/hattula-/
‘health’
- Language
- Common Anatolian
- Grammar
- subst, c.
- ID
- 3715
1. Individual Anatolian Languages
1.1 Hieroglyphic Luwian
/hattula-/, ha-tu-ra+a
‘health, life’1.1.1Transmission
This lexeme is attested 21 times in letters found in Assur, but likely originating elsewhere, dating to the late 8th century BCE.
[A.P.]
1.1.2Forms
| nom. sg. | /hattulas/ | ha-tu-ra+a-sa | ASSUR letter f+g, §9 (Assur) |
| ha-tu-〈ra+〉a-sa | ASSUR letter e, §11 (Assur) | ||
| acc. sg. | /hattulan/ | ha-tu+ra/i-na | ASSUR letter a, §5 (Assur) ASSUR letter e, §5 (Assur) ASSUR letter e, §7 (Assur) ASSUR letter e, §9 (Assur) |
| ha-tu+ra/i-na-i | ASSUR letter d, §5 (Assur) | ||
| dat./loc. sg. | /hattula/ | ha-tu-ra+a | ASSUR letter a, §3 (Assur) ASSUR letter b, §3 (Assur) ASSUR letter c, §2 (Assur) ASSUR letter c, §4 (Assur) ASSUR letter d, §4 (Assur) ASSUR letter e, §4 (Assur) ASSUR letter e, §5 (Assur) ASSUR letter e, §6 (Assur) ASSUR letter f+g, §3 (Assur) ASSUR letter f+g, §10 (Assur) ASSUR letter f+g, §11 (Assur) |
| ha-tu-ra+a-i | ASSUR letter d, §5 (Assur) | ||
| ha-tu+ra/i-a | ASSUR letter e, §3 (Assur) ASSUR letter e, §8 (Assur) |
ASSUR letter e, §11 misses the oblique stroke representing 〈ra/i〉 attached to the 〈a〉 and should hence be emended to 〈ha-tu-〈ra+〉a-sa〉.
[A.P.]
1.1.3Graphic Features
1.1.3.13.1 Phonological Interpretation
The phonological interpretation of this word is tentative. While it is attested multiple times with some spelling variation, the word is morphologically partly opaque, rendering the interpretation of the spelling difficult. Waal 2021atentatively proposed a connection with CLuw. ḫattūlāḫit- ‘health’ and Hittite ḫattuli- ‘healthy’, which is persuasive. Yakubovich (pers. comm.) assumes it instead to be cognate with HLuw. /had(a)ra(/i?)-/ ‘life’ and to therefore include a /d/ rather than a /tt/, which is less likely in view of the absence of rhotacised variants.
[AH.B.]
1.1.4Meaning
Limited to the ASSUR letters, this word was long assumed to mean ‘letter’ or ‘writing’, cf. the translations in Hawkins 2000a:539-541, based on an erroneous connection with Hittite ḫatrā(i)-(mi) ‘to write’.Cf. e.g.Oettinger 1976c:126, Melchert 1988a:30, EDHIL:335, Lebrun 2012a:233 et passim. A new meaning (‘health, well-being’) was suggested by Waal 2021a, based on a comparison with the introductory passages of letters from neighbouring languages, e.g. Hittite and Neo-Babylonian. However, Yakubovich (pers. comm.) suggests that the denotation is probably ‘life’ rather than ‘health’, since the latter is represented by a different lexeme, viz. sa-pi-su+ra/i /saPisura-/ ‘health (?)’. Also, he hypothesises that 〈ha-tu-ra+a〉 may be a dialectal variant of /had(a)ra(i)-/ specific to the (unknown) region the ASSUR letters originate from, because the letters also appear to use a variant for another word, viz. sa-pi-su+ra/i /saPisura-/ ‘health (?)’. While excavated at Assur, the original provenance of the letters has remained unclear to this day, although they may have been composed in or near Karkamiš, see Hawkins 2000a:533 also for references.
Mostly, the word is part of the introductory clauses of the letters. However, some attestations occur later in the texts, too. The typical introductory meaning can be observed e.g. in ASSUR letter b, §3: á-mu-ha-wa/i-mu á-pi ha-tu-ra+a, approx. /ammu=ha=wa=mu appi hattula/, probably translating as ‘(Are you well?) As for me, I (am) in health. (Now, prepare first this request for me …)’. Occurrences later in the text are more difficult to interpret, particularly the clearly idiomatic expression used in ASSUR letters d and e, both §5: wa/i-za NEG2-a kwa/i-i-ha ha-tu+ra/i-na ha-tu-ra+a, approx. /wa=anz na kwin=ha hattulan hattula/, which may mean ‘To/for us, (we have?) no (good?) health in health’ vel sim.
[AH.B.]
1.1.5Stem
This noun is a common gender a-stem, as proved by the dat./loc. sg. ending /-a/ (Yakubovich 2015b:6.2). Its morphological structure is opaque.Any connection with the adjective /ura/i-/ ‘great’ is obviously highly unlikely.
[AH.B.]
1.1.6Derivatives
1.2 Cuneiform Luwian
*ḫattula-
‘health’1.2.1Derivatives
1.3 Hittite
*ḫattula-
‘health’1.3.1Literature / Comments
HW 2nd ed. Ḫ:532f.
2. Reconstruction
2.1Reconstruction
Taking both the Hittite and the Luwian data seriously, we can posit both an original thematic adjective in *-ú-lo- (transferred to the adjectival i-stem Hitt. ḫattuli- ‘healthy’) and one in *-ú-leh2- (HLuw. ha-tu-ra+a- /hattula-/; cf. under lemma for various phonological interpretations). The stem in *-eh2- can be found at the base of the abstract nouns Hitt. ḫattul-ā-tar ‘health’ and Luw. ḫattul-aḫ-it- n. ‘health’ as well as at the base of the hittitized factitive formation 
ḫattulaḫḫ-(ḫi) ‘to provide health, make healthy’.
The HLuw. word /had(a)ra(/i)-/ ‘health’ spelled ha-tà+ra/i- or ha-IUSTITIA+RA/I can be connected here despite the lenis status of the consonant, by positing a different type of primary stem formation, e.g. an accented lengthened o-grade, i.e. *Hṓt-, which would have caused lenition of the following alveolar. This remains however unprovable without independent evidence, especially since the exact type of stem formation of the Luwian lexeme is obscure due to the lack of attestations; cf. under the synchronic lemmata.
Puhvel (HED H:279) connects the root ḫatt- with semantics pertaining to health with the one of Hitt. ḫattant- ‘intelligent’ (and Hitt. ḫattātar ‘wisdom’, which had tentatively been connected to the root of ‘piercing’ (see CLuw. *ḫatt- ‘to pierce’) by Sommer & Falkenstein 1938a:97-100 and Čop 1966-1968a:173f., who all provide typological parallels (accepted by EDHIL:333).Cf. HEG A-H:229 “no etymology”. Semantically, speaking nothing prevents from connecting the root ḫatt- ‘health’ with the one of ḫatt- ‘intelligence, knowledge’ (and thus to ḫatt- ‘pierce’), although this might seem a bit too gratuitous.
[D.S.]