wnẽni-

This verbal stem is found two times in a performative clause of the inscription LW 22, which is found in the precinct of Artemis in Sardis and is commonly dated to the 5^th-4^th century BCE.

[I.Y.]

3pl. pret. ind. act.	fawnẽriš	LW 22.2 (Sardis)
inf. (?)	katwνẽl	LW 22.4 (Sardis)

The two forms in question are considered as cognate in Gusmani 1964a:122. For the interpretation of katwνẽl as 3sg. pret. act. instead, see Sasseville 2021a:523f.

[I.Y.]

The context suggests that in the first context the Sardians made an oath to Artemis and pledged to abide by the conditions stipulated in agreement LW 22. The second context contains the infinitive used in the function of the gerundive and appears to refer to the general obligation of the Sardians to honour the same agreement. Purely on synchronic grounds, the translation ‘to swear’ or ‘to promise’ would be most appropriate for the first context, while the translation ‘to acknowledge, recognize’ fits better the second one. The preference for the basic meaning ‘to acknowledge’ follows from the assumed etymological relationship of the root under discussion with HLuw. /uni-^(ti)/ ‘to know’. Presumably, the performative statement ‘they acknowledged’ in LW 22.2 could amount to ‘they swore’. For the detailed interpretation of the relevant passages, see Yakubovich 2017b.

[I.Y.]

The stem wnẽni- is combinable with the prefixes fa- and kat- and appears to have been synchronically formed by means of the -ẽ- suffix, which may formally continue earlier *-ẽn- in a position before another sonorant (r and l); cf. Sasseville 2021a:520. If so, we are likely dealing with a reflex of an Anatolian imperfective suffix, a cognate of Hitt. -anna-/-i(ya)-^(ḫi), although the imperfective semantics is not borne out by the available contexts and may have been bleached in this Lydian verb. One should also compare the possible cognate ẽnwνato-.

[I.Y.]