/alunam(i)-/, (“COR”)á-la/i/u-na-ma-
‘envy, covetousness’
- Language
- Hieroglyphic Luwian
- Grammar
- subst, c.
- ID
- 3296
1. Individual Anatolian Languages
1.1 Hieroglyphic Luwian
/alunam(i)-/, (“COR”)á-la/i/u-na-ma-
‘envy, covetousness’1.1.1Transmission
This lexeme is attested once in the two parallel versions of the KARATEPE inscription from Cilicia, dating to the early 7th century BCE.
[A.P.]
1.1.2Forms
| abl./instr. | /alunnamadi/ | (“COR”)á-la/i/u-na-ma-ti | KARATEPE 1 (Hu.), §71 (Cilicia) |
| á-[…] | KARATEPE 1 (Ho.), §71 (Cilicia) |
[A.P.]
1.1.3Graphic Features
1.1.3.1Phonological Interpretation
The phonological interpretation of this word is provisional, since the HLuw. writing system leaves some leeway, of which only parts are tempered by cognates from other languages. Thus, the quality of the second vowel remains in the dark, because the chosen sign 〈la/i/u〉 is polyvalent and the word family contains several different spellings with /i/, /u/, and /a/; either one is possible.Blevins (apud Yakubovich 2008b:14) suggests that these vowels had merged at some point after the flap /ɾ/, which represents earlier intervocalic /r, l, d/ in HLuw. Still, considering CLuw. a-lu-ú-ni-x[ (see DCL:s.v.) from a morphological viewpoint, the suggested shape /alunam(i)-/ seems the most likely one.
[AH.B.]
1.1.4Meaning
The meaning of this word became reasonably clear by virtue of its occurrence in the KARATEPE 1 bilingual inscription, where it is used for Phoenician b-ḥmdt ‘from covetousness’, see Steinherr 1974b:114 (“Begehrlichkeit”). Hawkins 2000a:67 adds the meaning ‘envy’. KARATEPE 1 (Hu.), §71 reads: ní-wa/i-ta (“COR”)á-la/i/u-na-ma-ti a-ta AEDIFICARE.MI-ri+i-i, approx. /ni=wa=tta alunamadi anta tamadi/, meaning ‘Or if he blocks (them, scil. the aforementioned gates) up out of envy’ (cf. Hawkins 2000a:57).
[AH.B.]
1.1.5Stem
While it does not become clear from the attestations, the present noun is likely common gender, because it probably represents a deverbal formation in /-m(i)-/ (cf. Melchert 2014d:208), deriving from the same otherwise unattested verb */aluna-/ ‘be envious’ vel sim. as the verb /alunazza-(i)/ ‘to become envious’, see Sasseville 2021a:441f.
Rieken & Yakubovich 2010a:200 n. 2 also draw a connection between the present noun and the HLuw. personal name /Alalimi-/, ultimately linking it to the Hittite verb ilāliye/a-(mi) ‘to wish’, the latter of which is called into doubt by Melchert 2019b:367.
[AH.B.]