‘gift, present, offering’, itself again classified as a loanword from Sumerian, cf. CAD K:32f.

[AH.B.]