qela-

This lexeme occurs three times in two burial inscriptions, both of them from Sardis. The inscriptions LW 1 is commonly dated to the first half of the 4^th century BCE, whereas LW 7 can be dated roughly to the the 5^th or 4^th century BCE.   

[I.Y.]

nom./acc. sg	qela(d)	LW 1.3 (Sardis)
	qelad	LW 7.2 (Sardis)
dat. sg.	qelaλ	LW 7.4 (Sardis)

Pace Gusmani 1964a:181f., the attribution of qelλ=k in LW 1.8 and LW 5.5 to the same paradigm is unacceptable, above all for morphological reasons.

[I.Y.]

The meaning of the noun is established in first approximation through its correspondence to Aram. ’trt’, a derivative of ’tr’ ‘place’ (Kahle & Sommer 1927a:34, 43f.). In both inscriptions qela- occurs in the list of protected items belonging or related to the tomb, which pleads for its contextual meaning ‘plot of land’. The use of a different noun aara- for a plot of land attached to the house as well as the likely etymological relationship between Lyd. qela- and Lyc. qla- ‘precinct’ (Schürr 1997a:130) increase the likelihood that qela- was reserved for sacralized space.

[I.Y.]

Synchronically, this is an a-stem, accented on the initial vowel.

[I.Y.]