tittapalwant(i)-

This word is found in a travel itinerary text pertaining to central-north Anatolia.

[D.S.]

The Luwian adjective tittapalwant(i)- modifies the following noun SAD.DU-iš ‘head, summit, upper part’ (hesitant Lorenz & Rieken 2007a:472) and is listed after an old tower (karuiliš AN.ZAG.GÀR), an oven(?) (UDUN-aš) and before the mountain Muranḫila (^ḪUR.SAGmuranḫilaš ḪUR.SAG-aš) and a rounded smooth summit (alpūwaraš iškanza SAG.DU-iš). Lorenz & Rieken 2007a:472 explain tittapalwant(i)- morphologically as reduplicated ti- + lexical base tapal- + -want(i)-, i.e. a mutated possessive adjective meaning ‘having tittapal’.No semantic interpretation is suggested by Tischler 2008a:200. 

The lexical base can be tentatively connected to CLuw. tapāla- ‘storm-clouds’, despite the odd-looking nominal reduplication, which awaits further investigation including a larger set of examples. This semantic assignment fits well with the modified noun SAG.DU-iš ‘head, summit, upper part’, which should refer to the mass of clouds covering the summit. Otherwise, if it refers to an oven, it might represent the smoke coming out of it. Therefore, the semantic interpretation would not be dependent on the syntactic analysis.

A second possibility is to adduce the word gišti-it-ta-pa-la-an (KBo 10.45+ III 53, KBo 45.194, 11´) as the derivational base, which refers to some kind of seeds or plants. Unfortunately, this is not as illuminating for the context of the possessive adjective, unless one assumes that the summit is covered with this type of plants or that the oven is filled with this type of seeds. In any case, both derivational hypotheses offered here should be considered tentative until further evidence emerges.

[D.S.]

For the possessive suffix -want(i)- in Luwian, see also āšḫanuwant(i)- and tapašuwant(i)-.

[D.S.]