šāwaya-

This lexeme is found in the festival for the Palaic pantheon.

[D.S.]

The word ša-a-wa-ia-ia is here interpreted as šāwaya=ya ‘cups also’ (Kammenhuber 1955a:36, Carruba 1970a:49). This interpretation is superior to taking ša-a-wa-ia-ia as one word, because the double sequence -ya-ya- is hard to account for from a morphological perspective. Another possible explanation is diplography, in which case the second <-ia> should be emended.  Because of our still very limited understanding of Palaic, one should refrain here from making any unnecessary emendations; cf. Melchert 1984b:32 n. 13.

[D.S.]

The meaning of šāwaya can be determined in a contextual manner. In the Hittite context of KUB 35.165 rev. 21’, there is a sentence, which says that cups (GAL^ḪI.A) of the deity are being filled. Then, the Palaic song begins, where it is said that the šāwaya, i.e. the GAL^ḪI.A, have been filled and offered to Ziparwa for drinking. Therefore, the context makes the semantic assignment of šāwaya- as ‘cup’ very convincing (Kammenhuber 1955b:374, Kammenhuber 1959a:36).

[D.S.]

Weitenberg 1984a:371 mentions the possibility of having either a plural neuter i-stem, i.e. -aya, or a plural neuter a-stem, i.e. -a. The latter is here preferred, because so far there is no independent evidence for a neuter i-stem ending in -aya in Palaic. However, it is not clear yet whether šāwaya represents a collective noun or an actual neuter plural of a neuter stem in -a-.

[D.S.]