tarš(a)i-^(di)

The verb is found twice in MS ritual fragments, once in a mythological passage from the Tauriša tradition, and once on a Sammeltafel that also seems to contain Palaic or Hattic material.

[E.R.]

3sg. pret. act.	tar-ši-i-ta	KUB 35.103 iii 14	(CTH 765, MS)
3pl. impv. act.	tar-ša-i-in-du	KUB 35.101 rev. 8’	(CTH 770, MS)

Checked against the photographs in the Mainzer Fotoarchiv.

[E.R.]

The semantic interpretations suggested so far vary greatly; cf. Güterbock 1956a:124 (mentioned in DLL:94, followed in HW:427): ‘to drive a chariot’, Meriggi 1957a:211 with n. 51: ‘to drive’, Watkins 1986a:60f n. 33: ‘to charge up, assault^?’, Ünal 2007a:701: ‘to drive someone with a chariot, to trample on’, Yakubovich 2017d: ‘to shake^?’, Sasseville 2021a:227f.: ‘to cause to dry^?’, DCL:s.v.: ‘to cause to sprout, bud’; undecided HEG T:225f. and HHw:170; no translation in Yakubovich 2012a:328. Part of the problem is the distinction between the present verb tarš(a)i-^(di) and tarši-^(ti) ‘to trample on’. Although it has been emphasized in the recent literature that the two must be separated on account of their different stem formations (CLL:217, Sasseville 2021a:136f. and 227f., DCL:s.v.), a contextual analysis provides evidence that they belong to the same semantic field.

In the famous passage from what has been interpreted as a Luwian Wilusiad, taršīta is used in parallel fashion with dūpita ‘to strike’: ⁽¹²⁾gìr^MEŠ-du tar-ú-e-ia iš-ša-ra-d[u ...] ⁽¹³⁾du-ú-wa-za-an ti-ia-am-mi-in du-ú-pi-t[a] ⁽¹⁴⁾ša-ar-ra ⸢i⸣-x-la tar-ši-i-ta “his feet are wooden, h[is] hands (are) [...]. He struck the fruit-bearing earth, he t.-ed upon the i-x-la.” (KUB 35.103 iii 12-14; see Watkins 1986a:60f., Sasseville under the lemma of tarwi(ya)-). The unnamed subject referent strikes the earth, presumably with the hands, so that one may conclude that he performs the action of tarš(a)i-^(di) with his feet, presumably a kind of trampling. The short verse thus displays a chiastic structure AB-B’A’.

The other attestation does not offer much context: ]x iš-ša-ri-i tar-ša-i-in-du i-x[ “they shall t. in the hand” (KUB 35.101 rev. 8’). For an action done in the hand, the translation ‘to squeeze’ fits better, and the question arises what the basic meaning of the verb and the root in general is, since ‘to squeeze’ and ‘to flatten’ conforms with all contexts (cf. NHG platt machen ‘to flatten, to floor s.o.’), in fact even for tarši-^(ti).

[E.R.]

The stem variation as shown by the two attestations cited under Forms identifies the verb as an -(a)i-^(di) derivative, i.e. parallel to the semantically close verb dūp(a)i-^(di) ‘to strike’, with which it co-occurs (see under Meaning). Under the assumption that tarš(a)i-^(di) is a rhyming formation built on dūp(a)i-^(di), this fact may provide an explanation for the lexical doublet.

[E.R.]