*sm̃ma-
‘binding, obligation’
- Language
- Proto-Lycian
- Grammar
- subst
- ID
- 1559
1. Individual Anatolian Languages
1.1 Lycian A
sm̃ma-
‘binding, obligation’1.1.1Transmission
This lexeme is mainly attested in the long grave inscription TL 29, including a biography of the owner. It is also found as a personal name Ssm͂ma (TL 5.3) (with reduplication).
[D.S.]
1.1.2Forms
| acc. sg. | sm̃mu | TL 29.12 (Tlos) |
| dat./loc. pl. | sm̃me | TL 29.2 (Tlos) |
1.1.3Meaning
The substantive sm̃ma- c. is the derivational base of Lyc. sm̃ma-(ti) ‘to make a binding, obligate’, which strongly suggests a meaning ‘binding, obligation’ (Sasseville 2021a:288-289). The meaning is contextually supported by the attestation in TL 29.2, in which sm̃me is dislocated to the left of the sentence and the following passage is about penalties for destruction and emendation. Differently, Melchert (DLL:58) takes sm̃me as an adjective, which is not persuasive. On the other hand, he takes sm̃mu rightly as the derivational base of sm̃ma-(ti). Gehrisch 2018a:39-40 translates sm̃me adverbially with ‘there’, which is unpersuasive and unsupported.
[D.S.]
1.1.4Derivatives
1.2 Lycian B
*zm̃ma-
‘binding, obligation’1.2.1Derivatives
1.2.1.1Rejected Derivatives
2. Reconstruction
2.1Reconstruction ‘binding, obligation’
The base of the verb sm̃ma-(ti), i.e. sm̃ma- c., reminds of Hitt. išḫāi-/-i(ya)-(ḫi) and išḫima(n)- c. ‘rope’, as suggested by Gusmani 1979d:133 and Shevoroshkin 1982a:210, 211 n. 2, and taken over by Neumann 2007a:329, Christiansen 2012a:146. The problem is that the Hittite noun is an n-stem reflecting an original formation in *-men- c. (Oettinger 1980a), which can hardly be posited for sm̃ma- c. ‘binding, obligation’, especially since the cluster *-mn- does not assimilate in Pre-Lycian (cf. nouns in mn͂n-). Differently, Hajnal 1995a:85 suggests that the noun in *-men- was further derived with the suffix *-eh2- (hesitantly followed by Melchert (DLL:58), García Ramón 2016a:73 n. 60). A different hypothesis would be to appeal to a formation comparable to the Hittite stems in -i-ma- c. (thus implied in Gusmani 1979d:133 and Eichner 1983a:55 n. 45, who similarly considers a formation in *-mo-). For the Hittite suffix -i-ma- c., see Oettinger 2001b, who however offers *-mo- instead of *-meh2- as a reconstruction. Therefore, one could reconstruct a virtual PAnat.*sHi-meh2- c. for Lyc. sm͂ma- c. (with reduction of the sequence *sH- > *ss- > s- and syncope of the -i-; Hajnal 1995a:88) and a non-attested Hitt. *išḫima- c.
The Lycian B posited base *zm̃ma- allows for the reconstruction of a Proto-Lycian noun *sm̃ma-, after which the Lycian B sound law *s > z /_N occurred.
[D.S.]
For the lemma head see PAnat. *sh2óh1-/sh2h1-´.