ištamin-

This lexeme is found in a metrical inscription that cannot be dated accurately.

[D.S.]

A collective instead is not impossible; cf. dẽt(i)-.

[D.S.]

The reading follows the one of Buckler 1924a:62.

[D.S.]

The connection of ištamin to ištaminl(i)- ‘family’ is morphologically clear. However, Gusmani 1964a:137 posits tentatively that ištamin means ‘family (?)’ just like its derivative (followed by Melchert 1994a:317, Gérard 2005a:88), which is more or less supported by the context. In LW 44a.13, ištamin is the direct object of edš … nid fatrod ‘this one does/must not hand over’. Therefore, ištamin seems more likely to designate something concrete that can be handed over. Considering that the substantivized possessive adjective in -l(i)- means ‘family’ or ‘family members’ ← ‘of the ištamin’, we might expect the base noun to refer to something like a home, a hearth, or even a shed.

Furthermore, it appears to be modified by the genitive plural šupataν, thus read and translated tentatively with ‘(animal offering)(?)’. Gusmani 1964a:137 assumes that the initial i- reflects a prothetic vowel and thus interprets the root as štam-, adducing a potential Germanic cognate. On the other hand, a different analysis would be to see the prefix or preverb iš- and the root tam- (cf. Lyd. tam- ‘to build’) or ta- (cf. CLuw. tā-⁽ⁱ⁾ ‘to stand’). This would be in accordance with our view that the prothetic vowel i before #st- does not palatalize the following alveolar fricative; cf. Lyd. istupeλm(i)-. If the etymological equation of šupat(i)- is correct, ištamin could refer to a place, where the sacrificial animals were kept. On the other hand, a translation of šupataν ištamin as ‘a family of sacrificial animals’ cannot be entirely excluded. However, none of these claims can be independently verified yet and therefore, no meaning is assigned to ištamin- for the time being. For a translation of the context, see Sasseville 2021a:480.

[D.S.]

Gusmani 1964a:137 sees in ištamin- a men-stem (normally continued as -m- c., see Lyd. ẽtam-), which is possible, if one assumes that the -m- does not belong to the root. Synchronically, there are no other examples of Lydian nominal stem in -min- or -in-, which renders any claim highly tentative (likewise Melchert 1994a:371).

[D.S.]

1. ištaminl(i)-

For different etymological proposals, see under Meaning. None of them can be substantiated and therefore no reconstruction is offered here.

[D.S.]