/salhant-/, (“LIGNUM”)sà-la-ha-
‘greatness (?)’
- Language
- Hieroglyphic Luwian
- Grammar
- subst, n.
- ID
- 3376
1. Individual Anatolian Languages
1.1 Hieroglyphic Luwian
/salhant-/, (“LIGNUM”)sà-la-ha-
‘greatness (?)’1.1.1Transmission
The lexeme is attested 16 times in the HLuw. corpus, and its occurrences can be found mostly in the south-east in Karkamiš and Tell Ahmar, but it also appears in Amuq and Maraş. Almost all of the relevant texts date to the 10th and 9th centuries BCE, only the GELB inscription may perhaps require a later dating to the 8th century BCE.
[AH.B.]
1.1.2Forms
| nom./acc. sg. | /salhan=za/ | (“LIGNUM”)sà-la-ha-za | TELL AHMAR 1, §12 (Tell Ahmar) |
| KARKAMIŠ A2+3, §2 (Karkamiš) | |||
| (LIGNUM)sa-la-ha-za-a | KARKAMIŠ A 27v, l. 1-2 (Karkamiš) | ||
| (LIGNUM)sà-la-ha-za | TELL AHMAR 2, §3 (Tell Ahmar) | ||
| KARKAMIŠ A14a, §3 (Karkamiš) | |||
| “LIGNUM”-la-ha-za | ARSUZ 1, §2 (Amuq) | ||
| TELL AHMAR 6, §3 (Tell Ahmar) | |||
| LIGNUM-ha-za | ARSUZ 1, §6 (Amuq) | ||
| ARSUZ 2, §2 (Amuq) | |||
| (“LIGNUM〈”〉)s[à-la-h]a-za | TELL AHMAR 1, §4 (Tell Ahmar) | ||
| (“LIGNUM”)sà+ra/i-ha-za | GELB, §2 | ||
| [s]à-la-ha-za | MARAŞ 8, §16 (Maraş) | ||
| LIGNUM-la-ha〈-za〉 | BOROWSKI 3, §3 (Tell Ahmar) | ||
| “LIGNUM”-za | ARSUZ 2, §6 (Amuq) | ||
| “LIGNUM”[...]-za | KARKAMIŠ A11a, §3 (Karkamiš) | ||
| dat./loc. sg. | /salhanti/ | LIGNUM-la-ha-ti | TELL AHMAR 1, §14 (Tell Ahmar) |
1.1.3Graphic Features
1.1.3.1Phonological Interpretation
The phonological interpretation of this word is now relatively certain, but it had remained opaque for a considerable time due to the misinterpretation of the sign 〈za/i〉 as a non-existant 〈ī〉. Thus cf. still Laroche 1960c:203f., although he already and correctly suspected a cognate link with the word family around Hittite šalli- ‘great, big’. Further aid in the interpretation came from the CLuw. cognates šalḫa(/i)- ‘great, grown (?)’, šalḫ(i)ant(i)- and šalḫitt(i)- ‘growth (vel sim.)’ (cf. CLL:186). What seems to be stem allomorphy at first, vacillating between putative **/salhan-/ and **/salhat-/, becomes transparent when a stem in /-nt-/ is assumed, mirroring one of the CLuw. cognates (cf. e.g. HEG Š:766), because its spelling within the HLuw. system would result in exactly the changes seen in the attestations with their consistent omission of pre-consonantal /n/. Rieken 2010b:655, building on Brosch 2011a:60-64, shows that the word-initial use of 〈sà〉 (sign *104) signals a palatalised sibilant, i.e. /ʃ/, resulting from an earlier */sw-/. However, the last assumption faces problems of comparative phonology, see Reconstruction under lemma head.
Nearly all attestations of the present lexeme include the logogram LIGNUM (sign *382)Originally booked as separate signs, *382 and *169 (Laroche 1960c:91 suggested “sorte de tige?”) have since been united under the number *382 as LIGNUM. in their spelling, either as a logographic determinative or representing part of the phonological form of the word.
[AH.B.]
1.1.4Meaning
The meaning assigned to the present lexeme has been the subject of some debate among scholars. Laroche 1960c:204 tentatively proposed “majesté?” as a reference to the regal sceptre, the latter having been suggested by Meriggi 1934b:18f. and subsequently revised to a more abstract ‘authority, powers’ (“Macht(befugnisse)”) in Meriggi 1934a:22. Eventually, Hawkins 1980a:148f. and again Hawkins 2000a:241f. discuss the contexts of the lexeme in detail, including what other lexemes also use the logogram LIGNUM, and conclude that the denotation of /salhant-/ is abstract rather than concrete, and that it is held (figuratively) by the king. The translation as ‘greatness (?)’ maintains the close ties to the word family across CLuw. and Hittite, cf. also Hawkins 2000a:86, 96.
[AH.B.]
1.1.5Stem
The lexeme is likely a stem in /-nt-/ (thus tentatively suggested in HEG Š:766), judging by the similarly built CLuw. cognate šalḫant(i)- and the spelling variation in the HLuw. attestations as discussed in the phonological interpretation.
[AH.B.]
For the lemma head, see HLuw. */salha(/i)-/.