ýasδś

Hapax on a false door-stela from Memphis from ca. 530-500 (Kammerzell 1993a:169, 171).

[Zs.S.]

gen. sg.

ýasδś

E.Me 46a

The attestation follows Adiego 2007a:432 checked against the photograph in O. Masson 1978a:Pl. XXII.1, 2.

[Zs.S.]

Two completely different interpretations have been suggested so far. On the one hand, Hajnal 1998a:88 cautiously (“könnte”) connected it with the Luwian word wašḫa-: he reconstructed the earlier form of the Carian word as */u̯esḫont-/ and identified it as a title or profession since it “steht (…) als Attribut zum Namen des Bestatteten” and translated it (somewhat inconsistently) as ‘Herr’. On the other hand, Adiego 2007a:432 claimed (without mentioning Hajnal) that we are dealing with a personal name (in genitive) and that ýas° recalls the ethnonym yiasi / yjas[i] ‘Iasean^?’ explaining the spelling difference with the personal name ýśbiks (C.xx 2) / yiśbiks (E.Me 46a, cf. s.v. *biks) and the element °δ° as an -nt-suffix. Without mentioning Adiego Melchert 2010f:185 found Hajnal’s comparison “likely” and since at that time he translated Luwian *wašḫant- as ‘sacralized’, he identified this word as either a title ‘priest’ or a personal name.

However, a title or profession can be excluded since, contra Hajnal, this words does not stand next to the name of the deceased: beyond this word the inscription contains only the patronym (yiśbiksś k̑i) and the mwdon characterization (mwdonś k̑i), in other words, if this is a title or profession, the name of the deceased would not have been given, which would be quite improbable.

We are thus dealing with a personal name (that of the deceased and the owner of the tomb, hence the genitive) and without any obvious connection and independent evidence the identification of the underlying word remains mere guesswork based on formal assonances. Any connection with Luwian wašḫa- requires the loss of the laryngeal in this position, for which there is currently no evidence in Carian. Adiego’s explanation is formally fitting, the only problem being the precise meaning of the underlying ethnic name, since Iasos does not fit (yiasi / yjas[i] implies *uya°, Adiego 2007a:257). However, there is no evidence for this connection and the spelling ýasδ formally allows other interpretations, too (e.g. *wesVnt- or *uya/e/osVnt-, depending on the precise conditions of the palatalization of *u and *w resulting in ý, see Adiego 2007a:257). All in all, the meaning and the origins of this personal name cannot be determined yet.

[Zs.S.]

Last updated: 24 November 2020