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Keywords: Hittite, etymology, Proto-Indo-European, historical phonology, semantics
Abstract
Discussed are the etymologies of twelve Hittite words and word groups (alpa- 'cloud', aku- 'seashell, ariyela-^sup zi^ 'determine by or consult an oracle', heu- / he(y)aw- 'rain', hali-'pen, corral', kalmara- 'ray' etc., mahla- 'grapevine branch', suu, suwaw- 'full', tarra-^sup tta(ri)^ 'be able' and tarhu-^sup zi^ 'id.; conquer', idalu- 'evil', tara-^sup i^ / tari- 'become weary, henkan 'death, doom') and some points of Hittite historical phonology, such as the fate of medial *-h^sub 2^n- (sub §7) and final *-i (§13), all of which appear to receive somewhat inadequate treatment in Kloekhorst's 2008 Hittite etymological dictionary. Several old etymologies are defended and some new ones suggested.
The following notes were compiled while writing a response (in press b) to that part of the (2006) paper, recently kindly brought to my attention by its author, Professor Witold Manczak, that purports to unseat the laryngeal theory on the basis of allegedly incompatible Hittite material collected over three decades ago by Tischler (1980). The massive debate on the laryngeal theory that essentially followed Tischler's paper was no doubt in part a response to it and produced solutions to most if not all of the problems raised by Tischler, a position I attempt to summarize in my own paper noted above with reference to the superb Hittite etymological dictionary recently published by Kloekhorst (2008, hereinafter referred to as K:) with its several innovations in the areas of Hittite and Anatolian historical phonology and morphology. It seemed to me, however, as I examined his book, that Kloekhorst had not quite achieved finality in a small proportion of the well over 100 decisions that I was thus compelled to evaluate, but instead of burying my suggestions for improvement in an essentially polemical paper it seemed to me preferable to offer them under a separate title here. The thirteen matters investigated below are of course very far from constituting an exhaustive critique of Kloekhorst's dictionary.
1. alpa- 'cloud'
In order to debunk the eminently debunkable idea of "h"1 K: 169 rejects the comparison (due to Mudge) with Lat. albus 'white', Gk. (ProQuest: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.) 'white leprosy', ace. pi. (ProQuest: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.) 'white' partly on easily overcome formal grounds (see...