/saPisura-/, sa-pi-su+ra/i-

This lexeme is attested three times in inscriptions from Assur, dating to the late 8^th century BCE.

[A.P.]

dat./loc. sg	/saPisura/	sa-pi-su+ra/i	ASSUR letter d, §3 (Assur) ASSUR letter e, §2 (Assur)
		sa-pi-su+ra/i-’	ASSUR letter f+g, §2 (Assur)

 [A.P.]

The meaning is suggested by Hawkins 2000a:538 on the basis of the putative cognate HLuw. /saPisara(/i)-/ ‘health’ and its occurrence in the KARATEPE 1 bilingual inscription. Following a remark by Hawkins 2000a:65, Yakubovich (pers. comm.) hypothesises that /saPisura-/ may be a dialectal variant of /saPisara-/ specific to the (unknown) region the ASSUR letters originate from,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. since the letters also appear to use a variant for another word, viz. /hattula-/ and cf. /had(a)r(i)-/.

In the letters, /saPisura-/ invariably occurs very early in the text and therefore in what can be deemed the introductory and greeting clauses. In fact, it constitutes a clause largely by itself, occurring in first position and hosting a string of clitics, cf. e.g. ASSUR letter f+g, §2: sa-pi-su+ra/i-´-wa/i-ma-za, approx. /saPisura=wa=mmanz/ ‘[Say to Iyami & Co., Taksala & Co. speak:) To health (?) for you (pl.)! (As for us, we are in still (?) in life/health …)’ (cf. Hawkins 2000a:536 and Waal 2021a).

[AH.B.]

While the attestations do not permit to determine the grammatical gender of the present noun, the dat./loc. sg. ending in /-a/ shows that the word must be an a-stem. Aside from that, its morphological structure is opaque.Any connection with the adjective /ura/i-/ ‘great’ is obviously highly unlikely.

[AH.B.]