/arrayasha-/, LONGUS-tà-ia-sa-ha-
‘length (?)’
- Language
- Hieroglyphic Luwian
- Grammar
- subst, c.
- ID
- 3643
1. Individual Anatolian Languages
1.1 Hieroglyphic Luwian
/arrayasha-/, LONGUS-tà-ia-sa-ha-
‘length (?)’1.1.1Transmission
A hapax legomenon, this lexeme only occurs in one inscription from Tabal, dating to the second half of the 8th century BCE, but cf. */sahhan-/ for a different segmentation of the word.
[AH.B.]
1.1.2Forms
| acc. sg. | /arrayashan/ | LONGUS?-tà-ia-sa-ha-na | İVRİZ 1, §2 (Tabal) |
The attestation in İVRİZ 1, A2-3§2 runs across a line break: 〈LONGUS?-tà-ia-||sa-ha-na〉. Hawkins 2000a:517f. analyses the string of signs as two different words, but mentions the option chosen here as an alternative.
[AH.B.]
1.1.3Graphic Features
1.1.3.1Phonological Interpretation
The phonological interpretation of this lexeme is reasonably certain, although it is attested only once in HLuw. and has no exact cognates in the other Anatolian languages. However, the use of the logogram LONGUS (sign *62) ties it to the adjective /arrai(ya)-/ ‘long’, whose phonological shape is clearer due to more attestations and a direct cognate in CLuw. ārrai(ya)- ‘long’. In addition to that, its stem building suffix /-asha-/ is well-known from many other nouns in Luwian, cf. the extensive treatment of the matter by Starke 1979a. The attested spelling shows a hypercorrect use of 〈tà〉 (sign *41), representing /da/, but the lenited dental has undergone rhotacism between vowels and is therefore rendered indistinguishable from /r/ in the same position (Rieken 2008b:643; on rhotacism cf. e.g. Melchert 2003b:179-182).
[AH.B.]
1.1.4Meaning
The meaning of the present lexeme is difficult to pin down on the basis of its single attestation, and the most straightforward interpretation available is ‘length’, based on the fact that it derives from the adjective /arrai(ya)-/ ‘long’, see the discussion of the stem below. However, the attested context cannot be said to support this semantic assignment fully. İVRİZ 1 is a bas-relief depiction of several persons including deities, cut into a large rock face, and the relevant clause is nestled into a free space next to the face of the Storm-god Tarhunt, naming the god and then outlining his dues in §2: wa/i-tu LONGUS?-tà-ia-sa-ha-na PONERE-tu-u?!, approx. /wa=du arrayashan tuwantu/, meaning ‘They shall put a “length” for him (scil. the aforementioned Storm-god)’. It seems appropriate to assume that /arrayasha-/ denotes a type of offering here, but it cannot be determined what it might be.
[AH.B.]
1.1.5Stem
This noun is very likely derived from the adjective /arrai(ya)-/ ‘long’. In considering an alternative reading of the passage, Hawkins 2000a:518 is the first to voice the possibility that the present form could represent a noun in /-asha-/, and this view has been adopted by other scholars, cf. e.g. Rieken 2008b:643 and Yakubovich 2010a:388. The suffix typically forms common gender nouns, for which the present lexeme is a case in point, and does not undergo i-mutation (cf. Melchert 2003b:196).
[AH.B.]
For the lemma head, see HLuw. /arrai(ya)-/.