/izzista-/, i-zi-i-sa-ta-

This lexeme is attested twice in an inscription from Karkamiš, dating to the late 9^th or early 8^th century BCE.

[A.P.]

abl./instr.

/izzistadi/

i-zi-i-sa-ta+ra/i

KARKAMIŠ A6, §15 (Karkamiš) KARKAMIŠ A6, §17 (Karkamiš)

For a long time, the attestations at KARKAMIŠ A6 were interpreted as belonging to the paradigm of the verb /izzista-/ ‘to honour’, but Morpurgo Davies 1982-1983a:264 note 42 could show that the two occurrences actually represent abl./instr. in clause-initial position. Both are followed by a short string of clitics 〈-wa/i-ma-za〉, approx. /=wa=mmanz/, i.e. ‘for them’ preceded by the quotative particle.

[A.P.] [AH.B.]

While the first morphological analysis of this word turned out to be wrong, its semantics were reasonably clear, because already Hrozný 1934a:237 incl. n. 2 realised that it belonged to the same word family as /izzi(ya)-^(di)/ ‘to do, make’.Note that Hrozný uses the reading /aya-/ common at the time as, which seemed to connect perfectly with CLuw. a(ya)-^(di) ‘to do, make’, but later turned out to be wrong; see the new readings by Hawkins, Morpurgo Davies & Neumann 1973a:esp. 16 and 44. The current meaning was assigned by Meriggi 1934a:93, also still under the impression that the occurrence at KARKAMIŠ A6 belonged to the verb /izzista-⁽ⁱ⁾/ ‘to honour’.

The word is used twice within the same context in KARKAMIŠ A6, §15: i-zi-i-sa-ta+ra/i-wa/i-ma-za zi-la (“*314”)ka-tú-ni-zi (MANUS)i-sà-tara/i-i (“PONERE”)tú-wa/i-há. approx. /izzistri=wa=mmanz zila kattuninzi istri tuwahha/, meaning ‘(Those who are of weapons,) for them I put weapons into (their) hands with honour’ (cf. Morpurgo Davies 1982-1983a:264 n 42). The next two clauses repeat the same structure, but replace /kattun(i)-/ ‘weapon’ with /tarpuna-/ ‘(a kind of toy)’ (followed by Hawkins & Morpurgo Davies 1986a:79f. and Morpurgo Davies 1986a:130f.).

[AH.B.]

That the present word represents a noun and not a form of the verb /izzista-⁽ⁱ⁾/ ‘to honour’ was first discovered by Morpurgo Davies 1982-1983a:264 n 42. Hawkins & Morpurgo Davies 1986a:80 hypothesise that it is a verbal abstract, comparing the verb /warriya-⁽ⁱ⁾/ ‘to help’ and the common gender noun /warriya-/ ‘help’, although the latter is a noun in /-iya-/. The noun /izzista-/ probably represents a common gender noun in /-a-/, at least synchronically, but since definite proof is lacking, its gender is listed as unknown for the time being. As for its genesis, Yakubovich 2020a:475f. has proposed that the verb (and hence the noun) /izzista-/ represents a compound of /izzi/ and /(s)ta-⁽ⁱ⁾/ ‘to stand (up)’, and Sasseville 2021a:345f. regards the noun as deriving from the verb.

[AH.B.]

For the lemma head, see HLuw. /izzi(ya)-^(di)/.