ḫarlā
‘back (?)’
- Language
- Cuneiform Luwian
- Class
- Base
- Grammar
- adv
- ID
- 808
1. Individual Anatolian Languages
1.1 Cuneiform Luwian
ḫarlā
‘back (?)’1.1.1Transmission
The word is attested exclusively in a single NS copy of the OH Ištanuwa festival.
[E.R.]
1.1.2Forms
| unknown | ḫar-la-a | KUB 25.39 iv 8 | (CTH 773, NS) |
1.1.3Graphic Features
1.1.3.1Phonological Interpretation
Although the sign ḪAR could equally well be read ḫur, the suspected rhyme with pár-la-a speaks for a reading ḫar (CLL:58).
[E.R.]
1.1.4Meaning
The context šu-um-ma-al-la-an-na-mu-ur ḫar-la-a pár-la-a ḫu-i-ia-ad-da is ill-understood, as is usually the case with Ištanuwian song incipits. Yakubovich 2017d tentatively translates parlā as ‘front (?)’, which together with the verb ḫuiyadda would yield ‘ran in front’. Considering the rhyme with ḫar-la-a, the phrase ḫarlā parlā ḫuiyadda could mean something like ‘the š. ran back and forth with regard to me (i.e. my position)’. If this interpretation were correct, ḫarlā would be an adverb for ‘back’, but the evidence for this suggestion is extremely slim. Alternatively, one may consider that ḫar- denotes an upward movement (also considered by Melchert, e-mail of May 17, 2021) with a translation ‘the š. ran up and forth with regard to me (i.e. my position)’ (cf. German er lief auf und davon).
[E.R.]
1.1.5Stem
A petrified dat./loc. sg. of a non-mutating a-stem would fit the adverbial function cautiously proposed here, but this is far from assured.
[E.R.]
1.1.6Origin
Reading ḫur-la-a and connection with ḫurla- ‘Hurrian’ is negated in Starke 1990a:330 n. 139, but identity with the gloss wedge word 
ḫar/ḫur-la (see under Lemma) is discussed in HW 2nd ed. Ḫ:758. However, provided that ḫarlā means ‚up’ as suggested under Meaning, also an etymological relationship with other words based on the root *ḫar- ‚up, above; to rise’ would become attractive (thus cautiously also Melchert, e-mail of May 17, 2021).
[E.R.]