kuršammaliya-

A hapax epithet of the Weather God in a Hititte inventory text (NS).

[Zs.S.]

nom. sg. c.

kur-ša-am-ma-li-ia-aš

KBo 26.180 obv. 4’

(CTH 530, NS)

Attestation following Starke 1981a:151, Starke 1990a:270 and CLL:112 (cf. also HEG A-K:658 and HED K:218) checked against the photo of the Konkordanz.

[Zs.S.]

Starke 1981a:150f., Starke 1990a:270 proposes that this is the epithet of the Weather God who is responsible “für die Abtrennung (von Land)” and that this adjective is based on *kuršammalla/i- derived from the verb kuršā(i)- ‘to cut off, separate’ via *kuršamman- (followed by CLL:112 and HEG A-K:658 [but cf. below]; cautiously HED K:218 [“perhaps”]; no meaning is given in Tischler 2008a:95, Tischler 2016a:179 and Ünal 2007a:371, Ünal 2016a:299, 962). Although, contra Starke, the Luwian base verb is not attested yet (see s.v.), this etymology is plausible both formally (cf. also the Luwian words from *kur-s-, a derivative of the verb ´to cut´) and semantically (despite the single -l-, since the alternative formal possibility, the suffix -al- does not fit here, since it is deverbal both in Hittite and Luwian, see Melchert 2003b:197 and Hoffner & Melchert 2008a:54). That said, it must be mentioned that a Hittite suffixation of a Luwian loanword (the participle *kuršamma/i- from the same verb) cannot be fully excluded: the denominal adjective suffix -ala- frequently substantivized as an agent noun with -iya- (cf. Hoffner & Melchert 2008a:55, 58) even provides a slightly better solution regarding the semantics.

[Zs.S.]

The word is generally supposed to be Luwian (see the literature under Meaning) and although the base verb is not attested, the Luwian suffixes clearly show that we are dealing with a Luwian word (note that even if the proposed Hittite suffixation turns out to be correct, the participle base is still Luwian).

[Zs.S.]