mārḫa-
‘guest’
- Language
- Palaic
- Grammar
- subst
- ID
- 722
1. Individual Anatolian Languages
1.1 Palaic
mārḫa-
‘guest’1.1.1Transmission
This lexeme is found on the other hand in a passage reflecting a scene of the myth of Telipinu preserved on both Old and Middle Hittite tablets and, on the other, in passages of the festival for the Palaic pantheon.
[D.S.]
1.1.2Forms
| acc. sg. | [m]a-a-ar-ḫa-an | KBo 19.155 23’ | (CTH 751, MS) |
| [ma-a-a]r-ḫa-an | IBoT 2.35 iii 4’ | (CTH 751, MS) | |
| mar-ḫa[-an] | KBo 40.108 obv. 5’ | (CTH 751, MS?) | |
| nom. pl. | ma-a-ar-ḫa-aš | KUB 32.18 i 17’ | (CTH 752, MS) |
| ma-a-a[r-ḫa-aš] | KUB 35.168 5’ | (CTH 752, OS) | |
| ma-˹a˺[-ar-ḫa-aš] | KUB 32.18 i 6’ | (CTH 752, MS) |
1.1.3Graphic Features
Checked against the photographs of the Konkordanz.
[D.S.]
1.1.4Meaning
Yakubovich 2005c:118f. n. 40 suggests the translations ‘guest’ based on the context: In the myth of Telipinu, it refers to the gods, who eat, but do not satiate themselves, drink, but do not quench their thirst. Kammenhuber 1959a:16f., Carruba 1970a:63 and Melchert 1994a:221 translate mārḫa- with ‘god’ based on this passage. However, Yakubovich (loc. cit.) points out rightly that the context of the cognates marḫina-(i) ‘to invite as a guest’ (as well as Cuneiform Luwian marḫ-(ti); see under lemma) do not speak in favor of a base meaning ‘god’ (followed in Melchert 2016d:204).
[D.S.]
2. Reconstruction
2.1Reconstruction
Too little is known about Palaic nominal stem classes to reconstruction a pre-form of mārḫa- with any certainty. The a-stem could go back in principle to an o-stem or to one in *-eh2-. The plene spelling in the root speaks for an accented o- or e-grade of the root (for the latter, the sound law *CéRH- > CaRH- is required).
[D.S.]
For the lemma head see Pal. marḫ-.