abura-

This lexeme is found once in the poetical inscription engraved on the lion sarcophagus of Antiphellos, dated on stylistic grounds to the beginning of the 4^th century BCE (Zahle 1979a:318, Mühlbauer 2007a:91).

[D.S.]

nom. pl. (?)

abura〈z〉

TL 55.2 (Antiphellos)

Schürr 2005a:134 takes abura as collective plural agreeing with zirãpla, although the two words belong to two different main clauses. An emendation to a nominative plural to obtain an agreement with pleliz is suggested here.

[D.S.]

The letter 〈z〉 is restored here, in order to get a full grammatical sentence; see under Meaning.

[D.S.]

Melchert (DLL:112) and Shevoroshkin (apud Neumann 2007a:2) compare the phrase eke … abura with the substantive ekebura- ‘relative(s) (?)’, assuming tmesis, which is however awkward for a noun. Instead, one could posit that eke is a denasalized form of ẽke ‘as, like’, which would yield a coherent phrase:

e{:}ke : pleliz : abura〈z〉 (TL 55.2)
‘like (his) relatives from Phellos’

A similar sense is intended by Gehrisch 2018a:108, though without the required emendation of the grammatical ending of abura. Nonetheless, the difference between abura- and ekebura- is still obscure, whence this analysis must be considered tentative. Shevoroshkin 2002a:227 translates abura with ‘enforcers’ without giving any justification.

[D.S.]

1. ekebura-

Shevoroshkin 1979a:178 suggests an etymology with Hitt. epurā(i)-^(mi) ‘to move earth, to build a siege ramp’ (HW 2nd ed. E:89), which is semantically improbable. No reconstruction is offered here.

[D.S.]