/lapa-/
‘to provide a salt-lick (?)’
- Language
- Common Luwian
- Grammar
- verb
- ID
- 3969
1. Individual Anatolian Languages
1.1 Hieroglyphic Luwian
/laba-/, la-pa-
‘to provide a salt-lick (?)’1.1.1Transmission
A hapax legomenon, this verb is attested once on one of the altars from Emirgazi, dating to the late 13th century BCE.
[AH.B.]
1.1.2Forms
| 1sg. pres. act. | /labawi/ | la-pa-wa/i | EMİRGAZİ 1A, §1 (Emirgazi) |
1.1.3Graphic Features
1.1.3.1Phonological Interpretation
The phonological interpretation of this lexeme is reasonably certain. It is based on the HLuw. spelling, combined with the evidence from its related verb /labani-/ ‘to provide a salt-lick’ and a host of cognates in Hittite and CLuw., partially classed as Luwian in Hittite Transmission, e.g. 
lapana- ‘salt-lick’, lapanalla/i- ‘salt-lick warden’.CHD L:40f. translates these words as ‘summer pasture’, ‘herdsman’ etc., followed by Starke 1990a:172, 231. See the detailed analysis of the relevant passages and arguments for a connection with salt rights rather than pasture and transhumance in Watkins 1997a.
[AH.B.]
1.1.4Meaning
The sole occurrence of /laba-/ constitutes the first legible word of the text, and it is immediately followed by the beginning of a new clause, i.e. it is the only remaining word in its own clause. Its meaning can therefore only be guessed at on the basis of what is assumed to be a close cognate, viz. /labani-/ ‘to provide a salt-lick’, see under lemma.
[AH.B.]
1.1.5Stem
While the identification of the word as a verb in 1sg. pres. act. is evident (see Hawkins 1995a:93), the formation of its stem is much less obvious. The verb shows a stem in /-a-/, which would point towards a root verb of the ḫi-conjugation, although definite proof is lacking.
[AH.B.]
1.1.6Derivatives
1.2 Cuneiform Luwian
*lapa-
‘to provide salt-lick (?)’1.2.1Derivatives
2. Reconstruction
2.1Reconstruction
The Luwian root lap- with a single -p- meaning ‘to lick’ is forcibly related to the PIE root *lab(h)- or *leb- meaning ‘to lick’ (Watkins 1997a:33 “*leb-”), whereas Hitt. lip(p)-(mi) ‘to lick’ (and lipā(i)-(mi)) must go back to *leb- because of its vocalism (see EDHIL:528). The lack of Čop’s Law applying in lāpana- and lāpašša/i- would rather speak for a-vocalism of the root, although one can never entirely discard the possibility of analogical pressure. In any case, from one of those roots various formations have been built, e.g. a root verb as attested in HLuw. la-pa- (though possible, its semantics are not assured), a verbal formation in /-ani-(ti)/ < *-n-i̯é/ó-, i.e. HLuw. /labani-(ti)/. In cuneiform transmission, a nominal formation with some kind of n-suffix is found in lapana- c. If its stem formation indeed reflects a non-mutated Luwian stem in -a- c., we would be dealing with a complex suffix ending in *-eh2-, i.e. perhaps *-o-neh2-. Pending an attestation in an actual cuneiform Luwian text, it should not be reconstructed this way too quickly. In any case, this n-formation served as the basis for further derivatives in -alla/i- < *-é-lo-. The reduplicated stem lelipā-(i) attested solely in Hittite context shows a i-vocalism of the root, which is problematic from a Luwian perspective, if one starts from a root with a-vocalism. Considering the highly probable onomatopoetic origin of the root, lelipā-(i) probably goes back to the same root as the one of Hitt. lip(p)-(mi) ‘to lick’, i.e. *leb- (thus Watkins 1997a:33, HED L:101f.). See also Tischler (HEG L-M:63) for an overview of the older literature.
Due to the typologically attested metonymical interchange between ‘lip’ and ‘eyelid’, it is highly probably that Hitt. laplap(p)a-/laplip(p)a- ‘eyelash’ and CLuw. lalp(i)- ‘eyelash’, both reduplicated, belong to the same root(s).https://datsemshift.ru/meanings_sense=lip
[D.S.] [E.R.]
3. Proto-Indo-European
3.1Semantic Reconstruction
The root furnishes different nouns for ‘lip’ and verbs for ‘lick’ in the individual branches. As lips are usually not employed for licking, the forms in the table above may well be instances of imitative sound symbolism rather than etymologically related cognates. See also Proto-Anatolian *Peu̯-ri-. Still, the formal similarities are striking and may point to a shared expressive or onomatopoetic root *lab(h)-, *leb(h)- (with a liquid and a labial) associated with mouth-related actions.
[S.H.]
4. Transmission
Hittite lip(p)-(mi) and lipā(i)-(mi) ‘to lick’, Hieroglyphic Luwian /labani-(ti)/ ‘to provide a salt-lick’, Hittite laplap(p)a-/laplip(p)a- ‘eyelash’, Cuneiform Luwian lalp(i)- ‘eyelash’, etc.Cf., e.g., EDHIL:528.
Persian lab ‘lip’, Zazaki lew ‘lip’.
Ancient Greek λάπτω ‘to lick’.Cf., e.g., GEW II:85 s.v. λάπτω.
Latin labium, labrum n. (mostly pl. labia, labra) ‘lip’, lambō, -ere ‘to lick’.Cf., e.g., EDLIL:319 s.v. labium, 324 s.v. lambō.
Proto-Germanic *lepjan- m. ‘lip’ (Old English lippa, English lip, German Lippe), *lepaza- (Old Dutch pl. lepora, Old High German leffur), German Lefze < Old High German lefso ‘lip (of a dog)’, Old English lapian ‘to lick, lap’.Cf., e.g., EDPG:331 s.v. *lepjan-.
Old Church Slavonic lobŭzati ‘to kiss’, Russian lobzatʹ ‘to kiss’.Cf., e.g., EDSIL:283.