aldann(i)-
‘water spring’
- Language
- Cuneiform Luwian
- Grammar
- subst
- ID
- 3800
1. Individual Anatolian Languages
1.1 Luwian in Hittite transmission
aldann(i)-
‘water spring’1.1.1Transmission
This lexeme is attested in cult inventory texts (CTH 527, 528), in prayers (CTH 382, 383), in oracle texts (CTH 575) and in an itinerary from Ortaköy-Šapinuwa (CTH 230), possibly dating to the Middle Hittite period. Otherwise most attestations are in New or Late New Hittite compositions.
[D.S.]
1.1.2Forms
| nom. sg. | al-da-an-ni-iš | KUB 38.1 i 10’ | (CTH 527, LNS) |
| [a]l-da-an-ni-iš | KUB 38.6 iv 9’ | (CTH 527, LNS) | |
| ⸢al-da-an-ni-iš ⸣ | KUB 38.6 iv 19’ | (CTH 527, LNS) | |
| al-ta-an-ni-iš | KUB 12.62 i 16’, 17’ | (CTH 383, NS) | |
| TÚLal-da-ni-iš | KBo 2.13 obv. 23 | (CTH 528, NS) | |
| TÚLal-ta-an-ni-iš | KBo 2.13 obv. 23 | (CTH 528, NS) | |
| [T]ÚLal-ta-an-ni<-iš> | KBo 2.13 obv. 27 | (CTH 528, NS) | |
| TÚLal-dan-ni-eš | KUB 22.38 i 5 | (CTH 575, NS) | |
| [TÚLa]l-dan-ni-eš | KUB 22.38 i 21 | (CTH 575, NS) | |
| [TÚLal-d]an-ni-eš | KUB 22.38 i 15 | (CTH 575, NS) | |
| dat./loc. sg. | al-ta-an-ni | KUB 22.19, 9’ | (CTH 575, NS) |
| al-da-an-ni | IBoT 1.33, 58, 71 | (CTH 575, LNS) | |
| al-da-ni | IBoT 1.33, 33, 36 | (CTH 575, LNS) | |
| nom. pl. (Hitt.) | ⸢al-ta-an-ni!(nu)-uš⸣ | KBo 11.1 obv. 29 | (CTH 382, NS) |
| al-ta-an-ni-iš | KUB 18.24 iii 5’ | (CTH 579, LNS) | |
| al-ta-an-ni-⸢uš⸣ | KBo 11.1 obv. 16 | (CTH 382, NS) | |
| dat./loc. pl. (Hitt.) | al-ta-an-ni-aš | KBo 11.1 obv. 30 | (CTH 382, NS) |
| ˹al˺-danan-na-aš | KUB 41.8 ii 21’ | (CTH 446, LNS) | |
| dat./loc. pl. | al-ta-an-na-an-za | Or. 2, 4’ | (CTH 230, MS?) |
Additional attestations can be found in HW 2nd ed. A:63.
The interpretation of [T]ÚLal-ta-an-ni<-iš> as nom. sg. follows HW 2nd ed. A: 63 by regarding it as a scribal mistake (“-iš vergessen”), probably due to the parallel context in line 23.
The interpretation of TÚLal-dan-ni-eš as nom. sg. follows HW 2nd ed. A: 63, although it is identical to a Hitt. nom. pl. c. in -eš (nu TÚLal-dan-ni-eš SIG5-ru).
[D.S.]
1.1.3Graphic Features
Checked against the photographs in the Mainzer Fotoarchiv. The sign UŠ in al-ta-an-ni-uš (KBo 11.1 obv. 16) is clearly legible; contra HW 2nd ed.: 63 reading al-ta-an-ni-iš.*
[D.S.]
1.1.4Meaning
The meaning of aldann(i)- has long been known and its elucidation was facilitated by its determinatives TÚL ‘spring’ as well as by its contexts of attestations (Forrer 1938a:180f., HW 2nd ed. A:62, HEG A-K:20, HED A:41f. all with further literature). HW 2nd ed. A:62 and HED A:42 emphasize that the word was probably imported from Cilicia and Kizzuwatna during the Empire period, because, unlike wattaru- ‘spring, well’, aldann(i)- is not attested in texts from the older period. Müller-Karpe 2021a:5 n.12 further specifies that aldann(i)- cannot be translated with ‘fountain’ in the sense of a built structure, since the passage of KUB 38.1 i 10’-14’ reveals that aldann(i)- can represent a female deity, Dišḫašḫuriya, i.e. as a water spring goddess, speaking for the interpretation as a natural phenomenon. On this same passage, see also Cammarosano 2018a:309.
[D.S.]
1.1.5Stem
The noun adann(i)- is built with the nominal suffix -ann(i)-, which is not Hittite, but rather Luwian in origin; see below.
[D.S.]
1.1.6Derivatives
*The forms in the table were checked together with Marian Wehrstein.
2. Reconstruction
2.1Reconstruction ‘water spring’
A summary of the literature concerning its etymology is found in Tischler’s HEG A-K:20, who leans towards a Hurrian loanword. Differently, Puhvel (HED A:43) follows Čop 1955d:400, who pleads for an Indo-European etymology that can be reconstructed with a root *h1eldh-. However, a Hurrian origin can be discredited by the proper Luwian morphology as well as the new attestation with the Luwian dat./loc. pl. ending -anza.
Concerning the nominal suffix -ann(i)-, Forrer 1938a:180f. postulates an abstract suffix -ātar/-ann- followed by a derivation in -i- from the oblique stem, which is principle possible, though dubious. If -ann(i)- is only Luwian, a pre-form *-é-no-, matching the Hittite suffix -ena-, can be suggested (cf. Čop 1955d:400 “*-eni-”), although a larger analysis of all the data is still missing. A tentative back-projection would be *h1l̥dhéno-.
[D.S.]
3. Proto-Indo-European
3.1Semantic Reconstruction
The list of potential cognates of Luwian aldann(i)- c. ‘water spring’, and altannima- ‘sacred spring basin’ depends on whether one assumes a basic meaning ‘natural water source’ (i.e., ‘source, spring’) or ‘artificial water source’ (i.e., ‘well, basin’) for the Luwian words. In the former scenario, the potential cognates are Old Norse alda f. ‘wave’, Norwegian alde f. ‘big ocean wave’, etc., and the underlying root *h1eldh- or *h1aldh- may have denoted ‘water’. In the latter scenario, cognates would be attested not only in Germanic (Norw. dial. olda f. ‘trough’, Old English ealdoþ, aldaht, aldot ‘trough (?), channel (?)’, etc.), but also in Baltic (Lithuanian aldijà, eldijà f. ‘hollowed out tree trunk, canoe’) and Slavic (Proto-Slavic *oldi f. ī ‘boat’). The meaning common to these formations is ‘hollowed out tree trunk’ (used as a trough or a boat), which may be reconciled with ‘water basin’ via ‘trough’, and with ‘well’ if one keeps in mind that one of the first types of man-made wells were built by hollowing out the trunks of large trees to create durable shafts capable of withstanding the pressure of surrounding soil while reaching the water table. Other than these nominal formations, there are no known cognates of the underlying root *h1eldh- or *h1aldh-, which makes it difficult to establish a basic meaning. It is also possible that the common denominator of all formations is a meaning ‘water’ and that ‘trough’, ‘boat’, and ‘well’ all go back to different formations with a relational or genitival meaning ‘related to water’.
[S.H.]
4. Transmission
Luwian in Hittite Transmission aldann(i)- c. ‘water spring’, Cuneiform Luwian altannima- ‘sacred spring basin’.
(1) Old Norse alda f. ‘wave’, Icelandic alda f., Faroese alda f. ‘id.’, Norwegian alde f. ‘big ocean wave’ (cf. the borrowing [from Proto-Norse?] Finnish aalto, Estonian ald ‘wave’).
(2) Norw. dial. olda f. ‘trough’, Swed. dial. ålla, Old Danish aalde, olde ‘trough, vessel’, Old English ealdoþ, aldaht, aldot ‘trough (?), channel (?)’, Bavarian Alden ‘furrow’ (cf. the borrowing [from Proto-Norse?] Finnish allas ‘trough’).Cf., e.g.,de Vries 1977a:5 s.v. alda, EDPG:21 s.v. *aldō(n)-.
(2) Proto-Slavic *oldi f. ī ‘boat’ (Old Church Slavonic ladii, al(ŭ)dii, Serbo-Croatian lȃđa, Polish łódź, Russian lad’já, etc.).Cf., e.g., EDSIL:73 s.v. 367.