Hittite kapart-/kapirt - ‘small rodent’ and Proto-Semitic *ˁkbr-t- ‘mouse, jerboa’
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Guus Kroonen
Abstract
The Hittite doublet kapart-/kapirt-, designating a small rodent, is currently assumed to continue an Indo-European formation. Hittitologists almost unanimously analyze it as an ablauting t-stem coined from the preverb *ko(m)- ‘together’ and the Indo-European root *bʰer- ‘to carry’, i. e. *ko(m)-bʰēr-t- or *ko(m)- bʰr̥-t. Accordingly, the meaning ‘small rodent’ is explained as having developed from ‘collector’ or ‘hoarder’. It appears that there is a good alternative to this etymology, however, as the Semitic languages offer evidence for a feminine t-stem to the root *ˁkbr- meaning ‘mouse; jerboa’, viz. Akkadian akbartu-, Phoenician ˁkbrt and Syriac ˁuḳbartā. It seems more plausible that this is the source of Hitt. kapart-/kapirt-.
© 2016 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelei
- Inhalt
- Repetition Analysis Function (ReAF) II
- Studies in Armenian historical phonology (II)
- Hittite kapart-/kapirt - ‘small rodent’ and Proto-Semitic *ˁkbr-t- ‘mouse, jerboa’
- Hittite yaya(i)-i
- Some transitive motion verbs and related lexemes in Late Luwian
- On the origin of Latin suffixes in -d- and -es, -itis
- Zu lykisch ϑϑẽ und seiner etymologischen Interpretation
- Latin crassus, grossus, classis
- Hittite heterographic writings and their interpretation
- Phrygian mekas and the recently discovered New Phrygian inscription from Nacoleia
- The problem of the -a ending in the Hittite dative/locative
- On syncope of u-vocalism in Sabellic
- The Anatolian stop system and the Indo-Hittite hypothesis
- Beiträge zur Tagung. The Sound of Indo-European 3, Opava 2014
- Laryngeal aspiration and the weakening of dentals in Classical Armenian
- In defense of Narten roots
- Vowel weakening in the Sabellic languages as language contact
- Beiträge zum Workshop. Indo-European from within, Göttingen 2016
- Indo-European from within
- Zu einigen Perfektbildungen im Sabellischen
- Pronominierte Nominalformen im Altlitauischen
- The development of the Tocharian causative system – top-down or bottom-up?
- A partial tree of Central Iranian
- Induktive versus abduktive Rekonstruktion
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelei
- Inhalt
- Repetition Analysis Function (ReAF) II
- Studies in Armenian historical phonology (II)
- Hittite kapart-/kapirt - ‘small rodent’ and Proto-Semitic *ˁkbr-t- ‘mouse, jerboa’
- Hittite yaya(i)-i
- Some transitive motion verbs and related lexemes in Late Luwian
- On the origin of Latin suffixes in -d- and -es, -itis
- Zu lykisch ϑϑẽ und seiner etymologischen Interpretation
- Latin crassus, grossus, classis
- Hittite heterographic writings and their interpretation
- Phrygian mekas and the recently discovered New Phrygian inscription from Nacoleia
- The problem of the -a ending in the Hittite dative/locative
- On syncope of u-vocalism in Sabellic
- The Anatolian stop system and the Indo-Hittite hypothesis
- Beiträge zur Tagung. The Sound of Indo-European 3, Opava 2014
- Laryngeal aspiration and the weakening of dentals in Classical Armenian
- In defense of Narten roots
- Vowel weakening in the Sabellic languages as language contact
- Beiträge zum Workshop. Indo-European from within, Göttingen 2016
- Indo-European from within
- Zu einigen Perfektbildungen im Sabellischen
- Pronominierte Nominalformen im Altlitauischen
- The development of the Tocharian causative system – top-down or bottom-up?
- A partial tree of Central Iranian
- Induktive versus abduktive Rekonstruktion
