mannitt(i)-

The word is attested in mythological texts about disappearing deity and as a recipient in lists of sacrifices, from the MH period.

[E.R.]

Glossed very generally with ‘(a desirable condition in nature)’ in CHD:L-N 174 and Ünal 2007a:425, mannitt(i)- allows for a more precise semantic interpretation. This is attempted in Archi 1977a:299f. (‘Wachstum’), Tischler 2008a:100 (‘ein wünschenswerter natürlicher Zustand, “Wachstum”?’), HEG L-N:125 (‘Wachstum, Gedeihen’) and HED M:58f., matching mannitt(i)- with Hittite miyatar ‘growth, increase’. In fact, in most of its attestations, the word is juxtaposed with šalḫitt(i)-/šalḫiant(i)- ‘growth, magnitude’, both embedded in longer lists of blissful conditions to be bestowed on nature and country:

 KBo 2.9 i 19-24:

⁽¹⁹⁾na-aš-⸢ta⸣ ⁽²⁰⁾ŠA LUGAL MUNUS.LUGAL DUMU.MEŠ.LUGAL TI-tar ḫa-ad-du-la-tar in-na-ra-wa-⸢tar⸣ ⁽²¹⁾MU.ḪI.A GÍD.DA  nu-ú-un tu-um-ma-an-ti-ia-an tar-ḫu-i-la-tar ⁽²²⁾A-NA KUR  ^URUḪat-ti-kán an-da ḫal-ki-aš^! (text: uš) ^GIŠGEŠTIN-aš GU₄-aš UDU-aš ⁽²³⁾DUMU.NAM.U₁₉.LU-aš mi-ia-tar šal-ḫi-it-ti-in ma-an-ni-it-ti-en ⁽²⁴⁾an-na-ri-en-na ú-da

‘Bring life, health, strength, long years, compliance (and) obedience, victory of king, queen and princes, (and bring) into the land of Ḫatti prosperity, growth, mannitt(i)- and strength of crops, vines, cattle, sheep (and) humans!’ (for the syntactic analysis of the genitives as being dependent on the whole list of conditions in the second part, cf. Fuscagni 2011a with references).

 While the desirable condition does not become entirely clear from the previous passage, it is obviously somehow connected with growth and fecundity, without which subsistence is not guaranteed. This finds support in an attestation from the Telipinu myth, where the angry god carries away several of these good conditions together with satiety:

 KUB 17.10 i 10’-11’: ^(10’)dTe-li-pí-nu-ša (eras.) ar-ḫa i-ia-an-ni-iš ḫal-ki-in ^dIm-mar-ni-(eras.)in ^(11’)ša-al-ḫi-an-ti-en ma-an-ni-it-ti-en iš-pí-ia-tar-ra pé-e-da-aš ...

‘Telipinu went away and he brought away crops, fertility, growth, mannitt(i)- and satiety ...’ (for the text and the specifically the translation of ^dImmarnin, see Rieken et al. 2012a with references).

The position of mannitt(i)- between growth and satiety suggests the we are dealing with an abstract term for the ability of nature to bear fruit, thus not only for prosperity for its own sake, but fertility to subsidize mankind. The concept was also deified and as such also received rations of sacrifice (KUB 47.59, 10’ and KBo 13.193, 9; cf. Otten & Rüster 1978a:157).

[E.R.]

As its counterpart in juxtaposition šalḫitt(i)- (beside šalḫiant(i)-), mannitt(i)- is an abstract noun in -tt(i)-, following the inflection of mutated stems. Starting from the root *mann-, for which see mann(a)- n. or manna- c., several derivational processes, between which a decision is not possible, may have led to the formation of mannitt(i)- ‘fertility, reproduction’:

• a rhyming stem based on šalḫi-tt(i)- ‘growth’ (Neumann apud HEG:L-N 125; there is no independent evidence for an i-stem adjective *mann-i-),
• an -(a)tt(i)- abstract noun based on an -i(ya)- adjective manni(ya)- ‘related to fertility, related to birth-giving’,
• an -(a)tt(i)- abstract noun based on a deradical verb manni(ya)- ‘to be fertile’.HEG:L-N 125 and HED:M 58f. propose an abstract noun in -att(i)- derived from a verb in -anni(ya)- which, in turn, is based on mai-/miya- ‘to grow, thrive’. Apart from the fact, that -y- is preserved in the derivatives of mai-, which would not be the case in mannitt(i)-, considering the nominal base *mann-, this must be regarded as outdated.

 [E.R.]

Regular juxtaposition with Luw. šalḫitt(i)- ‘growth’, also listed together with Luw. annar(i)- ‘strength’, and the preservation of the sequence /-ti-/ leaves hardly any doubt about the Luwian origin of mannitt(i)- ‘fertility’ (cf. already Haas & Wilhelm 1974a:31). In addition, the meaning suggests an etymological connection with other Luwian stems of similar semantics that are built on the root *mann- as well (for suggestions concerning manna-, mann(i)-, mannimma/i-, mannai(ya)-, see Starke 1990a: 397 n. 1431 and CLL:137).

[E.R.]

For the lemma head see PLuw. *men(H)-o-.