†*/woha-/

Blažek 2017a:276 suggests that Mycenaean Greek */woha-/, which would be the underlying word of the Mycenaean logogram *141 AUR ‘gold’ as a ligature from wo and “a₄” (see there for refs. to the origin and a variant of this hypothesis), “may be explained as a Luvoid import” from wašḫa- (it was published too recently to be discussed in the current articles on Greek ‒ Anatolian loan contacts). However, even without a deeper analysis of the Mycenaean proposal the assumption of a Luwian loanword can safely be excluded since, first, Blažek’s “a₄” is in fact the sign *47 of still unknown phonetic value (Melena 2000a:§7, Melena 2014a:8,17, 89; the real a₄ is the sign *85 in Mycenology) and thus, a reconstruction of */woha-/ is not possible; second Hieroglyphic Luwian wašḫa- does not mean ‘gold’ (see the discussion s.v., contra Blažek 2017a:283‒285), and in Cuneiform Luwian it refers to an implement (see s.v.); third, the sibilant should have been preserved and the substitution of the laryngeal with /h/ is unexpected.

[Zs.S.]

Last updated: 24 November 2020