qñtile/i-

This lexeme is found in various grave inscriptions as well as on the inscribed pillar of Xanthos, dated contextually to shortly after the ascension of Artaxerxes II in 405-404 BCE and stylistically to around 400 BCE (Borchhardt & Eichner 1997-1999a:19f.).

[D.S.]

The noun qñtili, which is modified by the ethnicon tunewñni ‘from (the town of) Tuna’, refers to a person (Schürr 1997c:136), and thus possibly constitutes a title, although a divine name cannot be excluded.

qñtili=uwe : plluwi : mlu xr^!ãti : tunewñni (TL 44d.61-62)

‘They must offer a Pinarean votive offering to (the) qñtili from (the town of) Tuna.’For the Pinarean votive offering, cf. TL 55.7.

Shevoroshkin 1969a:269 equates Lyc. B qñtili with Hitt./Luw. ḫantili and assigns the meaning ‘first’ to the Lyc. B noun (likewise Carruba 1978b:168, Starke 1990a:129, not accepted by Schürr 1997c:136). This etymological must be rejected on phonological grounds, since the Lycian labio-velar q- can only go back to either *k^u̯ or *H^u̯ (Kloekhorst 2008a:124f., Sideltsev & Yakubovich 2016a:121). Differently, Shevoroshkin 2015a:197 assigns the word to the other Lyc. B root qñt-, translating it as ‘the one in charge’. His semantic assignment, however, cannot be sustained. Schürr 2018b:78 suggests that qñtili is the personal name of the poet who composed the Lycian B poem, but offers no explanation and his hypothesis therefore remains entirely speculative. Nevertheless, the possibility that qñtili is a personal name cannot be excluded.

[D.S.]

For various etymological comparisons, none of which can be upheld, see under Meaning. No reconstruction possible.

[D.S.]