/lalatt(i)-/, “LINGUA”-la-ti-
‘language’
- Language
- Hieroglyphic Luwian
- Grammar
- subst
- ID
- 794
1. Individual Anatolian Languages
1.1 Hieroglyphic Luwian
/lalatt(i)-/, “LINGUA”-la-ti-
‘language’1.1.1Transmission
This lexeme is attested twice within the same inscription from Karkamiš, dating to around 800 BCE.
[AH.B.]
1.1.2Forms
| acc. sg. | /lalattin/ | “LINGUA”-la-ti-i-na | KARKAMIŠ A15b, §20 (Karkamiš) |
| dat./loc. sg. | /lalatti/ | “LINGUA”-la-ti | KARKAMIŠ A15b, §21 (Karkamiš) |
1.1.3Graphic Features
1.1.3.1Phonological Interpretation
The spelling of the lexeme under discussion is quite clear for its use of syllabic signs, which fits well the evidence from the cognates CLuw. lāl(i)- ‘tongue’ (identification not secure, see under lemma) and Hittite lāla- ‘tongue’, see e.g. Hawkins 2000a:133. Still, it should be noted that the attestations feature one of the less commonly used possibilities offered by the HLuw. writing system, in that the first sign of the word *175, here transcribed as LINGUA, is marked as a logogram with a set of logogram markers (*410), yet it is clearly to be read with its syllabic value /la/ instead of its full word value. The syllabic value undoubtedly derives acrophonically from the word represented by the logogram LINGUA ‘tongue’ (cf. e.g. Marazzi 1990b:157), which is not attested in HLuw., but can be assumed with some certainty to have had the shape /lal(i)-/.
[AH.B.]
1.1.4Meaning
The meaning was first suggested by Hawkins 1975a:150f. based on contextual as well as etymological grounds, to which he added the evidence provided by the very pictographic nature of the logogram LINGUA (*175). Previous accounts (e.g. Meriggi 1962b:78) had conflated two different words used in the relevant passage, viz. /tuppalalliya-/ ‘writing’ and /lalatt(i)-/ ‘language’.
[AH.B.]
1.1.5Stem
Derived from the noun */lal(i)-/ ‘tongue’, which is not attested in HLuw.,Putative forms cited in Meriggi 1962b:78 and HED L:44 do not exist, but are based on a previous erroneous reading of the relevant lines in KARKAMIŠ A15b, §§19-20. the word constitutes a formation in /-tt(i)-/. As is the case here also, this suffix is used to derive secondary nominal stems (cf. e.g. Yakubovich 2015b:6.2), creating common gender nouns that show i-mutation in their paradigms.
[AH.B.]
For the lemma head see PAnat. *lala-.