ḫatta-

The sole attestation of the word is found in a text from the Tauriša tradition.

[E.R.]

nom. sg.

ḫa-at-ta-aš

KUB 35.108, 12’

(CTH 765, MS)

According to Starke 1990a:392 n. 1415, ḫa-at-ta-aš at KUB 35.108, 12’ is unclear, whereas CLL:63 lists it as a common gender nom. sg., which is formally the only option.

[E.R.]

Checked against the photographs in the Mainzer Fotoarchiv.

[E.R.]

The starting point for the semantic elucidation is the identification of the root ḫatt- with that of ḫatta- ‘to pierce, strike’. The nom. sg. -aš without i-mutation points to an individualization with the non-mutating suffix -a- deriving from an action noun *ḫatta- c. ‘piercing, striking’ (based on Rieken & Sasseville 2019a:526, who, however, assume that ḫattaš represents a form of the action noun ḫatta- itself). This accords well with the syntactic structure of the context, in which ḫattaš ‘the piercing/striking (one)’ is specified by the divine name ^DNupatiga- (gen. sg.) and is part of a list of other nouns that are accompanied by divine names, either in the genitive or derived as genitival adjectives: ^(9’)DŠulin[katte ...] ^(10’)DZilipūrašša ḫati-x[ ...] ^(11’)DIarriššiš war-[ ...] ^(12’)ḫattaš ^DNūpatigaš (KUB 35.108 in 9’-12’; cf. Starke 1985b:239). Also, in terms of semantics, a syntagm ‘the piercing/striking (one) of ^DNupatiga’ is fully appropriate for a god of war (Haas 1994a:363).

[E.R.]

For the stem formation, see under Meaning. A parallel formation, albeit with different referents, is found in Hittite, where the ^LÚ.MEŠḫatteš play (walḫ- ‘to hit, strike’) a musical instrument (see HW 2nd ed. Ḫ:482f. for context, and Ünal 2007a:198 for the connection).

[E.R.]

For the lemma head see CLuw. *ḫatt-.