Filling in the Facts
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Alexander Vertegaal
Abstract
This article explores the use of <CV-V> sign sequences (plene writing) in Hieroglyphic Luwian. It is argued that the vowel signs in these sequences are frequently used as space-fillers in almost all texts dateable to the Iron Age. Space-filling explains the presence of many vowel signs commonly taken as linguistically void, and a new transliteration method is proposed to mark these space-fillers in a uniform way. It is also shown that many vowel signs cannot have been used as space-fillers. Rather, these signs are linguistically significant and bound to express a phonetic feature. On a methodological level, this article considers how we can meaningfully distinguish space-fillers from linguistically real plene writing, as both were not marked differently by the scribes. The last section examines space-fillers in greater detail: their chronological distribution and vowel quality are treated, as are some conspicuous and rare types of space-filling.
Acknowledgements
This research was conducted within the project ‘Splitting the mother tongue: The position of Anatolian in the dispersal of the Indo-European language family’, as funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to Alwin Kloekhorst, Stefan Norbruis, Willemijn Waal, Zsolt Simon and Craig Melchert for both their invaluable comments on earlier versions of this paper and for our helpful discussions of parts of the material involved. In addition, many thanks go to the two reviewers, John David Hawkins and Mark Weeden, whose valuable comments have significantly improved this paper. It goes without saying that I am solely responsible for any remaining errors.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Siedlungskammer Kilikien
- A Comparative Stratigraphy of Cilicia
- Observations on John Garstang’s Excavations at Kazanlı Höyük (Cilicia) in 1937
- In Defense of Nebuchadnezzar II the Warrior
- A New Sale Document of the Ur III Period in the Sulaymaniyah Museum
- Ḫatti and Ḫattuša
- Determination in the Anatolian Hieroglyphic Script of the Empire and Transitional Period
- Filling in the Facts
- The Account of Nabû-šuma-iškun Revisited
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Siedlungskammer Kilikien
- A Comparative Stratigraphy of Cilicia
- Observations on John Garstang’s Excavations at Kazanlı Höyük (Cilicia) in 1937
- In Defense of Nebuchadnezzar II the Warrior
- A New Sale Document of the Ur III Period in the Sulaymaniyah Museum
- Ḫatti and Ḫattuša
- Determination in the Anatolian Hieroglyphic Script of the Empire and Transitional Period
- Filling in the Facts
- The Account of Nabû-šuma-iškun Revisited
