ḫašp-^(ti)

This lexeme is attested in historical texts from Middle Script onward, such as in the text of Šuppiluliuma II concerning the conquest of Alašiya (Cyprus), in the Tawagalawa letter (between the Hittite and the Greek king), in the annals of Tudḫaliya I, but also in the myth of the Storm-god in Liḫzina and in an oracle text.

[D.S.]

Checked against the photographs in the Konkordanz (Mainzer Fotoarchiv), except for the unpublished fragment Bo 7863.

[D.S.]

The verb ḫašp- is transitive and can take as direct objects boats (in military context), a leader and his army, a land, a forest or a mountain. The meaning assigned by HW 2nd ed.:425 (with further literature) is ‘to acquire, overwhelm’ or even ‘to defeat’ (followed by Sasseville 2021a:264; cf. the earlier literature DLL:44 and HEG Ḫ:201f. “to destroy (as a military term)” (thus also Oettinger 1979a:194, CLL:63 and Melchert 2005a:451), HED H:232f. “to handle, dispose of”; the meaning “to destroy” would be secondary, Heinhold-Krahmer et al. 2020a:27 “to defeat”). However, Melchert 2007a dedicates a paper to this root verb, dismissing the semantic interpretation by Puhvel (HED ibid.), pointing out that there is no contextual evidence for such a basic meaning. He provides a new contextual interpretation of KUB 33.66 + KBo 40.333 iii 3-6, in which he argues that the basic sense of ḫašp-, where it takes a forest and its trees as direct object, is ‘to cut down’ (it also applies well to the mountain and its trees). From there, the meaning could be extended to ‘to defeat (an army)’. His approach is coherent and convincing and thus adopted here (thus also Heinhold-Krahmer et al. 2020a:101f.).

[D.S.]

The verb ḫašp- is athematic (thus already Oettinger 1979a:194). As pointed out in Melchert 2007a:254 and Sasseville 2021a:264, its Luwian conjugated forms are also to be interpreted as athematic (not thematic; contra DLL:44, Oettinger 1979a:562, CLL:63 and HED H:233), because the sequence of three consonants cannot be spelled without at least one sign with a dead vowel.

[D.S.]

The Luwian origin of the verb ḫašp- has long been clear due to the occasional use of the Luwian endings and gloss wedges, which is generally accepted (DLL:44, HEG Ḫ:201f., Oettinger 1979a:562, Sasseville 2021a:264), contra Zorman 2007a:760, who takes the gloss wedges also as an indicator of a taboo word, for which there is no contextual evidence whatsoever. On the use of gloss wedges, see Melchert 2005a and van den Hout 2006a.

[D.S.]