padafu-

This lexeme occurs once in a legal text found in the precinct of Artemis in Sardis and datable to the 5^th or 4^th century BCE and twice in recently found inscription from the Kaystros valley, which can be more precisely dated to the 4^th century BCE.

[I.Y.]

The gender of the noun cannot be formally established, but as long as we are dealing with an animate entity, the hypothesis that it was the common gender is reasonably certain.

[I.Y.]

The noun was previously read pawafu-, cf. Gusmani 1964a:76, but the discovery of the inscription LW/N 115 made it clear that the third letter must be <d> (Gusmani & Akkan 2004a:144).

[I.Y.]

In the inscription LW 23, padafu- is coordinated with šerl(i)- ‘supervising authority (vel sim.)’ (dat. sg. šelλ). The hypothesis that both nouns represent titles was briefly entertained in Grumach 1934a:192f., but a different translation ‘sanctuary’ was proposed in Meriggi 1935a:80 n. 21 and found nearly universal following. Presumably, the coordinated pair could mean ‘to the sanctuary and (its) supervising authority’. This traditional interpretation became untenable with the publication of LW/N 115, which revealed that padafu- can have a wife (kãna-). Therefore, the editors of this inscription tentatively analyzed this noun as a personal name (Gusmani & Akkan 2004a:149). Such an interpretation, however, scarcely fits the context of LW 23 and is even less compatible with the existence of the derivative padafuni-.

It seems that of all the previous interpreters, Grumach was the closest one to the truth: combinatory considerations strongly suggest that padafu- is an animate common noun designating office, title, or function. Hard evidence ends at this point. What follows is a hypothesis based on the analysis of LW 23 as a legal text. Mitradaštas, whose declaration occupies the most part of the text, receives certain temple property in temporary possession, which he pledges to transfer either to temple authority or to padafu-, but to no one else. It seems that the other logical option would be transferring property to a successor or heir approved by the temple, or perhaps to a locum tenens. Both suggestions would be compatible with plausible etymologies of the noun under discussion (cf. below).

[I.Y.]

Synchronically, this is a u-stem. The location of the accent cannot be established.

[I.Y.]

1. padafuni-

The structure of the noun suggests that we are dealing with a compound pada-fu-. Its second element can be directly compared with PIE *b^huh₂- ‘to become’ and its Anatolian reflexes. Its first element may represent a lexical cognate of either Hitt. pata- ‘foot’ (see PAnat. *pód-) or Hitt. pēda- n. ‘place’. These two suggestions would be respectively compatible with the interpretation ‘heir, successor’ (i.e. “coming on the footsteps”) and ‘locum tenens’. The former one appears somewhat more likely. Nevertheless, because of the very tentative approach proposed here, no reconstruction will be given here.

[I.Y.]