ardẽt(i)-
‘owner (?)’
- Language
- Lydian
- Grammar
- subst, c.
- ID
- 1486
1. Individual Anatolian Languages
1.1 Lydian
ardẽt(i)-
‘owner (?)’1.1.1Transmission
This lexeme is attested once in a burial inscription from Sardis, which was made in the early Hellenistic period (late 4th century BCE).
[I.Y.]
1.1.2Forms
| nom. sg. | ardẽc | LW 3.2 (Sardis) |
Note that the grammatical interpretation proposed above is not a matter of consensus, but rather represents a function of the lexical interpretation discussed below.
[I.Y.]
1.1.3Graphic Features
1.1.3.1Phonological Interpretation
This form represents the only instance where the letter <c> is used in word-final position in Lydian. Given the fact that the alternation between <c> and <τ> is attested in other cases (Gusmani 1969a:137), and that the grapheme <τ> is used in other contexts for the combination of /t/ and a sibilant on a morpheme boundary (Gusmani 1969a:137f.), the same hypothesis can be cautiously formulated for ardẽc. Cf., in particular, LW 22.1 sfardẽnτ, to be analyzed as nom.pl. of sfardẽnt(i)- ‘Sardian’.
[I.Y.]
1.1.4Meaning
The hypothesis of Vetter 1959a:17, according to which ardẽc represents a compound containing the element dẽt and can be approximately translated ‘at his own expense’, was followed in Gusmani 1964a:60. It also served as a source of inspiration for Melchert 1991a:135, where the relevant clause is translated as: ‘He himself, while alive, put in his very own property’. Given that the clause under discussion occurs in a short burial inscription, apparently describes financial arrangements, but makes no mention of other family members, the statement that the owner of the tomb paid for his own tomb indeed emerges as its default interpretation.
The challenge, however, comes from the new interpretation of wsta- as ‘expenses (?)’, or something similar, which is proposed on independent grounds. If the translation of the sequence alarms fadol wstas is any close to ‘personally made expenses’, then the only function that remains available for ardẽc is that of a clause subject. Cf. LW 13.1-2, where a similar formula cẽnšidν alarmas … wstaas can be matched with the subject group amu=k nãši=k. If ardẽc constitutes the subject of the clause under discussion, then one should interpret its final morpheme /-s/ as the inflectional ending and not emphatic particle, pace Melchert 1991a:134f. As for the rest of its structure, ar-dẽt- can be analyzed as an etymological possessive compound “(having) property by right”, which would agree well with its likely contextual meaning ‘owner’. But as long as we are dealing with a hapax, the proposed interpretation remains a hypothesis in need of further confirmation.
[I.Y.]
1.1.5Stem
Synchronically, the nominative ending -s appears to be directly attached to the morpheme dẽt-, and so we are probably dealing with a consonantal stem, as proposed in Melchert 1994b:186 for the possible base noun dẽt(i)-. The hypothesis that ar-dẽt(i)- is a mutated stem that was affected by syncope is also possible; cf. Sasseville 2017a.
[I.Y.]