wašpant(i)-

The occurrences of the present lemma are limited to MS and NS ritual fragments of the Kuwattalla tradition.

[E.R.]

gen. adj. nom. pl. c.	wa-aš-pa-an-ta-aš-ši-in-zi	KUB 35.21 obv. 28	(CTH 761, MS)
	wa-aš-pa-an-ta-⸢aš-ši⸣-in-zi	KUB 32.9 obv. 10	(CTH 761, MS)
	[wa-aš-pa-an-ta-aš]-ši-in-zi	KBo 29.7, 5’	(CTH 761, MS?)

Checked against the photographs in the Mainzer Fotoarchiv.

[E.R.]

That the base wašpant(i)- means ‘garment’ was recognized by Laroche (DLL:109) on account of the equation with Hitt. wašpa- ‘clothes; shrouds’ and has entered handbooks and articles (see HW:429, Watkins 1969a:239, Starke 1990a:200, CLL:265, HHw:s.v., EDHIL:984, HEG U-Z:402, Mouton & Yakubovich 2019a:216). The context offers no confirmation for the received translation, but is at least compatible with it. The wašpantaššinzi er(ḫu)wanzi are listed among several evils in the ritual and have most recently been interpreted by Mouton & Yakubovich 2019a:216f. as ‘the interiors of the shrouds’ (understood as a possible source of defilement) and by Rieken (pers. comm. ibid.) as ‘the interiors of the clothes’, which are not supposed to be turned up and outside, as that would be considered obscene (cf. Melchert 1983b:141-145). See also Luw. /waspa-/.

[E.R.]

The genitival adjective in -ašša/i- must be derived from a substantival base wašpant(i)-. Nevertheless, Melchert (CLL:265) analyzes wašpant(i)- as a possessive -nt(i)- formation meaning ‘wearing shrouds’ (with question mark). In order to keep the substantival interpretation but also to explain the -nt(i)- suffix, Mouton & Yakubovich 2019a:217 suggest that -nt(i)- functions as a distributive plural marker, i.e. it is rather grammatical than lexical. This is hard to prove, and the suffix would be expected to be more frequent. Therefore, it is assumed here that the meaning of the suffix is bleached, as in Hitt. ḫamešḫa-nt- ‘spring, summer’ etc.

[E.R.]

For the lemma head, see CLuw. wašš-.