/assazza-(i)/, á-sa5-za-
‘to speak’
- Language
- Hieroglyphic Luwian
- Class
- Derivative
- Grammar
- verb
- ID
- 444
1. Individual Anatolian Languages
1.1 Hieroglyphic Luwian
/assazza-(i)/, á-sa5-za-
‘to speak’1.1.1Transmission
This verb is well-attested throughout the HLuw. regions in Iron Age times from the 10th to the 7th century BCE. While some attestations are partly damaged, most are clearly legible and thus assured.
[AH.B.]
1.1.2Forms
| 2sg. impv. act. | /assazza/ | á-sa5-za-a | KIRŞEHİR letter, §1 |
| á-sa5-za | |||
| 3sg. pres. ind. act. | /assazzai(a)/ | á-sa5-za-i | |
| á-sa5-za-ia | |||
| 3sg. pret. ind. act. | /assazzatta/ | á-sa5-za-ta |
TELL AHMAR 5, §11 (Tell Ahmar) |
| á-sa5-za-ta-a |
KARKAMIŠA19j1, §2 (Karkamiš) |
||
| part. nom. sg. c. | /assazzammis/ | á-sa5-za-mi-i-sá |
The form /assazzaia/ as found in KARATEPE 1, Hu. §§62, 68 (dated to the early 7th century BCE.) features an additional /-a/ at the end. This extension represents an innovation, occurring late in Iron Age Luwian (Sasseville 2021a:341).
[AH.B.]
1.1.3Graphic Features
1.1.3.1Phonological Interpretation
The phonological interpretation of this lexeme, esp. its initial vowel, has seen considerable discussion because it falls into the group of words consistently spelt with initial <á> rather than <a>. An interpretation of <á> as a glottal stop, in this word and a number of others, was put forward (Kloekhorst 2004a:29), rejected (Melchert 2010a:154) and later partly vindicated to be valid before the 9th century BCE. (Simon 2013a:17). The rest of the form has seen much less debate and it is commonly assumed to be /assazza-/.Earlier, Hawkins & Morpurgo Davies 1975a:132f. assumed a form containing /n/, i.e. /assanz-/ based on CLuw. āšš-, āššant- ‘mouth’. This interpretation was made possible by the fact that, in HLuw., preconsonantal /n/ is consistently omitted in writing (Melchert 2003b:182), so the spelling in this case is inconclusive. However, a newer morphological analysis (see under “Stem” below) voids this question.
[AH.B.]
1.1.4Meaning ‘to say, speak, pronounce, utter, proclaim’
The lexeme is a mainstay in letters, where it serves as a typical opening in phrasings such as “Say to [addressee] ...” to introduce a letter intended to be read out loud by a scribe or other literate aide to the actual addressee. Hence it can be assumed to be able to convey an inchoative meaning such as ‘to begin to speak’, cf. Sasseville 2021a:442f. Aside from this, the verb is occasionally used to introduce direct speech in other texts (e.g. in MARAŞ 14), but it occurs just as naturally in descriptive contexts. The semantic ground it covers is therefore quite large in the manner of a basic-level term rather than a more specified one.
[AH.B.]
1.1.5Stem
The verb /assazza-/ might consist of a denominal verb built from /ass-/ ‘mouth’ + /-zza-(i)/, which may have (had) an inchoative meaning (cf. Sasseville 2021a:442f.). While unattested in HLuw., both the noun āšš- ‘mouth’ as well as the denominal verb āšša- ‘to speak’ are present in CLuw. (cf. Starke 1990a:99-102, EDHIL 166; cf. the lemma eDiAna).
[AH.B.]
2. Reconstruction
2.1Reconstruction
The Hieroglyphic Luwian verb á-sa5-za- ‘to say. speak’ represents an iterative/inchoative in /-zza-(i)/ (< *-sk̂e/o-) derived from a verbal base. This verbal base is thought to be attested in Cuneiform Luwian as āšša- ‘to speak’. However, the attestations normally adduced for that are explained differently in the current dictionary; see under lemmata āšš- and āšša-. Nevertheless, the assumption of a denominative verb derived from the word for ‘mouth’ seems necessary, i.e. āšš=ša ‘mouth’ → (factitive) (*)āšša-(ti) ‘to speak’ (for the conversion process of the factitive suffix see Sasseville 2015a) → á-sa5-za- /assazza-(i)/ ‘to speak’.
[D.S.]
For the lemma head see PAnat. *h1óh1/3-es-/*h1eh1/3-s-´.