alalamniške/a-

This lexeme occurs in a mythological text and a funerary ritual, and it is restored in its duplicate.

[E.R.]

Checked against the photographs in the Mainzer Fotoarchiv. – The lexeme is also restored in another duplicate of KUB 39.8 as a-[la-la-am-ni-eš-ki-iz-zi] at KUB 30.19 iv 5’. However, the supposedly legible A- is almost completely broken off, and what is left is inconclusive.

[E.R.]

The semantic interpretation of the verb was first suggested by Friedrich 1929a:75, and has been accepted since; cf. HW:19, Kronasser 1966a:561, HW 2nd ed. A:55, HEG A-K:13, HED A, E, I:27f., Starke 1990a:258f., CLL:25, HHw:13, Ünal 2007a:14. It is based on the parallelism with weške/a- ‘to wail’ in the Heroic Deed of Gurparanzaḫ and its occurrence in the funerary rituals.

[E.R.]

The reason for treating the verb in this dictionary is Starke’s (Starke 1990a:258f.) claim that alalamneške/a- represents a denominative derivative of Luw. *alalam(ma)n- n. ‘wailing’. While this is possible, Occam’s razor demands that words in Hittite transmission be regarded as Hittite unless there is evidence of the contrary. Since the base of the word family, the interjection alala-, is inherited from the Indo-European proto-language (see under Reconstruction), a parallel Hittite formation can claim equal likelihood.

Moreover, the nom. sg. c. alalam(m)aš in Hittite transmission can be classified as the reflex of a stem in *-́mō(n)-s, *-mn-és >> -maš, -mn-aš (see Melchert 1983a for the stem type). Therefore, Starke’s explanation of alalam(m)aš as the thematized borrowing of Luw. *alalam(ma)n- is not the only option, and Occam’s razor applies here as well.

[E.R.]

For its Hittite origin, see under Stem. For the Luwian cognate see alalani-^(ti).

[E.R.]

*This lemma was written together with Gwendolyn Trott.