astrkota-

This noun is attested once in a fragmentary poetic inscription found at the cemetery of Sardis and datable to the 5^th or 4^th century BCE. 

 [I.Y.]

dat. pl.

astrkota(ν)

LW 14.2 (Sardis)

The proposed grammatical interpretation is tentative and tied up with the equally tentative lexical interpretation of astrkota(ν)=k, on which see below. There is no way of knowing whether or not this is a collective noun.

[I.Y.]

The form astrkota represents a derivative of astrko- ‘lady (?)’ and forms a phrase with šawtaars ‘guardian, savior’, cf. Gusmani 1964a:69. As syntactic dependent, it can represent either an adjective or a noun in the oblique case, but the former interpretation is less likely, since the adjectival suffix -t- would be difficult to account for. On the other hand, one can hardly imagine that someone would claim the title of a guardian or savior of the goddess Artemis, the most likely referent hidden behind the title astrko-. Therefore, one can tentatively suggest that šawtaars exercises supervision of the property of Artemis, the concept that is familiar from other Lydian inscriptions (cf. cẽqra-). The syntactic properties of šawtaar- are unknown, but the hypothesis that it can govern a noun in the dative case does not strain common sense.

[I.Y.]

As long as only the dative plural form is attested, the final vowel of the stem remains unknown, astrkota- and astrkot(i)- being obvious candidates. Whichever interpretation one prefers, the dental suffix is likely to be cognate with the Luwian suffix /-att(i)-/ deriving nouns from other nouns (Yakubovich 2015b, §6.2).

[I.Y.]

For the derivational base see astrko-.