muttawann(i)-

The only attestations of the word come from a NS cadastral text.

[E.R.]

Checked against the photographs in the Mainzer Fotoarchiv.

[E.R.]

The word occurs as an attributive adjective of a.šà ‘field’ in a cadastral text and has so far remained untranslated for the most part (Souček 1959a:30f., HW:332, DLL:72, CLL:151, HHw:108, HEG L-N:237, Ünal 2007a:462). Only CHD L-N:337 and Starke 1990a:489 offer some etymological considerations to specify the meaning. The former relates the word to the toponym ^URUMuttana derived with the ethnical suffix -wann(i)-, which would result in ‘field belonging to the city of Muttana’. In contrast, Starke starts from a reconstructed abstract noun *muttar/muttn- ‘conquest, new acquisition’ derived from muwa-⁽ⁱ⁾ ‘to conquer, overpower’. The -wann(i)- adjective used as a technical term of cadastric administration could thus mean ‘newly acquired’. In support of his hypothesis, he adduces the semantic parallel of Akk. lītu(m) ‘realm of power, victory’, but in Old Assyrian trade documents also ‘reserve fund’ (built from the root le’û(m) ‘to be able, overcome, conquer, defeat’). Unfortunately, there is no contextual clue to either support or reject this proposal. Since the toponym could go back to the same abstract *muttar/muttn-, both solutions offered do not even exclude each other.

[E.R.]

For suggestions on the derivational chain, see under Meaning. The word ending in the suffix -wann(i)- belongs to the class of i-mutated adjectives with an athematic neuter ending.

[E.R.]

The analysis with the suffix -wann(i)- implies a Luwian origin of the word, which is confirmed by the use of the gloss wedges (thus implicitly or explicitly assumed in HW:332, DLL:72, Starke 1990a:487-489, CLL:151, CHD L-N:337, HEG L-N:237, Melchert 2005a:451, van den Hout 2006a:241).

[E.R.]

For the lemma head see CLuw. mūwa-⁽ⁱ⁾.