Indo-Aryan words in Hurrian (maganni)

[Bjarte Kaldhol]

Dear listmembers,

The word maganni, "gift", supposed to be a Hurrianized magha-, seems to
have been felt as a Hurrian word. In her new grammar, Ilse Wegner notes a
word magalzi which I have not reflected on before. She translates
'"Geschenk?", vielleicht gleichbedeutend mit maga-nni, "Geschenk"'. But the
abstract/collective force of the suffix -lzi might rather point to the
institution/habit of exchanging gifts, a collectivity of gifts, or a place
where gifts were kept. Anyhow, the suffixing means that this word was
treated like any other Hurrian root.

There is also an Akkadianized magannu:tum at Nuzi and Alalah. Might mag- be
a Hurrian root (verbal?) after all? Laroche notes that "L'origine
indo-arienne (skr. magha- + -nni) defendue par plusieurs auteurs, n'est pas
evidente... Il peut s'agir de la racine sem. mgn." (One might argue against
this by suggesting that the Semitic root and derivatives may have resulted
from a borrowing from Hurrian, however.) Other Hurrian words indicating a
Hurrian root mag- are the following: maganti (a kind of NINDA, bread) ,
magaranna?, magawe, magunni (desire, need, request, demand, etc.). This
last word belonged partly to the trade sphere; it might denote a king's
request or demand.

Regarding auzamewa/auzumewa from the Kikkuli text, I no longer believe it
can be a Hurrian infinitive in the dative case, since the relator suffix
-ne- is missing. Normally, one would expect *auzummenewa. This word is
enigmatic. Can it be Indo-Aryan? The -z- might represent -j- or -dz-, or
perhaps also -ts-/tch-.

Best wishes,
Bjarte Kaldhol