talla- (tallāi-)
‘(a vessel)’
- Language
- Cuneiform Luwian
- Grammar
- subst
- ID
- 3754
1. Individual Anatolian Languages
1.1 Luwian (Glossenkeilwörter)
talla- (tallāi-)
1.1.1Transmission
The well-attested lexeme talla- can be found in Hittite texts from the Middle Hittite period onward.
[E.R.]
1.1.2Forms
| nom. sg. c. | ta-al-la-aš | KUB 38.1 iv 12 | (CTH 527, LNS) |
| acc. sg. c. | tal-la-an |
KUB 15.3 i 20 | (CTH 584, NS) |
| [ta]l-la-an |
KUB 15.3 i 20 | (CTH 584, NS) | |
| nom./acc. coll. | DIBta-al-la |
KUB 38.3 ii 14 | (CTH 527, NS) |
| nom./acc. sg. n. (Hitt.) | DUGtal-la-i | KUB 41.11 rev. 15’ | (CTH 456, LNS) |
| ⸢GIŠ⸣tal-la-i | KUB 29.4 iii 32, 40 | (CTH 481, NS) | |
| ⸢GIŠtal-la-i⸣ | KUB 29.4 iv 23 | (CTH 481, NS) | |
| DUGtal-la-a-i | KUB 32.137 ii 10 | (CTH 415, NS) | |
| ⸢DUGtal-la-a-i⸣ | KBo 7.44 iii 8’ | (CTH 704, NS) | |
| GIŠtal-la-a-i | KBo 15.29 iii 30’ | (CTH 481, NS) | |
| tal-la-a-i | KUB 12.1 iv 28’ | (CTH 246, NS) | |
| KUB 42.42 iv 9’ | (CTH 246, NS) | ||
| ⸢tal-la-a-i⸣ | KUB 32.76, 19’ | (CTH 706, MS) | |
| [tal]-la-a-i | KBo 35.206, 15’ | (CTH 500, NS) | |
| gen. sg. (Hitt.) | GIŠtal-la-⸢ia-aš⸣ | KUB 29.4 iv 25 | (CTH 481, NS) |
| dat./loc. sg. (Hitt.) | GIŠtal-la-i | KUB 29.4 iii 24, 31 | (CTH 481, NS) |
| ⸢GIŠtal-la-i⸣ | KUB 12.23 iii 6’ | (CTH 481, NS) | |
| abl./instr. (Hitt.) | ⸢tal⸣-la-a-i-az | KUB 15.34 i 31 | (CTH 483, MS) |
| tal-la-a-ia-a[z] | KUB 15.33b i 31’ | (CTH 483, LNS) | |
| nom. pl. c. (Hitt.) | ta-al-li-eš | KUB 30.19 iv 16’ | (CTH 450, LNS) |
| acc. pl. (Hitt.) | ta-al-lu-uš | KBo 39.290 obv. 9’ | (CTH 450, LNS) |
| tal-lu-uš | IBoT 3.1 rev. 78, 81 | (CTH 609, LNS) | |
| tal-li-uš | IBoT 3.1 rev. 79 | (CTH 609, LNS) | |
| tal-li-u[š] | KBo 18.120 left side 4’ | (CTH 209, NS) | |
| ⸢tal-li⸣-u[š] | KBo 18.120 obv. 4’ | (CTH 209, NS) | |
| unclear | ta-al-l[a-] | KUB 54.48, 11’ | (CTH 628, MS) |
| DUGtal-la-⸢a⸣[ | KUB 20.35 iii 8’ | (CTH 704, LNS) | |
| GIŠtal-l[a-] | KUB 42.62, 5’ | (CTH 249, NS) | |
| tal-la[ | KBo 64.338 i 1 | (CTH 590, LNS) |
The attestations follow Pecchioli Daddi 2010a:197f. Concerning DIBta-al-la (KUB 38.3 ii 14), Pecchioli Daddi 2010a:198 note 12 offers an alternative interpretation as nom./acc. pl. instead of nom./acc. sg. by reading the preceding Winkelhaken as the numeral ‘10’ instead of as a gloss wedge. On contextual grounds, she still prefers the reading as a gloss wedge, which is followed here.
In KBo 18.120, Gander 2022a:197 reads the final sign UŠ as IŠ, which is possible yet not certain, since both attestations on this fragment are broken at the end. Furthermore, he notes that the sign TAL in ⸢tal-li⸣-u[š] (KBo 18.120 obv. 4’) shows the shape of ḪU, which would imply a reading ⸢ḫu-li⸣-u[š] as a form of the Hittite verb ḫulla-/-i(ya)-(ḫi) ‘to fight, hit’. Due to the damage of the attestation, the reading ⸢tal-li⸣-u[š] is kept here, also following Gander (ibid.) who proposes an emendation to ⸢tal-li⸣-i/u[š] in analogy to the visible attestation tal-li-u[š] on the same fragment (KBo 18.120 left side 4’). Gander (ibid.) does not exclude that both attestations in KBo 18.120 belong to the Hittite verb talliye/a-(mi) ‘to allure (gods)’.
[E.R.]
1.1.3Graphic Features
Checked against the photographs in the Mainzer Fotoarchiv. - Note that talla- is used with three types of determinatives, i.e. DUG for vessels, GIŠ for wooden objects and DIB for the verb ‘to take, pick up’ and thus also ‘holder’ (Rüster & Neu 1989a:97 and HW Ergänzungsband 1:25).
[E.R.]
1.1.4Meaning
It is clear that talla- denotes a type of vessel due to its determinative DUG, used for vessels. Laroche (DLL:89 ‘(recipient)’) and Tischler (HHw:161 ‘(ein Gefäß)’) do not propose any specific meanings, but Melchert (CLL:203 and DCL:s.v.) identifies talla- as a sort of container, whereas Trémouille 1997a:210 proposes the meaning ‘bowl’. Pecchioli Daddi 2010a:199 notes that the lexeme is often used together with the logogram Ì.DÙG.GA denoting a sort of oil, which is also found in the interpretations by Kronasser 1966a:220, ‘(a vessel for oil)’, Siegelová 1986a:451 ‘perfume bottle’, Tischler (HEG T:56 ‘(a vessel for oil)’, following HW:206) and Ünal 2007a:505 (‘tiny oil can, perfume can’).
Burgin 2022b:385 suggests the meaning ‘unguentarium’, which may fit the context of the royal funeral in KBo 39.290. Although the exact meaning of talla- is not clear, Pecchioli Daddi 2010a:202f. proposes to identify the vessel as representation of a lower limb on contextual grounds, which may imply a magical function of the object in ritual texts.The lexeme is not listed in EDHIL. No meaning is given in Cammarosano 2018a:313, de Roos 2007a:108, Miller 2004a:290, Mouton 2016a:363 and García Trabazo 2002a:579.
[E.R.]
1.1.5Stem
1.1.6Origin
Tischler (HEG T:56) traces talla- back to Akk. tallu(m) ‘(a vessel for oil)’ by comparing Hitt./Luw. dalaimi- for the change of Akk. -u to Hitt./Luw. -ai.
Pecchioli Daddi 2010a:203 prefers to compare talla- with Lat. tālus ‘ankle(-bone)’ and thus suggests an Indo-European word continued in Hittite and Latin. Her etymology is rejected by Melchert (DCL:s.v.) as formally and semantically “unlikely”, even though he does not exclude a derivation of a leg-shaped vessel from a verb ‘to stand’. A link to the Luwian noun GIŠtalānza is possible, but unprovable.
[E.R.]
*This lemma has been written together with Marian Wehrstein.