ḫattalla-

The attestations of the noun are strewn widely across the genres. The ones cited here from less than 20 cases occur in an oracle text, inventory texts, festival and ritual texts, and a treaty (from MS onwards).

[E.R.]

Checked against the photographs in the Mainzer Fotoarchiv. – On the reading of -it at KUB 26.25, 12’, see Güterbock 1956a:131. – Following Kloekhorst 2014b:158, the plene spelling with -e- in the nom. pl. /-es/ indicates that a divergent vowel precedes the ending, hence the reading -li-e-eš for /-liyes/.

[E.R.]

The semantic interpretation as ‘club, mace’ goes back to Brandenstein 1943a:38f. and Güterbock 1943a:306 with n. 30. It is based on the comparison of the cult image descriptions of the Storm-god with depictions on reliefs showing him carrying a club. While, in principle, the likely connection of ḫattalla- with ḫatta- ‘to pierce, strike’ also permits the interpretation as ‘axe’, this is excluded for KUB 9.18, 15’-20’, in which the ^NA₄ḫa-at-[ta-al-la-an] is placed on the king’s right-hand side, whereas the axe (^GIŠḫaṣṣinnu) goes to his left-hand side (cf. also KBo 63.112, 10’ with the successive mention of the ^GIŠḫattalli- and ^GIŠḫaṣṣinnu). The translation has been generally accepted since; cf. the entries in the dictionaries and handbooks: HW:64, 425, HEG A-K:217, Starke 1990a:309f., CLL:64, HHw:47, HED H:255f., Ünal 2007a:198f., EDHIL:332, HW 2nd ed. Ḫ:487, Sasseville 2021a:231. Cf. also Cammarosano 2018a:302f. for a recent account of the role of the ḫattalla- in the cult image descriptions and its equation with the Sumerogram ^GIŠtukul.

[E.R.]

Starke 1990a:309f. analyzed ḫattalla- as a Luwian neuter instrument noun in -al- transferred into a common gender stem in -alla- in the course of its borrowing into Hittite. Melchert (CLL:64, Melchert 2014d:210) rightly rejected this idea in view of the consistent spelling with geminate -ll- and suggested instead a substantivized denominative adjective in -alla/i- derived from ḫatta- ‘piercing/striking’ (see under Lemma; without reference to the Luwian origin of the suffix and implausible classification as a deverbative formation, also HED H:255f., EDHIL:332; Luwian, but deverbative according to HEG A-K:217; outdated Čop 1966-1968a:54: < *-ā-d^hlā). Melchert’s account is now confirmed by the emergence of the i-stem ḫattalli-, as the alternation between a- and i-stem in Luwian loanwords is typical for stems that originally featured the i-mutation in the donor language. In addition, the nom. pl. form ḫattallieš attests to a common gender word (contra HED H:255f.).

[E.R.]

The use of the gloss wedges and the suffix -alla/i- in ḫattalla/i- speak for its Luwian origin, which can be regarded as common sense (DLL:44, Güterbock 1956a:131, HEG A-K:217, Starke 1990a:309f., HW 2nd ed. Ḫ:487, Sasseville 2021a:231).

[E.R.]

For the lemma head see CLuw. *ḫatt-.